NOTES ON BIRD PRESERVING. 137 



with a needle, and, if you like, insert the eyes. Insert them with the utmost 

 care : there is much in a life-like eye. 



The throat must, of course, be stuffed as well as the cheeks, and it is 

 best done after the wire has been passed through the skull. Most people 

 spend much time in cleaning and wrapping up the thigh-bones and long 

 inner bones of the wing; it is unnecessary in the smaller birds. The 

 majority seldom show much of their thighs, and the part they do show is 

 so thin that the wire running beside the bone is quite sufficient stuffing in 

 itself. Therefore cut away half the thigh-bone after you have got the wire 

 through. Again, instead of cleaning and wrapping the wing-bones, cut 

 them away, and bind a lump of tow on the back of the body to compensate 

 for their loss; the effect is better, and you save time. A straight back looks 

 well in a barrack-yard, a round one in a stuffed bird. Moreover, this rotundity 

 helps the set of the wings. Before leaving the subject of skinning, I would 

 impress upon the beginner not to abandon a bird as spoilt if he has the 

 misfortune to relieve it of its head or tail. The tail can be put in afterwards 

 with a wire, and if slightly cocked will look quite natural. It is the same 

 with the head ; you need only push it down the neck-wire into the shoulders 

 and put your bird in an attitude of repose. 



Stuffing is a more difficult task than skinning, and it is here that the 

 artistic element comes in. On the whole, corrosive sublimate mixed with 

 methylated spirit until it just does not leave a deposit on a black feather, 

 is the best preservative ; but it is very poisonous, and the skin begins to lose 

 its flexibility directly it is anointed with it, so much so that I generally 

 wash it over afterwards with water to get it properly relaxed again. Equal 

 parts of burnt alum, naphthaline and tannin form an innocuous pre- 

 paration much recommended by some. They use it dry, and rub it into 

 the skin. 



Provided that you have your lump on the back, it is better to get 

 the body too small rather than too big; you can stuff chopped tow into 

 the flanks as you sew up. If the skin won.'t meet across the breast, you 

 may slit the sides beneath the wings, and then it will. I consider it best 

 to have a wooden back to one's cases, because it enables you to aim at making 

 the " show " side perfect rather than both moderate. This advice may 

 savour of the well-known motto that "What isn't seen need not be clean," 

 but, as a fact, the slight turn of the head, which infuses such life into the 

 near side, must always be done at the expense of expression on the other; 

 and it seems best to recognize this truism at once and act upon it. 



Be careful about the angle of the legs ; next to the head they do most 



