NOTES ON BIRD PRESERVING. 139 



feathers there may rot out, and care must be taken that this part is sub- 

 merged for much less time than the body. The above-mentioned Harrier 

 enjoyed a forty-eight hours' bath, and was subsequently dried with plaster- 

 of- Paris. It was a success so far as the body was concerned, but I lost 

 feathers from the throat. This loss, however, is not of necessity irreparable. 

 I detached others from the unseen side, and, gumming them one above 

 the other on tissue paper so as to overlap, inserted a passable imitation 

 of the original side. Such desperate remedies are needful only in the 

 case of a rare bird which cannot be matched. In ordinary circumstances, 

 the injured back, tail, or whatever it may be, can be got from the bird 

 of the same species and inserted whole. If it is the case of a few feathers 

 only being missing, or of an unseemly depression down the centre of the 

 breast, the evil can be remedied by the insertion of single feathers. Cut 

 off their bases, lift up the feathers just above the gap, and with a forceps 

 thrust in the cut feather with a little paste at the end. You can 

 thus easily get it to stick where it is wanted, and the gap disappears 

 forthwith. 



An operation which I once performed with some success on an Avocet 

 was the removal of a damaged inch of neck. This was accomplished 

 by simple cutting, with little real difficulty, and the head was then forced down 

 the neck-wire, so that the Avocet now stands in an attitude of repose, 

 with its head drawn into its shoulders. Beaks and claws can be repaired 

 with wax, and then painted. Throats and cheeks can be stuffed without 

 relaxing the whole skin, if a piece of wet cotton-wool be tied round 

 the head for a couple of days. It is, however, a ticklish operation at all 

 times. The eye must be extracted, and the skin beneath and on either 

 side carefully worked with a smooth flat strip of wood, cotton-wool being 

 inserted in the cavities thus formed. The greatest difficulty lies in detaching 

 the skin between the eye and beak from the bone to which it will adhere, 

 and only in the case of largish birds can one hope to meet with any great 

 measure of success. If you do venture at all, again I say, be bold but 

 don't hurry. 



