138 Recipes for Feather-staining. 



then dye them very lightly with sumach, with a very 

 little bit of copperas and a pinch of logwood. 



NOTE. About a pint of water is the most convenient 

 quantity ; this you can put into a small earthen pitcher. 

 A slow fire is best, as a fire too fierce is apt to break the 

 pipkin, or boil the feathers; which, as I said before, 

 injures them : generally speaking, hand- warm water is 

 sufficient. By varying the quantity of sumach and cop- 

 peras, as well as the time of leaving the feathers in the 

 dye-pot, you jean get the most delicate shades, as well as 

 the strongest ; and be quite independent of the blue 

 hackles from the Welch fowls. 



The following Recipes for staining Feathers, fyc. are 

 taken from Ronalds. 



1. To dye ivhite feathers a dun colour. 



Make a mordant by dissolving about a quarter of an 

 ounce of alum in a pint of water, and slightly boil the 

 feathers in it, taking care that they shall be thoroughly 

 soaked or saturated with the solution; then boil them 

 in other water with fustic, sumach, and a small quan- 

 tity of copperas put into it, until they have assumed the 

 required tint. The fustic and copperas will make a yel- 

 low dun tint ; the sumach and copperas a blue dun (or 

 bloa) tint. The greater the quantity of copperas the 

 deeper will be the dye. 



2. To turn red hackles brown. 



Put a piece of copperas, the size of half a walnut, into 

 a pint of water ; boil it, and whilst boiling put in the 

 red feathers. Let them remain until by frequent ex- 

 amination they are found to have taken the proper 

 colour. 



3. To stain feathers an olive dun (or bloa). 



Make a very strong infusion of the outside brown 



