Recipes for Feather-staining. 139 



leaves or coating of an onion root, by allowing the in- 

 gredients to stand warm by the fire for ten or twelve 

 hours. If dun feathers are boiled in this dye, they will 

 become an olive dun ; and white feathers a yellow. If 

 a small piece of copperas be added, the latter colour will 

 become a useful muddy yellow; darker or lighter as 

 may be required, and approaching to a yellow olive dun, 

 according to the quantity of copperas used. 



4. To dye a mallard 's feather for the green drake. 



Tie up some of the best feathers in bunches of a dozen 

 and boil them in the same mordant of alum, as given in 

 No. 1, merely to get the grease out. Then boil them in 

 an infusion of fustic to procure a yellow, and subdue 

 the brightness of this yellow by adding nitrate of copper 

 to the infusion. 



5. To dye feathers dark red and purple 



Hackles of various colours, boiled (without alum) in 

 an infusion of logwood and brazil-wood dust until they are 

 as red as can be made by this means, may be changed to 

 a deeper red by putting them into a mixture of muriatic 

 acid and tin, and to a purple by a warm solution of 

 potash. As the muriatic acid is not to be saturated with 

 tin, the solution must be much diluted. If it burns your 

 tongue much, it will burn the feathers a little. 



6. To dye red hackles a claret. 



Boil a teaspoonful of Brazil wood in half a pint of 

 water, and simmer some lightish furniss hackles in this 

 for a quarter of an hour. Then take them out and im- 

 merse them in muriate of tin, with the addition of a little 

 muriatic acid. Wash and dry. 



7. To dye feathers various shades of red, amber, and 

 brown. 



First boil in the alum mordant (No. 1.); secondly, 

 boil them in an infusion of fustic strong enough to bring 

 them to a bright yellow (about a tablespoonful to a pint 



