210 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



JULT 



For the New England Farmer, 

 HOW TO STUFF BIKDS. 



My Dear Brown : — In a recent number of the 

 Farmer, in reply to a correspondent who asks in- 

 formation on the above subject, you refer to me as 

 one skilled in the art of Taxidermy, and willing 

 to impart knowledge to others. Now there are 

 many things very easily done by those who hioxo 

 lioio, and yet very difficult to teach by pen and 

 ink, to those who have no idea of the process. 



If you doubt the ti'uth of the proposition, sit 

 down some pleasant morning, and describe the 

 process of editing a newspaper, so that we can all 

 understand it as well as you ! 



I flatter myself that I can skin and stuff a bird 

 so that he will look, as the artist said of his por- 

 trait, a little more natural than life, and enjoy as 

 much of immoHality as bones and feathers are 

 suceptible of, but whether I can set the process 

 down, so that all your readers can go and do like- 

 wise, remains to be seen. I made my collection, 

 of about a hundred New Hampshire birds, be- 

 tween 1835 and 1838, and they remain as perfect 

 as when just completed. 



I have delayed answering your correspondent, 

 hoping to find in some printed book directions on 

 the subject, that might save me the trouble of 

 writing, but not one word do I find, and as I had 

 no teacher myself, I dare say that they who have 

 skill in such matters may smile at my awkwardness. 

 To any such, I would say that if they could only 

 see the big Washington Eagle, which looks down 

 from the top of a book-case, with such a patroniz- 

 ing air upon me as I write, ready to lend me a 

 quill tii'O feet long, in case of emergency, they 

 would be glad to laugh on our side. 



As in the case of a duel, the preliminaries are 

 longer than the actual fight, so the preparations 

 for stuffing the bird are the larger half of the 

 work, at least on paper. 



Arsenical Soap. 



To preserve the skins of animals from putrifac- 

 tion and from insects, arsenic is the substance 

 generally used. Many persons use it in the form 

 of dry powder, as sold at the shops. I have used 

 a preparation, called arsenical soap, warmed so as 

 to melt together over a slow fire, with an ounce of 

 camphor gum added, just before the mixture cools. 

 It is applied to the skin, inside of course, with a 

 brush, like lather to ones chin. The proportions 

 may be by weight, ten ounces of arsenic (oxyde of 

 arsenic,) five ounces of white bar soap, and one 

 ounce of gum camphor ; the arsenic and soap 

 melted together over a slow fire, and the camphor 

 added when the mixture is nearly cold. At the 

 Patent Office, at Washington, the Taxidermists 

 use, instead of arsenical soap, a preparation of 

 about an ounce of arsenic in a gill of camphorat- 

 ed spirits. By the latter term, I understand, a 

 saturated solution of alcohol with camphor gum. 

 Add the arsenic and shake them up together in a 

 bottle. I should think this preparation might be 

 more convenient than arsenical soap. It is ap- 

 plied with a brush in the same way as the other. 

 Implements. 



For tools, a sharp knife with a flat ivory handle, 

 like a budding knife, a pair of cutting forceps, a 

 pair of pincers, and a pair of small tweezers, such 

 as watchmakers use, will -be found convenient. 

 Annealed iron wire, of vaaious sizes, according to 



the victim to be sacrificed, will be required to sup- 

 port the birds, when mounted, and a quantity of 

 toil) for stuffing. Cotton will not answer the pur- 

 pose, because, as every girl who ever made a pin- 

 cushion can tell, it is difficult to thrust even a 

 sharp wire through it. 



How to kill a Sird. 



It is quite an easy matter, to shoot a bird, and 

 most birds must be shot, but often living birds are 

 brought to us, and as one would dislike to skin 

 them alive, it is necessary to kill them in a proper 

 and becoming manner. You can easily wring 

 their necks, or cut their heads off, but since feath- 

 ers are considered somewhat ornamental to birds, 

 this kind of violence will not do. Blood can be 

 easily washed ofl" of toater birds, but not from land 

 birds, so conveniently. Poison will not affect birds 

 of prey, such as hawks and the like. I gave my 

 eagle a teaspoonful of j^russic acid, and instead of 

 dying of it, he seemed rather refreshed. 



The scientific mode of murdering the poor in- 

 nocent creatures, if they are not too large to 

 handle, is to j) inch them with the thumb and fnger 

 under the wings so as to stop respiration, and as 

 gentle Isaac Walton says, in directing how to put- 

 a live frog on to a fish hook, "in so doing, handle 

 him as if you loved him." Byron says, by the 

 way, that Walton was "a quaint, old, cruel cox- 

 comb," and that he deserved to have "a hook in 

 his gullet" — "with a small trout to pull it." If 

 any one objects to having birds killed, he "had 

 better stop," as the Irishman said, "before he be- 

 gins" his collection. 



How to Skin and Stuff Him. 



Stop the mouth, nostrils and shot holes with 

 cotton, to prevent the flow of blood. Lay the bird 

 on its back, part the feathers on the breast, and 

 cut through the skin from the breast bone nearly 

 to the tail. If the blood flows, use powdered 

 plaster, or something better, if you know what it 

 is, to absorb it. Separate the bone of the wings 

 at the joint, from the breast bone. Cut off the 

 neck, close to the breast. Separate the leg bones 

 from the body, leaving the bone in the bare part 

 of the leg, and one joint above, and take the 

 body out. Put in some cotton or tow to prevent 

 the skin from sticking together. Turn the neck 

 wrong side out, till you reach the skull, and cut 

 away the neck and enough of the skull bone to 

 lay the brain bare, which is to be removed, as well 

 as the eyes, on the inside. Apj^ly the arsenic and 

 stuff the head and neck with toio, as you turn it 

 back. 



By this time, the subject will have lost all re- 

 semblance to the bird he was, and it will seem al- 

 most as hopeless to make a cabinet ornament of 

 his mortal remains, as to make him fly and sing 

 again, but he will soon improve. 



Take a piece of wire about a third longer than 

 the bird, and bend it, so as to form a loop near the 

 middle, and file each end sharp. Thrust one end 

 through the neck and out through the forehead, 

 and the other through the tail. Thrust another 

 down inside of each leg, between the skin and 

 bone, through the sole of the foot, and twist the 

 upper ends round the loop, and wind a thread or 

 some tow round the leg bone and wire inside the 

 skin. These are to support the bird on his perch, 

 and must be firm. Twist another wire, to form a 

 cross with the first, and confine it at the loop, and 



