Guide to Taxidermy 



Relaxing Dried Skins for Mounting 



When a collector is away from home, he usually 

 makes all his specimens into skins, even though 

 they are to be mounted afterward. Such skins have 

 tc be relaxed so that they will be as soft as when 

 first taken from the birds before they can be 

 mounted. 



The older a bird skin gets, the drier it becomes 

 and the longer it takes to relax it. Many methods 

 have been and are used for the relaxing of bird 

 skins ; we have had long experience with all of 

 them but for the past 12 years have used but the one 

 described hereafter, considering all others but half- 

 way measures. Winding wet cloths about the 

 specimen, or putting it in damp sawdust, answers 

 fairly well but does not get at all points of the 

 skin and is more apt to start the feathers than the 

 following: 



Remove as much of the cotton filling as possible 

 through the breast, working it out very carefully 

 with the tweezers and fingers so as not to tear the 

 skin, which is now very brittle. You can usually 

 get all the cotton out, but if not it does not matter. 



