MOUNTING DRY BIRD SKINS. 109 



CHAPTER XYI. 



MOUNTING DRY BIRD SKINS. 



To mount a large dry bird-skin well, requires experience 

 and patience. Small skins are more easily stuffed, though 

 they require proper and delicate treatment. 



All dried skins need dampening and softening previous 

 to mounting, and a box should be prepared for the pur- 

 pose as follows : Make a tight box of tongue-grooved 

 boards large enough to receive the skins without bending 

 them. The cover should drop inside and rest flush with 

 the top on cleats. The box should be filled about 

 four inches deep with wet sand, covered with paper on 

 which the skins are laid. The dampness from the sand 

 is sufficient to soften humming-bird skins ready for 

 mounting in from six to twenty-four hoars, according to 

 the size of the skin. 



Larger skins, the size of warblers, should have the legs 

 wrapped in wet cotton for a few hours when m the box. 

 A bird the size of a robin should have the eye-holes wet, 

 a damp piece of cotton or tow placed m the skin, and 

 worked well up in into the neck, and the legs wrapped in 

 wet material. When the skin has been m the box about 

 ten hours, it is ready for mounting. Larger birds, such 

 as herons, curlews, cranes, etc., should remain in the 

 box with their legs m wet wrappings until they are soft 

 enough to admit of being wired. The inside of the skms 

 should then be dampened over night or longer, according 

 to their size and condition. It will often take a week to 

 get a skin soft enough to work well in mounting. The 

 wings of large birds, which are to be spread, should 

 be thoroughly and repeatedly dampened every night for 



