110 PRACTICAL TAXIDERMY. 



several days. A weak solution of carbolic acid and water 

 should be used for moistening large skins in warm 

 weather, as clear water will cause some parts of them to 

 get in a semi-putrid state when soft, and the scales and 

 skin of the legs to rub off when handled in wiring. When 

 a skin is dampened for mounting, all stuffing should be 

 removed with forceps, and the skull filled full with 

 ' ( chopped tow." A skin with a long neck should be 

 carefully stretched with forceps preparatory to inserting 

 the artificial neck. 



A hard, smooth body should be made, and the neck 

 attached by running the neck- wire through the body, and 

 clinching it firmly. The depression where the neck joins 

 the body, or where the crop would naturally be, should 

 be filled out and rounded to the body with lappings of 

 tow, bound m form, and held with string or thread. 

 The neck and body should be coated with arsenical soap, 

 to enable the skin to slip easily. The projecting neck- 

 wire should be run through the neck out at the top of 

 the head, and the skin worked carefully over the body 

 until the upper end of the neck rests against the skull. 



The rest of the wiring is performed in the same man- 

 ner as when mounting birds in the flesh, except when 

 "half- spreading" the wings; then the wing-wires are 

 run in from the outside, at the first joint of the wing, 

 along under the bones, into the body. Humming, and 

 other small birds should have the wings, and sometimes 

 the tails " crushed " at the base of the quill feathers when 

 they are to be spread. This is done by pinching them 

 lightly with a pair of flat-nosed pliers. 



To perfect the anatomy of large birds, it is often nec- 

 essary to make incisions in the skin under the wings, 

 and fill out the sunken parts by crowding chopped tow 

 between the skin and body. The cavities under the eye- 

 holes need filling from the outside with clay or putty, be- 

 fore the eyes can be properly set. Previous to the final 



