ON STUFFING BIRDS. 41 
place. A needle must be stuck into the lower mandible per- 
pendicularly, you will shortly see the use of it. Bring also 
the feet together by a pin, and then run a thread through the 
knees, by which you may draw them to each other as near as 
you judge proper. Nothing now remains but to add the eyes, 
with your little stick make a hollow in the cotton within the 
orbit and introduce the glass eyes into it. Adjust the orbit to 
them as in nature, and that requires no other fastner.” 
Great attention must be paid to the size of the orbit, which 
will receive within it an object much larger than the eye, so 
| that it must be drawn together with a very small delicate 
needle and thread, at the pari farthest from the beak. 
A small quantity of the solution is now applied to the bill, 
orbits, and feet. 
Take any ordinary box large enough for holding the bird, 
_and fill three-fourths of it from the top at one end, and the 
_ other end forming an inclined plane; make a_ hollow in it 
sufficient for the reception of the bird, place it in the box with 
_ its legs in a sitting posture; take a piece of cork into which 
three pins have been stuck for legs, like a three-footed stool ; 
place it under the bill of the bird, and the needle which was 
tormerly run through the bill is stuck into the cork, which 
will act as a support to the bird’s head. Ifthe neck is wished 
to be lengthened, put more cotton under the cork, or vice ver- 
sa; and if the head is wished to be projecting forward, it has 
only to be brought nearer the front of the box, humouring the 
cork, so as to place it in the position you require. 
As the back part of the neck shrinks more in drying than 
the fore part, a thread must be tyed to the end of the box, and 
fastened to the beak, to prevent the face from looking too 
much upwards. If the wings are wished elevated, support 
them with cotton; and if to be very high, place a piece of 
stick under them. 
Should you desire to expand the wings, the order of the 
feathers must be reversed, commencing with the two middle 
ones. When perfectly dry, place them in the natural order, 
and they will ever afterwards continue as you wish them. If 
the crest is wished te be erect, the feathers must be moved in 
a contrary direction for a day or two, when they will soon take 
the position wished for, ¥ 
