SOME HINTS ON NATURAL HISTORY SPECIMENS, 275 
Bird skins should never be cured with alum, like mammal skins, as this 
would make them too hard and brittle, but in the case of large birds the 
application of the arsenical soap can, at times with advantage, be suppli- 
mented by an immediate sprinkling of powdered alum. 
When skinning a bird the liberal use of plenty of Plaster-of-Paris or 
fine dry sawdust or even clean wood ashes, which are always at hand, is 
most essential, to absorb all the blood and grease and keep them off the 
feathers, If the plumage does get soiled it can be cleaned by washing 
with clean turpentine applied with a soft brush. This is then absorbed by 
the application of plenty of Plaster-of-Paris, which should be rubbed gently 
into the feathers, and at once shaken or knocked out, The application of 
the plaster should be repeated until it comes away quite dry, and then all 
the remaining plaster must be gently whipped out. 
Many birds, particularly the ducks and their allies, are very fat, and the 
removal of this layer of fat from the inside of the skin is too often neglect- 
ed. There are two reasons for the necessity of this. In the first place the 
fat will entirely prevent any of the preservative that you apply from getting 
at the skin and doing the work it was intended to; and secondly, unless 
you carefully scrape off all this oily grease, it will gradually find its way 
through the opening cut when the skin is made up into a specimen, and the 
feathers of the whole breast will become one solid mass of nasty yellow 
grease. 
Sufficient attention is not, as a rule, paid to the attitude of bird specimens, 
and I wish to make a special appeal to collectors on this point, for a very 
litt}e care in this direction would enormously increase the value of many 
specimens received by the Society. Native skinners, as a rule, have a very 
vague idea of ‘ making up’ a skin nicely, and I have always found it advisable 
to superintend this part of their operations myself, The main points to 
bear in mind are the following :—When it comes to putting in the cotton or 
tow to fill the body, see that there is just enough to give the skin a plump 
appearance without its being ‘ over-stuffed’ ‘The head and neck should be 
drawn out in a straight line with the body to the natural length, with the 
closed beak too in the same line, and noé set at right angles to the line of the 
body and neck. The wings should lie naturally close into the sides of the 
body, with the scapulars adjusted over the shoulder of the wings: this can 
easily be done with the aid of a pair of small forceps, or even a penknife, 
by lifting small bunches of the feathers and letting them fall back into 
position, when they will drop into their natural order. The tail should, of 
course, carry out the line of the back, being slightly spread if possible, and 
the legs should be crossed—tied with a thread just above the feet—lying 
close down Over the base of the tail, the feet being arranged as well as possi- 
ble so that the claws will not injure the tail or catch on to everything that 
comes near them, 
