BULLETIN 39, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. [24] 



brougbt up over each wing, taking care that they bind somewhat firmly 

 at the shoulders, so that the wings will be kept in the proper position 

 after the opposite edges of the cotton have been lapped and blended 

 together. The two posterior corners of the cotton sheet should then be 

 brought together over the rump, to hold the tips of the wings in place. 

 Care should be taken to have the sheet of cotton of uniform thickness, 

 otherwise the skin will present, after drying, irregularities of contour, 

 corresponding to the varying thickness of different parts of the wrap- 

 ping. It is very important to avoid drawing the cotton too tight and 

 thus squeezing the skin too much, a very common and very serious 

 fault with many collectors, an undersized skin being far more objec- 

 tionable than one which is overstuffed, for the reason that the defect 

 is practically irremediable. 



After the bird has been wrapped the wings may be properly ad- 

 justed, care being taken to have the tips even with one another and 

 not crossed or overlapped. In fact, at this stage the skin may be so 

 manipulated that any desired degree of smoothness and regularity of 

 shape may be given it, practice being of course required before the be- 

 ginner can become really proficient. The finishing touches should then 

 be given and the skin laid aside to dry, the last thing being to see that 

 the feet and tail are properly adjusted. 



The proper wrapping of a specimen, as described above, simple as 

 it may seem, is one of the most difficult of all things connected with 

 the preparation of a bird skin, and requires some patience as well as 

 considerable practice. Some experienced collectors and taxidermists, 

 though able to make first-class specimens in their own way, never be- 

 come expert in it, and consequently do not adopt this method. If the 

 beginner can learn, however, to make up his skins in this way he 

 should do so, since there can be no question as to its advantages, the 

 most important of which are that specimens dry much quicker than 

 when put away in a paper cylinder, hold their shape better, and when 

 dried are all ready for packing. The only serious defect is the danger 

 of wrapping the skin too tightly, thus making it " undersized," alluded 

 to above as a very common fault with those who have adopted this 

 method. This may be avoided by first taking the circumference of the 

 bird before it is skinned, by means of a paper baud or hoop just wide 

 enough to hold the wings up against the sides (as recommended on 

 page 16), and then putting this hoop around the stuHed bird before the 

 cotton is wrapped around it. 



Very large birds should never be stuffed to their full size, which would 

 involve unnecessary waste of space — a very serious thing when travel- 

 ing. Just enough cotton, tow, or excelsior, or whatever is used for stuff- 

 ing, to keep the opposite sides of the skin from couiing in contact with 

 each other is sufficient, the neck, however, and the thighs being stuffed 

 to nearly, if not quite, the natural size. 



