THE OOLOGIST 



19 



nounced it new, so we felt well repaid 

 for our exciting experience. 



March 17th. Today we came back 

 over the same trail that I followed on 

 March 9th. We left Monteradondo at 

 6 a. m., after a fond farewell to Er- 

 mincita, the girl with the guitar, and 

 her sisters. At 9:00 we came to a 

 house where we had some refresh- 

 ments and then travelled on to Ca- 

 cueza again where we arrived at 3 p. 

 m. and stopped at the posada where 

 the two pretty Colombians were en- 

 countered, on the way to Villavicencio. 



In the evening they brought in sev- 

 eral of their friends, and the lot of us 

 sang and danced and flirted until a 

 late hour. They are a great lot, these 

 fair maidens of the Southland, full of 

 fun and ever ready to make a strang- 

 er feel at home in these far away 

 mountains. Ring's American Buck 

 and Wing, made a great hit with the 

 crowd which collected round our win- 

 dows, and when Cherrie and I intro- 

 duced the turkey-trot with the girls, 

 the merriment was akin to riot. I 

 shall never forget Tommn Ring, a 

 little, short, wiry fellow, cigarette 

 stuck in the corner of his unshaven 

 face clogging away with his spurs 

 rattling, in that gang of open-mouthed 

 Colombians! 



March 18th. We left Cacueza at S 

 a. m. and galloped most of the way to 

 Chipaque, trying to see who could get 

 there first. Many of the natives must 

 have imagined that the country was 

 attacked when the six of us came 

 along in all our hunting array. We 

 arrived at the town at noon and after 

 a good meal started on to Bogota 

 where we arrived once more after a 

 heavy rain storm at 6 p. m. 

 (To be continued) 



Making Skins of Owls and Herons 



Although the ordinary methods of 

 making up bird skins have been des- 



cribed in so many books on taxidermy 

 and ornithology that there is no ex- 

 cuse for any earnest student being un- 

 acquainted with the art, so far a? 

 written instructions can help, yet 

 there are several useful little •"KinKs" 

 which I have never seen described in 

 print and which may be of material 

 assistance to some of the younger 

 readers of the "Oologist." 



The first thing which comes to my 

 mind is the difficulty frequently ex- 

 perienced in cleaning blood-soaked 

 plumage of owls. Although I am a 

 firm believer in the use of plaster of 

 paris for drying the plumage of most 

 birds, especially of white feathered 

 ones, I dislike to use it on owls be- 

 cause the soft, downy feathers of this 

 family of birds have a strong tendency 

 to retain more or less of the plaster, 

 no matter how hard you work to beat 

 it out or blow it out. 



When I find it necessary to clean 

 an Owl's feathers, I first skin the bird, 

 apply preservations, and turn the skin 

 back right side out. With the forceps, 

 I pick out all heavy clots of blood 

 which I can reach, occasionally in- 

 tentionally pulling out a small feather 

 or two where the blood has clotted 

 badly around the shaft of the feather. 

 Then I sponge the feathers with ulean 

 warm water, always working from the 

 base toward the tip of the feather, un- 

 til all remaining blood stains are re- 

 moved. The next step is to wipe off 

 all surplus water and then sponge the 

 wet feathers with gasoline. The gas- 

 olin should never be omitted when it 

 is possible to obtain it, and thanks t" 

 the automobile industry, it can be eas- 

 ily procured in almost part of the 

 country. The last step is to dry out 

 the feathers by using a plentiful sup- 

 ply of very fine hard-wood sawdust, 

 working it into the feathers and beat- 

 ing it out again, and repeating this un- 

 til the last particle of moisture is oux 



