32 FIELD OBNITHOLOGY. 



while it requii-es rather less than half as much stuffing as an iuexperieuced person might 

 suppose. Take a shred of cotton that will make a tight ball as large as the bird's eye ; stick 

 it on the end of your knitting-needle, and by twirUng the needle whilst the cotton is confined 

 in your finger tips, you make a neat ball. Introduce this through the belly-opening, into 

 the eye-soclcet; if you have cut away skull enough, as already directed, it will go right 

 :u; disengage the needle with a reverse twirl, and withdraw it. Take hold of the biU with 

 <,ne hand, and witli the forceps in the other, dress tlie eyelids neatly and naturally over 

 the elastic substance within. Repeat for the other eye. Take next a shred of cotton that 

 will roll into a firm cylinder rather less than the size of the bird's neck. Roll it on the 

 needle much as you did tlie eye-ball, introduce it in the same way, and ram it fimaly into 

 tlie base of the skull ; disengage the needle by twirling it the other way, and withdraw it, 

 taking care not to dislodge the cotton neck. If now you peep into the skin you will see 

 the end of this artificial neck ; push it up against the skin of the breast, — it must not lie 

 down on the back between the shoulders.' The body-wad comes next; you want to 

 imitate the size and shape of the bird's trunk. Take a mass of cotton you think will be 

 enough, and take about /(a?/ of this; that will be plenty (cotton is very elastic). It should 

 make a tolerably firm ball, rather egg-shaped, sweUing at the breast, smaller behind. If you 

 simply squeeze up the cotton, it wUl not stay compressed ; it requires a motion something 

 like that \\hich bakers enqJoy to knead dough into the shape of a loaf. Keep tucking 

 over the borders of the cotton till tlie desired shape and firnmess are attained. Insert the ball 

 between the blades of the foreei>s in such way that the instrument confines the fidded-over 

 edges, and with a wriggliug motion insinuate it aright into the body. Before relaxing 

 the forceps, put your thumb and forefinger in the bird's armpits, and pinch the shouldere 

 together tiQ they almost touch; this is to make sure that there is no stuffing between the 

 .shoulders, — the whole mass lying breastwards. Loosen the forceps and withdraw them. If 

 the ball is rightly made and tucked in, the elasticity of the cotton will chiefly expend itself in 

 l)uffiug out the breast, which is just what is wanted. Be careful not ti.i push the body too far 

 in ; if it impacts against the skin of the neck, this wiU infallibly stretch, driving the shouldei's 

 apart, and no art will remedy the unsightly gape resulting. Yon see I dwell on this matter of 

 the shoulders ; the whole knack of stuffing correctly focuses just over the shoulders. If you find 

 you have made the body too large, pull it out and make a smaller one; if it fits nicely al)out 

 the shoulders, but is too long to go in, or too puffy over the belly, let it stay, and pick a\\-ay 

 shreds at the open end till the redundancy is remedied. Your bird is now stuffed. Close the 

 opening by bringing the edges of the original cut together. There is no use of sewing ^ u]) 

 the cut, for a small bird ; if the stuffing is ctjrrect, the feathers will hide the tqieuing ; and if they 

 do not, it is no matter. You are not making an object for a show case, but for a naturalist's 



just ,<it the slmulder. Vfliat you remove will never make any diflerence from tlie outside, while you would almost 

 inevitably get in too much, not of the right shape, and make an awkward bulging no art would remedy ; I say, 

 then, leave tlic wings of all but the largest birds em;>f?/, and i)Ut in very little under any circumstances. As for 

 legs, the whole host of small perching birds need no wrapping whatever; depend upon it you will make a nicer 

 skin without wrapping. But large birds and those with very muscular or otherwise prominent legs must have 

 the removal of flesh compensated for I treat of these cases beyoiul. 



1 Although a bird's neck is really, of course, in direct continuation of the back-bone, yet the natural sigmoid 

 curve of the neck is such that it virtually takes departure rather from the breast, its lower curve being receivei 

 between the prongs of the merrythought. This is what we must imitate instead of the true anatomy. If you lot 

 t he end of the neck lie between the shoulders, it will infallibly press them apart, so that the interscapular plumage 

 c;nuiot shingle over tho scapular feathers as it should, and a gaping place, showing down or even naked skin, 

 will result. Likewise if the neck be made tuo large (the chances are that way, at iirst), the same result follows. 

 These seemingly tritiing points are very important inileerl ; I never made a decent birdskin till I learned to get the 

 neck small enough and to shove the end of it against the breast. 



- But sew it up, if you please, though you may be perhaits giving the nam who subsequently mounts the 

 bird the trouble of ripping out the stitches. Stitches, however, will not oome amiss with a large bird. I generally, 

 in such cases, pin the edges of the cut in one or more places. 



