344 ON PRESERVINa BIRDS. 



the shape, the features and expression it had, ere death, 

 and your dissecting hand, brought it to its present still 

 and formless state. The cold hand of death stamps deep 

 its mark upon the prostrate victim. When the heart 

 ceases to beat, and the blood no longer courses through the 

 veins, the features collapse, and the whole frame seems to 

 shrink within itself If then you have formed your idea 

 of the real appearance of the bird from a dead specimen, 

 you will be in error. With this in mind, and at the same 

 time forming your specimen a trifle larger than life, to 

 make up for what it will lose in drying, you will reproduce 

 a bird that will please you. 



It is now time to introduce the cotton for an artificial 

 body, by means of a little stick like a knitting-needle ; and 

 without any other aid or substance than that of this little 

 stick and cotton, your own genius must produce those 

 swellings and cavities, that just proportion, that elegance 

 and harmony of the whole, so much admired in animated 

 nature, so little attended to in preserved specimens. After 

 you have introduced the cotton, sew up the orifice you 

 originally made in the belly, beginning at the vent. And 

 from time to time, till your arrive at the last stitch, keep 

 adding a little cotton, in order that there may be no defi- 

 ciency there. Lastly, dip your stick into the solution, and 

 put it down the throat three or four times, in order that 

 every part may receive it. 



When the head and neck are tilled with cotton quite to 

 your liking, close the bill as in nature. A little bit of 

 bees' wax, at the point of it, will keep the mandibles in 

 their proper place. A needle must be stuck into the 

 lower mandible perpendicularly. 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 j udge proper. Nothing 



