i82 TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



DIVISION II 



THE SETTING-UP OF BIRDS WITH SOFT BODIES AND WITH- 

 OUT WIRES 



Waterton's system of setting up birds, as explained by the 

 late Rev. J. G. Wood ^ who knew him well, is based upon — (i) 

 soft-body stuffing ; (2) the disuse of wires entirely ; and (3) by 

 arranging and propping the specimen in a box with cotton 

 wadding until nearly dry, and then finally setting it up in 

 position by bending the legs and toes to any required angle. 



This, it will be seen, is really nothing more than a " skin " 

 with the eyes inserted and legs bent, and although it is not 

 gainsaid that such a method will give good results in the 

 hands of a man who has the requisite time, patience, and space 

 at command, yet at best it is but an amateurish " fad," serves 

 no useful purpose, and, whilst likely to get the amateur into 

 bad methods of work, is an impossible system for the 

 professional. 



Why it serves no useful purpose, and why it should get 

 the learner into bad methods, is because, in the first instance, 

 the practice of skinning a bird upon the knee instead of a 

 bench or table is inconvenient upon the face of it ; the soft 

 system of stuffing also, which looks so very easy, is of that 

 delusive nature which, with or without wires, is only well done 

 by the very advanced, and the total removal of the skull leaves 

 too much also to the immature judgment of the beginner ; 

 indeed, the cutting away of the superciliary ridge, in the very 

 bird (a hawk) selected by Waterton for the lesson, destroys all 

 that peculiar character which gives expression to the Accipitres, 

 and which no learner would know in the least how to restore. 

 The recommendation to make the body larger than in life to 



^ Taxidermy. See Waterton's Wanderings, 1893. 



