SETTING UP BIRDS ON IMPROVED PRINCIPLES 199 



correct, and can be used as a museum object — be ever a guide 

 to the relation of one part to another, and never again let the 

 legs fall under the tail as if they sprang thence. A good guide 

 to the overlapping of the secondary upon the primary feathers 

 of the wing is to leave them attached to their respective bones, 

 and to pluck off all the others, above and below, as shown in 

 the figure. This will settle any doubts as to the proper place 

 and overlapping of these greater feathers of the wing. 



Really the proper way to mount animals scientifically and 

 correctly — and this will, or should, be a sine qua non in the 

 museums of the future — is to utilise the entire skeleton on which 

 to mount the skin, and the objections as to the time it would 

 take, and the danger of the roughly-trimmed skeleton attracting 

 insects, can be easily disposed of thus — 



Take any bird — a rook, a starling, or a pigeon as before — 

 and open it under the wing as previously directed. This being 

 accomplished, there remain two methods of dealing with the 

 body : one is, after the body has been freed from the skin ' 

 around it, and the skin drawn over the head, to disjoint it at 

 the atlas vertebra ; at the junction of the radius and ulna with 

 the humerus ; at the junction of the femur with the tibio-tarsus ; 

 and at the last vertebra of the tail. This, it will be seen, 

 entirely frees the body, which is taken out, cleaned, rolled in 

 plaster to dry it, and painted either with the preservative 

 (Formula 57), carbolic acid wash (Formula 34), or bichromate of 

 mercury solution (Formula 11). The other and better method 

 is, failing the entire removal of the body, to leave it attached at 

 certain points, and to clean off the flesh, which is more easily 

 done than would be imagined. In either case the head must 

 be filled to the correct shape as before described. The 

 wiring is managed by pushing the wires within the bones 

 where possible, or, where the bones are too small, by running 

 the wires along by the side of each bone, making them 



