WAXING THE LEGS AND BILLS OF BIRDS 211 



The legs of birds are more tiresome and difficult to deal 

 with, for they are, as will be seen, covered with scutellae or 

 plates, each shrunken one of which will have to be subse- 

 quently covered with wax and carved into shape. This is done, 

 either from the legs of a fresh bird of the same species or by 

 estimating the amount of shrinkage, by putting on the wax to 

 the required thickness on one leg, and copying the scutes, etc., 

 from the other, being careful, however, to note that the direction 

 of the lines of one limb is reversed in the other. At present 

 there is being tried in the Leicester Museum a new method, 

 from which great results may spring. 



The keeping hot of the variously-coloured waxes during the 

 operation of brushing them on, is best managed by the water- 

 bath, which, in this instance, may be a vessel of boiling water, 

 in which rest little gallipots containing the various waxes, or, 

 for larger quantities of wax, Clarke's pyramid food-warmers 

 with the stand complete, used with a spirit-lamp first, and after- 

 wards with the night-lights supplied, are the very things, and 

 are, indeed, indispensable when plants are modelled (see Chap. 

 IX.). Hot plates and iron plates — kept hot by a gas-jet, — on 

 which rested " patty-pans " of coloured waxes, have been used, 

 but there is always a danger, by any other method than a 

 water-bath, of burning the wax and the colour with it, and en- 

 tirely spoiling a tint which has been troublesome to make. 



In all cases where practicable, these methods of wax- 

 colouring should be resorted to, as the hard and " painty " 

 appearance presented by the shrivelled and coloured integument 

 may thus be entirely obviated. In quite small birds the wax- 

 ing is a tedious process, but when it is stated that the gapes 

 of birds such as young thrushes, whin-chats, robins, and tits 

 have been successfully restored in the Leicester Museum, the 

 difficulty, it will be seen, is merely one of degree. 



