MATERIALS TOR STUFFING. 53 



scalpels need constant sharpening — mine are generally too 

 dull to cut much with, and I suppose I am like other people — 

 while scissors stay sharp enough. The flat, thin ivory or ebony 

 handle of the scalpel is about as useful as the blade. Finger- 

 nails, which were made before scalpels, are a mighty help. 

 Forceps are almost indispensable for seizing and holding parts 

 too small or too remote to be grasped by the fingers. The 

 knitting-needle is wanted for a specific purpose noted beyond. 

 The shears or nippers are only needed for what the ordinary 

 scissors are too weak to do. Our instruments, you see now, 

 are " a short horse soon curried," 



§32. Matehials. a. For stuffing. " "What do you stuff 'em 

 ■with?" is usually the first question of idle curiosity about 

 taxidermy, as if that were the great point ; whereas, the stuflF- 

 ing is so small a matter that I generally reply — " anything, ex- 

 cept brickbats ! " But if stuflSng birds were the final cause of 

 Cotton, that admirable substance could not be more perfectly 

 adapted than it is to the purpose. Ordinary raw cotton batting 

 ' or wadding is what you want. "When I can get it I never 

 think of using anything else for small birds. I would use it 

 for all birds were expense no object. Here tow comes in ; there 

 is a fine, clean, bleached article of tow prepared for surgical 

 dressings ; this is the best, but any will do. Some say chop 

 your tow fine ; this is harmless but unnecessary. A crumpled 

 newspaper, wrapped with tow, is first-rate for a large bird. 

 Failing cotton or tow, any soft, light, dry vegetable substance 

 may be made to answer, rags, paper, crumbled leaves, fine dried 

 grass, soft fibrous inner bark, etc. ; the down of certain plants, 

 as thistle and silk- weed, makes an exquisite filling for small 

 birds. But I will qualify my remark about brickbats by say- 

 ing : never put hair, wool, feathers, or any other animal sub- 

 stance in a hirdsTiin — far better leave it empty ; for, as we 

 shall see in the sequel, bugs come fast enough, without being 

 invited into a snug nest. b. For preserving. Arsenic* is the 



* "Arsenic"— not the pure metal properly so caUed, but arsenic of the shops, 

 or arsenious acid. 



