468 AMERICAN FISHES. 



•The following receipts are also taken from Ronald's works above 

 mentioned, and are excellent. 



RECEIPTS. 



To dtk White Feathers a Don Color. — Make a mordant, by dis- 

 solving a quarter of an ounce of alum in a pint of water, slightly 

 boil the feathers in -it, taking care that they be thoroughly soaked 

 with the solution ; then boil them in other water with fustic and cop- 

 peras till they assume the proper tint. This for yellow dun — sumac 

 and copperas for blue dun tint, The greater quantity of copperas used, 

 the deeper will be the dye. 



To turn Red Hackles Brown. — Put a piece of copperas the size 

 of a half-walnut in a pint of water, boil it, and while boiling, put in the 

 red feathers ; let them remain until by frequent examination they arc 

 found to have taken the purple color. 



To dye Olive Dun. — Make a very strong infusion of the outside 

 brown coatings of onions, by allowing it to stand twelve or twenty-four 

 hours by a warm fire. . If dun feathers are boiled in this they become 

 an olive-dun ; if white , feathers, they become yellow ; if a piece of 

 copperas be added, the latter color becomes a useful muddy-yellow, 

 lighter or darker, as may be required, and approaching a yellow olive- 

 dun, according to the quantity of copperas used. 



To dye Mallard Feathers for Green Drake. — Tie up the best 

 white and black barred feathers from under the wing, in bunches of a 

 dozen; boil them in the mordant, as directed in No. 1, to get out the 

 grease ; boil them in an infusion of fustic, to procure a yellow, and add 

 copperas to the infusion, to subdue the brightness of the yellow. 



To dye Feathers Dark-red and Purple. — Hackles of various 

 colors boiled (without alum) in an infusion of logwood and Brazil-wood 

 dust, until they are as red as they can be made, may, by putting them 

 into a mixture of muriatic acid and tin, be changed to a deeper red. 

 As the solution is not to be a saturated solution of tin it must be much 

 diluted; if it burns your tongue much it will burn the feathers a little; 

 by putting the feathers, after the first process, into a warm solution of 

 potash, they will become purple. 



