SEC. VII HOW TO MAKE A BIRDSKIN 6i 



strongly advise you not to mount your rarer or otherwise par- 

 ticularly valuable specimens ; select for this purpose nice, pretty 

 birds of no special scientific value. The principal objections to 

 mounted birds are, that they take up too much room, require special 

 arrangements for keeping and transportation, and cannot be handled 

 for study with impunity. Some might suppose that a mounted 

 bird would give a better idea of its figure and general aspect than a 

 skin ; but this is only true to a limited extent. Faultless mounting 

 is an art really difficult, acquired by few ; the average work done 

 in this line shows something of caricature, ludicrous or repulsive, as 

 the case may be. To copy nature faithfully by taxidermy requires 

 not only long and close study, but an artistic sense ; and this last 

 is a rare gift. Unless you have at least the germs of the faculty in 

 your composition, your taxidermal success will be incommensurate 

 with the time and trouble you bestow. My own taxidermal art is 

 of a low order, decidedly not above average; although I have 

 mounted a great ■ many birds that would compare very favourably 

 with ordinary museum work, few of them have entirely answered 

 my ideas. A live bird is to me such a beautiful object that the 

 slightest taxidermal flaw in the eff'ort to represent it is painfully 

 offensive ; perhaps this makes me place the standard of excellence 

 too high for practical purposes. I like a good honest birdskin that 

 does not pretend to be anything else ; it is far preferable to the 

 ordinary taxidermal abortions of the show-cases. But if, after the 

 warnings that I mean to convey in this paragraph, you still wish 

 to try your hand in the higher department of taxidermy, I will 

 explain the whole process as far as manipulation goes ; the art you 

 must discover in yourself. 



The operation of skinning is precisely the same as that already 

 given in detail ; then, instead of stuffing the skin as directed above, 

 to lie on its back in a drawer, you have to stuff it so that it will 

 stand up on its feet and look as much like a live bird as possible. 

 To this end a few additional implements and materials are required. 

 These are : (a) annealed wire of various numbers ; it may be iron, 

 copper, or brass, but must be perfectly annealed, so as to retain no 

 elasticity or spring ; (6) several files of different sizes ; (c) some 

 slender straight brad-awls ; {d) cutting pliers ; (e) setting needles, 

 merely sewing or darning needles stuck in a light wooden handle, 

 for dressing individual feathers ; (J) plenty of pins (the long, slender 

 insect pins used by entomologists are the best) and sewing thread ; 

 (y) an assortment of glass eyes. (The fixtures and decorations are 

 noticed, beyond, as occasion for their use arises.) 



There are two principal methods of mounting, which may be 

 respectively styled soft stuffing and hard stuffing. In the former, a 

 wire framework; consisting of a single anterior piece passing in the 



