MOUNTING BIRDS. 83 
gift. Unless you have at least the germs of the faculty in 
your composition your taxidermal success will be incommensu- 
rate with the time and trouble you bestow. My own taxider- 
mal art is of a low order, decidedly not above average ; 
although I have mounted a great many birds that would look 
well enough by the side of 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 effort 
to represent it is painfully offensive; perhaps this makes me 
' place the standard of excellence too high for practical pur- 
poses. I like a good honest birdskin that does not pretend to 
be anything else; it is far preferable to the ordinary taxider- 
mal 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 ex- 
plain 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 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 sew- 
ing or darning needles stuck in a light wooden handle, for 
dressing individual feathers; jf, plenty of pins* and sewing 
thread; g, 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 
* The long, slender insect pins used by entomologists are the best. 
