SKINNING- AND PRESERVING BIRDS. Ill 



from under the wing. Fix this wire firmly througL. the top o£ 

 a narrow strip of board at such a distance as to miss the 

 outspread wing ; let this board also be long enough to allow of 

 one end being fixed in a vice or screwed to the edge of a table, 

 whilst the hawk or other bird clears its surface. The bird 

 being now " shaped up " a little, take the two thinnest wires 

 and enter the point of one in each wing at the end of the 

 fieshy part of the wing (really the bird's middle finger), or 

 through the base of the first quill, an inch or so from the 

 other wire. This last wire travels along the outside of the 

 feathers under the wing, and is consequently not hidden at all 

 when pushed into the body : its use is to curve the wing upon 

 it into a graceful shape, and when the bird is sufficiently dry it 

 is pulled out, the first wire at the shoulder being quite sufficient 

 to bear up the wing when set. As, however, the wing feathers 

 start up here and there, and do not readily conform to all the 

 curves of the wires, the wiring and binding must be supple- 

 mented by "braces," which are naiTOw strips of cardboard 

 pinned in pairs at intervals below and above the wing, and held 

 in position by pins running through both braces from the under 

 to the upper surface. For explanation of this see Plate I 

 (Frontispiece), a hawk properly " set. up " and " bound" to repre- 

 sent it swooping on its prey. 



Putty sometimes greases light- coloured skins around the- 

 eyes; it will be well, therefore, to insert in its stead a little- 

 " pipe " or modelling clay worked up stiff. (Clay -will be treated 

 of in a subsequent chapter. It will be found useful for the 

 faces of some sea-birds and hawks, and indeed for the greater 

 part of the body and legs of large birds. The Cassowary in the- 

 Leicester Museum has been worked up largely in this manner.) 



Steel pins with black bead heads are first-rate helps to binding.. 

 They are sold in various lengths, and being long, sharp, and 

 fine, quite supersede ordinary pins. 



Audi alteram partem ! Let us now take the evidence of' 

 "Waterton : 



Tou will observe how beautifully the feathers of a bird are arranged ;. 

 one falling over the other in nicest order, and that, where this charming 

 harmony is interrupted, the defect, though not noticed by an ordinary 

 spectator, will appear immediately to the eye of a naturalist. Thus,, 



