SKINNING AND PRESERVING BIRDS. 117 



close tlie bill as in nature. A little bit of beeswax at the end of it 

 will keep the mandibles in their proper place. A needle must be stuck 

 into the lower mandible perpendicularly. 



You will shortly see the use of it. Bring also the feet together by 

 a pin, and then run a thread through the knees, by which you may 

 draw them to each other as near as you judge proper. Nothing now 

 remains to be added but the eyes. "With your little stick make a 

 hollow in the cotton within the orbit, and introduce the glass eyes 

 through the orbit ; adjust the orbit to them as in nature, and that 

 requires no other fastener. 



Your close inspection of the eyes of animals will already have 

 informed you that the orbit is capable of receiving a much larger 

 body than that part of the eye which appears within it when in life^ 

 .So that were you to proportion your eye to the size the orbit is 

 capable of receiving it would be far too large. Inattention to this 

 has caused the eyes of every specimen in the best cabinets of natural 

 history to be out of all proportion. To prevent this, contract the 

 orbit, by means of a very small delicate needle and thread, at that 

 part of it farthest from the beak. This may be done with such nicety 

 that the stitch cannot be observed, and thus you have the artificial 

 <5ye in true proportion. 



After this touch the bill, orbits, feet, and former oil-gland at the 

 root of the tail with the solution, and then you have given to the 

 hawk everything necessary, except attitude and a proper degree of 

 -elasticity — two qualities very essential. 



Procure any common ordinary box, fill one end of it about three- 

 fourths up to the top with cotton, forming a sloping plane. Make 

 a moderate hollow in it to receive the bird. Now take the hawk in 

 your hands, and after putting the wings in order, place it in the 

 cotton with its legs in a sitting posture. The head will fall down ; 

 never mind. Get a cork and run three pins into the end, just like 

 .a three-legged stool. Place it under the bird's bill, and run the 

 jieedle, which you formerly fixed there, into the head of the cork. 

 This will support the bird's head admirably. If you wish to lengthen 

 the neck, raise the cork by putting more cotton under it. If the 

 •head is to be brought forward, bring the cork nearer to the end of 

 the box. If it requires to be set backwards on the shoulders, move 

 J)ack the cork. 



As in drying the back part of the necK will shrink more than the fore 

 ^art, and thus throw the beak higher than you wish it to be — putting 

 you in mind of a star-gazing horse — prevent this fault by tying a thread 



l2 



