202 PRACTICAL TAXIDERMY. 



This should be repeated until the feathers are fairly dry — 

 which, if the bird be large, will take from twelve to twenty- 

 four hours. The feathers of the skin must now be beaten 

 with a bundle of stiff feathers, or the wing of a goose, or 

 other large bird, until nearly dry, then dry plaster added 

 from time to time, and the skin twirled about in the open 

 air if possible. Yery soon the feathers will cease to remain 

 clogged with plaster, and will come out ready for mounting, 

 nicely dried, fresb, and so beautifully clean as to surprise 

 any person ignorant of the process. Carefully managed, this 

 is one of the most valuable aids to artistic taxidermy, as by 

 its means birds' skins are rendered as limp and supple, and 

 much tougber, than if just removed from the body. In 

 proof of my assertion, I may mention that I have caused skins 

 from ten to fifteen years old, and ranging in size from a 

 cassowary to a humming bird,* to be prepared by this method, 

 all of which subsequently mounted up in a first-rate manner. 

 The points to observe are — first, perfect relaxing ; secondly, 

 wiping down thoroughly with benzoline ; thirdly, drying the 

 feathers of the skin well, by dusting in plaster and beating 

 and agitating them in a current of air. Should the skin be 

 greasy, covered mth fat, or imperfectly freed of flesh (as many 

 of the foreign birds' skins are), it will be necessary to scrape and 

 trim when the specimen comes out of the plaster, before it is 

 finally cleaned. In any case, it is always advisable to turn the 

 skin of the head inside out, stretch the face, scrape the neck, 

 and stuff the head in the ordinary manner before returning 

 the skin. The great advantage in the water process is, that a 

 " Past master" in the method can mount a skin in as artistic 

 and natural a manner as if done from the flesh. Usually, speci- 

 mens done from the " skin " are at once recognisable by their 

 uneasy and "wooden" appearance, but I defy anyone to pick 

 out the skins in the Leicester Museum — unless by their neater 

 appearance — from those anciently mounted from the flesh. 



Skins of mammals, if cured by the formula (No. 9) given in 

 Chapter IV., need only to be plunged in water for a night or so to 



• A humming bird, after relaxing by water, is, when drained sufBciently, best treated by 

 vlunrjinQ in benzoline and then carefully dried in plaster. Anight in water, and half-an- 

 nour's treatment with benzoline and plaster, is sufficient for these small creatures. 



