42 the taxidermist's guide. 



apparent bank, a piece of thick brown paper, bent to the requisite 

 shape, and glued over and covered with sifted sand or gravel, has 

 a very good effect ; but insects and butterflies, or artificial flowers, 

 unless they are extremely natural, should certainly be avoided. 

 Regard should also be had to the season at which the bird 

 is usually seen. For instance, Summer birds are, of course, 

 surrounded by green and living objects, but Autumn or Winter 

 visitants by decaying or dead herbage. It has often been made 

 an experiment to represent snow, but it is difficult to obtain any- 

 thing white enough, and at the same time of a crystalline char- 

 acter, which, of course, it should be. Potato farina nicely dr^cl, 

 mixed with Epsom salts pounded very fine, does not make a bad 

 substitute ; but the real difficulty lies behind, namely, in fixing 

 it, and, more than all, the least damp takes very much from its 

 appearance, if it does not destroy the effect, and hence we must 

 have recourse to mineral aid, and any very white mineral powder 

 mingled with pounded glass is perhaps best. It is unneces- 

 sary to say that the herbage upon which' it is meant to rest should 

 be touched all over with paste, not glue, and the white mixture 

 shaken over and left to dry. What will heighten the effect very 

 much, if prettily executed, is a black landscape with a dark 

 leaden sky and nearly black earth mingled with moss. To repre- 

 sent water, a small piece of looking-glass, surrounded with moss, 

 etc., answers very well. The bills and legs of birds should be 

 always varnished, and where the natural color fades after death 

 it should be restored by a thin coat of oil-color of the required 

 shade. The bird being fixed and the case garnished, nothing 

 remains but to put in the glass ; this is in three pieces, one for 

 the front and a piece at each end. This can be pasted in with 

 very strong paper round the edge, advancing sufficiently over the 

 glass to hold it. In doing this it is not necessary to be -very par- 

 ticular to avoid pasting the glass, as after it is dried it can be 

 wiped clean with a damp cloth. The last operation is a very sim- 

 ple one, and dune in a few minutes. You must procure some 

 black spirit-varnish, which you can make yourself by dissolving 

 the best black sealing-wax in spirits of wine, and should be kept 

 corked ; when this is good it acts as paint and varnish at the same 

 time, and dries as fast as it is put on. One or two brass rings 

 screwed on at the top of the back of the case will finish the bird, 



