26 - THE taxidermist's guide. 



and it will soon expire. Carry it by the legs, and then, #ie body 

 being reversed, the blood cannot escape down the plumage and 

 through the shot-holes. As blood will have often issued out, be- 

 fore you have laid hold of the bird, find out the shot-holes, by 

 dividing the feathers with your fingers, and blowing on them ; 

 and then, with your penknife, or the leaf of a tree, carefully re- 

 move the clotted blood, and put a little cotton on the hole. If 

 after all, the plumage has not escaped the marks of blood, or 

 if it has imbibed slime from the ground, wash the part in water, 

 without soap, and keep gently agitating the feathers with your 

 fingers, till they are quite dry. Were you to wash them, and leave 

 them to dry by themselves, they would have a very mean and 

 shriveled appearance. 



" In the act of skinning a bird, you must either have it upon 

 a table, or upon your knee ; probably you will prefer your knee, 

 because, when you cross one knee over the other, and have the 

 bird upon the uppermost, you can raise it to your eye, or lower 

 it, at pleasure, by means of the foot on the ground ; and then 

 your knee will always move in unison with your body, by which 

 much stooping will be avoided, and lassitude prevented." 



stuffing birds. 



The first thing to be done in stuffing is to replace the skull, 

 after it has beemwell anointed with the arsenical soap, and washed 

 with the solution of corrosive sublimate inside. The thread, 

 with which the beak is tied, is taken hold of by the left hand, 

 and the head is repassed into the neck with the forefinger of the 

 right hand, while the thread is pulled on the opposite side ; and 

 we are careful that the feathers, at the margin of the opening, do 

 not enter with the edges of the skin. The bird is now laid on 

 the table with the head turned towards the left hand, and the 

 legs and wings adjusted to their proper situation. A fiat piece 

 of lead, about a pound in weight, is laid on the tail, while the 

 feathers of the margins of the opening are raised by the fore 

 finger and thumb of the left hand, to prevent their being soiled. 

 The inside of the neck is now coated with the arsenical soap ; 

 flax is stuffed into it, but not too tightly. The back and rump 

 are anointed, and the body should then be stuffed with tow, to 

 about a third of the thickness required, so that the wire may 

 have a sort of cushion to rest on. 



