PRESERVING COLOUR OF LEGS, ETC. 



85 



PRESERVING THE COLOUR OF THE LEGS 

 AND BILLS OF STUFFED BIRDS. 



I CONSIDER it impossible to preserve the colours 

 unimpaired in the legs of stuffed birds. I have 

 seen the lake-coloured leg of the beautiful yawar- 

 raciri of Guiana lose every particle of the red ; 

 and I have found that no external application can 

 preserve the fine colours in the legs of the scarlet 

 curlew, the trumpeter, the water-hen of Guiana, 

 and many other birds too numerous to mention. 



Under the outward scale of the leg, in the living 

 bird, are substances from which the leg derives its 

 colour. They fade in time after the death of the 

 bird, and then the whole complexion of the leg is 

 changed. Perhaps you might partially succeed in 

 renewing the faded colours of the leg, by means of 

 paint mixed up with water : at best it is a bad busi- 

 ness. The legs of birds stuffed on the old system 

 are so shrunk and hideous to the eye, that, in my 

 opinion, their colour is a mere secondary consider- 

 ation. In the bills of birds, the colours are either 

 produced from internal substances, as in the base 

 of the lower mandible of the toucan ; or inherent 

 in the horn or bone itself, as in the cassique. In 

 either case, dissection is absolutely necessary, if 

 you wish to have the beauty of the bill retained or 

 renewed. 



