274 



ON PRESERVING BIRDS. 



life, to make up for what it will lose in drying, you will 

 reproduce a bird that will please you. 



It is now time to introduce the cotton for an arti- 

 ficial body, by means of the little stick like a knitting 

 needle ; and without any other aid or substance than 

 that of this little stick and cotton, your own genius 

 must produce those swellings and cavities, that just 

 proportion, that elegance and harmony of the whole, so 

 much admired in animated nature, so little attended 

 to in preserved specimens. After you have introduced 

 the cotton, sew up the orifice you originally made in 

 the belly, beginning at the vent. And from time to 

 time, till you arrive at the last stitch, keep adding a 

 little cotton, in order that there may be no deficiency 

 there. Lastly, dip your stick into the solution, and 

 put it down the throat three or four times, in order 

 that every part may receive it. 



When the head and neck are filled with cotton quite 

 to your liking, close the bill as in nature. A little bit 

 of bees'-wax at the point 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 tlian that part of the eye 



