ON PRESERVING BIRDS. 



277 



Every now and then touch and retouch all the 

 different parts of the features, in order to render them 

 distinct and visible, correcting at the same time any 

 harshness, or unnatural risings or sinkings, flatness or 

 rotundity. This is putting the last finishing hand 

 to it. 



In three or four days the feet lose their natural elas- 

 ticity, and the knees begin to stiffen. When you 

 observe this, it is time to give the legs any angle you 

 wish, and arrange the toes for a standing position, or 

 curve them to your finger. If you wish to set the bird 

 on a branch, bore a little hole under each foot, a little 

 way up the leg ; and having fixed two proportional 

 spikes on the branch, you can, in a moment, transfer 

 the bird from your finger to it, and from it to your 

 finger, at pleasure. 



When the bird is quite dry, pull the thread out of 

 the knees, take away the needle, &c. from under the 

 bill, and all is done. In lieu of being stiff with wires, 

 the cotton will have given a considerable elasticity to 

 every part of your bird ; so that, when perching on 

 your finger, if you press it down with your other hand, 

 it will rise again. You need not fear that your hawk 

 will alter, or its colours fade. The alcohol has intro- 

 duced the sublimate into every part and pore of the 

 skin, quite to the roots of the feathers. Its use is two- 

 fold. 1st. It has totally prevented all tendency to 

 putrefaction ; and thus a sound skin has attached itself 

 to the roots of the feathers. You may take hold of a 

 single one, and from it suspend five times the weight 

 of the bird. You may jerk it ; it will still adhere to 

 the skin, and, after repeated trials, often break short. 

 2dly. As no part of the skin has escaped receiving par 



