ON PRESERVING BIRDS. 



319 



stitch, keep adding a little cotton, in order that there may Preserving 



be no deficiency there. Lastly, dip yonr stick into the — 



solntion, 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 

 require no other fastener. 



Your close inspection of the eyes of animals, Avill 

 already have informed you, that the orbit is capable of 

 receiving a much larger body than that part of the eye 

 which appears within it when in life. So that, were you 

 to proportion your eye to the size the orbit is capable of 

 receiving, it would be far too large. Inattention to this, 

 has caused the eyes of every specimen, in the best cabinets 

 of natural history, to be out of all proportion. To pre- 

 vent this, contract the orbit, by means of a very small 

 dehcate needle and thread, at that part of it farthest from 



