32 
FIELD ORNITHOLOGY. 
while it requires rather less than half as much stuffing as an inexperienced person might 
suppose. Take a shred of cotton that will make a tight ball as large as the bird's eye ; stick 
it on the end of your knitting-needle, and by twirling the needle whilst the cotton is confined 
in your finger tips, you make a neat ball. Introduce this through the belly-opening, into 
the eye-socket ; if you have cut away skull enough, as already directed, it will go right 
in; disengage the needle with a reverse twirl, and withdraw it. Take hold of the bill with 
one hand, and with the forceps in the other, dress the eyelids neatly and naturally over 
the elastic substance within. Repeat for the other eye. Take next a shred of cotton that 
will roll into a firm cylinder rather less than the size of the bird's neck. Roll it on the 
needle much as you did the eye-ball, introduce it in the same way, and ram it firmly into 
the base of the skull ; disengage the needle by twirling it the other way, and withdraw it, 
taking care not to dislodge the cotton neck. If now you peep into the skin you will see 
the end of this artificial neck ; push it up against the skin of the breast, — it must not lie 
down on the back between the shoulders.^ The body- wad comes next; you want to 
imitate the size and shape of the bird's trunk. Take a mass of cotton you think will be 
enough, and take about half oi this; that will be plenty (cotton is very elastic). It should 
make a tolerably firui ball, rather egg-shaped, swelling at the breast, smaller behind. If you 
simply squeeze up the cotton, it will not stay compressed ; it requires a motion something 
like that which bakers employ to knead dough into the shape of a loaf. Keep tucking 
over the borders of the cotton till the desired shape and firmness are attained. Insert the ball 
between the blades of the forceps in such way that the instrument confines the folded-over 
edges, and with a wriggling motion insinuate it aright into the body. Before relaxing 
the forceps, put your thumb and forefinger in the bird's armpits, and pinch the shoulders 
together till they almost touch ; this is to make sure that there is no stuffing between the 
shoulders, — the whole mass lying breastwards. Loosen the forceps and withdraw them. If 
the ball is rightly made and tucked in, the elasticity of the cotton will chiefly expend itself in 
puffing out the breast, which is just what is wanted. Be careful not to push the body too far 
in ; if it impacts against the skin of the neck, this will infallibly stretch, driving the shoulders 
apart, and no art wiU remedy the unsightly gape resulting. You see I dwell on this matter of 
the shoulders ; the whole knack of stuffing correctly focuses just over the shoulders. If you find 
you have made the body too large, pull it out and make a smaller one ; if it fits nicely about 
the shoulders, but is too long to go in, or too puffy over the belly, let it stay, and pick away 
shreds at the open end tiU the redundancy is remedied. Your bhd is now stuffed. Close the 
opening by bringing the edges of the original cut together. There is no use of sewing 2 up 
the cut, for a small bird ; if the stuffing is correct, the feathers will hide the opening; and if they 
do not, it is no matter. You are not making an object for a show case, but for a naturalist's 
just at the shoulder. What you remove will never make any difference from the outside, while you would almost 
inevitably get in too much, not of the right shape, and make an awkward bulging no art would remedy ; I say, 
then, leave the wings of all but the largest birds empty, and put in very little under any circumstances. As for 
legs, the whole host of small perching birds need no wrapping whatever; depend upon it you will make a nicer 
skin without wrapping. But large birds and those with very muscular or otherwise prominent legs must have 
the removal of flesh compensated for. I treat of these cases beyond. 
1 Although a bird's neck is really, of course, in direct continuation of the back-bone, yet the natural sigmoid 
curve of the neck is such that it virtually takes departure rather from the breast, its lower curve being received 
between the prongs of the merrythought. This is what we must imitate instead of the true anatomy. If you let 
the end of the neck lie between the shoulders, it will infallibly press them apart, so that the interscapular pliimage 
cannot shingle over the scapular feathers as it should, and a gaping place, showing down or even naked skin, 
will result. Likewise if the neck be made too large (the chances are that way, at first), the same result follows. 
These seemingly trifling points are very important indeed ; I never made a decent birdskiu till I learned to get the 
neck small enough and to shove the end of it against the breast. 
2 But sew it up, if you please, though you may be perhaps giving the man who subsequently mounts the 
bird the trouble of ripping out the stitches. Stitches, however, will not come amiss witli a large bird. I generally, 
in such cases, pin the edges of the cut in one or more places. 
