HOW TO MAKE A BIRDSKIN. 
41 
ordinary taxidermal abortions of the show-cases. But if, after the warnings that I mean to 
convey in tliis paragrapli, you still wish to try your hand in the higher department of taxi- 
dermy, I will explain the whole process as far as manipulation goes; the art you must discover 
in yourself. 
The operation of skinning is precisely the same as that already given in detail ; then, 
instead of stuffing the skin as directed above, to lie on its back in a drawer, you have to stuff 
it so that it will stand up on its feet and look as much like a live bird as possible. To this end 
a few additional implements and materials are required. These are : a, annealed wire of vari- 
ous numbers ; it may be iron or brass, but must be perfectly annealed, so as to retain no 
elasticity or " spring;" 6, several files of different sizes ; c, some slender, straight, brad awls ; 
d, cutting pliers ; e, setting needles, merely sewing or darning needles stuck in a light wooden 
handle, for dressing individual feathers ; /, plenty of pins (the long, slender insect pins used by 
entomologists are the best) and sewing thread ; g, an assortment of glass eyes. (The fixtures 
and decorations are noticed, beyond, as occasion for their use arises.) 
There are two principal methods of mounting, which may be respectively styled soft stuff- 
ing and hard stuffing. In the former, a wire framework, consisting of a single anterior piece 
passing in the middle line of the body up through the neck and out at top of the head, is 
immovably joined behind with two pieces, one passing through each leg; around this naked 
forked frame soft stuffing is introduced, bit by bit, till the proper contour of the skin is secured. 
I have seen very pretty work of this kind, particularly on small birds ; but I consider it much 
more difficult to secure satisfactory results in this way than by hard stuffing, and I shall there- 
fore confine attention to the latter. This method is applicable to all birds, is readily practised, 
facilitates setting of the wings, arranging of the plumage, and giving of any desired attitude. 
In hard stuffing, you make a firm ball of tow rolled upon a wire of the size and shape of the 
bird's body and neck together ; you introduce this whole, afterwards running in the leg wires 
and clinching them immovably in the mass of tow. 
Having your empty skin in good shape, as already described ; cut three pieces of wire of 
the right ^ size ; one piece somewhat longer than the whole bird, the other pieces two or three 
times as long as the whole leg of the bird. File one end of each piece to a fine sharp point ; 
try to secure a three-edged cutting point like that of a surgical needle, rather than the smooth 
punching point of a sewing-needle, as the former perforates more readily. Have these wires 
perfectly straight.^ Bend a small portion of the unfiled end of the longer wire irregularly upon 
itself, as a convenient nucleus for the ball of tow.^ Take fine clean tow, in loose dossils, and 
wrap it round and round the wire nucleus, till you make a firm ball, of the size and shape of 
the bird's body and neck. Study the contour of the skinned body : notice the swelling breast- 
muscles, the arch of the lowfer back, the hollow between the furcula into which the neck, when 
naturally curved, sinks. Everything depends upon con-ect shaping of the artificial body ; if 
it be misshapen, no art can properly adjust the skin over it. Firmness of the tow ball and 
accurate contour may both be secured by wrapping the mass with sewing thread, loosening 
here, tightening there, till the shape is satisfactory. Be particular to secure a smooth super- 
ficies ; the skin in drying will shrink close to the stuffing, disclosing its irregularities, if there 
be any, by the maladjustment of the plumage that will ensue. Observe especially that the 
neck, though the direct continuation of the backbone, dips at its lower end into the hollow of 
the merry-thought, and so virtually begins there instead of directly between the shoulders. 
1 The right size is the smallest that will support the whole weight of the stuffing and skin without bending, 
when a piece is introduced into each leg. If using too thick wire, you may have trouble in thrusting it through 
the legs, or may burst the tarsal envelope. 
- If accidentally kinky, the finer sizes of wire may be readily straightened by drawing strongly upon them 
80 as to stretch them a little. Heavier wire must be hammered out straight. 
3 Cotton will not do at all ; it is too soft and elastic, and moreover will not allow of the leg wires being thrust 
ii to it and there clinched. 
