PRESERVING AND STUFFING ANIMALS. 
There are some marine creatures, such as the star-fish, 
echinites, and some others, which are dried with very little 
preparation. The echinites are difficult to preserve, however, 
with their spikes, and the only certain mode is to place them 
in spirits of wine, and wrap them up in linen, which may he 
double or even triple when they are to be carried any distance. 
It is necessary first, however, to put them in fresh water in 
order to make them disgorge certain saline matters, withdrawing 
them afterwards and putting them into a dry place. 
STUFFING AND MOUNTING BIEDS. 
Skins are sometimes kept so long as to have become hard 
and dry ; or they may be the skins of other climes which it 
is desired to stuff and mount. I have already given directions 
for preserving and moistening the skins of larger animals, but 
there are hundreds of skins of birds and small animals sent daily 
from India, Africa, America, and various other places, which re- 
quire a different mode of treatment from those that are stuffed 
immediately after being skinned. These skins, by the time 
they reach England, are of course very dry, and require to be 
thoroughly relaxed before they can be brought to a fit state 
for stuffing. One plan is to get an earthenware pan with a 
lid, and put three quarts of silver sand in it ; after well washing 
it, drain the water off and put a sheet of blotting-paper on 
the top of the sand, and on this place the dry skins, as many 
as will cover it without crowding, then put the lid on and 
allow them to remain several days, when they will be found quite 
fit for stuffing. Another method, which I find to answer very well 
in most cases, is to take the wadding carefully out of the skins, 
damp it, and replace it ; then get a clean damp cloth and roll 
the skins in it ; by this process, in the case of the skins of 
small birds, they will be ready in twenty -four hours, when they 
can then be stuffed in the manner I am about to describe. 
In the case of birds of paradise and humming-birds, whose 
skins are extremely delicate, it is found sufficient in practice to 
suspend the skins over damp tow or moss after unstuffing them. 
The same remark applies to specimens requiring remounting, 
the old stuffing being drawn out with a hooked wire and re- 
placed by wet tow, while a wet cloth is folded round, the skin 
soon becomes moist and pliable, unless they have become very 
hard indeed, when hot water, or the bath already described 
344 J 
