Fig. 10.
Another method of making skins which may be practised to advantage is as follows: After the skin is ready to place in the form, wrap it closely in a very thin layer of nice cotton batting, taking care that the feathers lie perfectly smooth, although these may be partially arranged through the cotton, which must be thin enough for the feathers to be seen through it. The skin is then laid aside to dry without placing in the form.
Skins should not be exposed to too great artificial heat, neither should they be left to dry during damp weather in a room without a fire. Small birds, like warblers, will set perfectly hard in forty-eight hours in a moderate temperature with dry air. Never allow a skin to freeze.
Section III.: Making Skins of Long-necked Birds.—Sandpipers, thin-necked woodpeckers, or any birds, the necks of which are liable to become broken, should have a wire placed in the neck to support and strengthen it. Proceed in sewing the wing-bones as directed in small skins; then make a body of cotton around the end of a wire that has about an inch of the end bent into the form of a hook, and then the body may be wrapped about the wire with some of the winding cotton. The neck-wire should project from the body for about the same length as the natural neck, or a little more. This neck-wire should also be wrapped with cotton to the size of the natural neck, but rather thicker where it joins the body. A small portion of this wire which has been sharpened, as hereafter to be directed, should project beyond the body. Now place the body in position inside of the skin, forcing the point of the wire into the skull, up into the base of the upper mandible as far as it will go. The heads of long-billed birds may be turned on one side, but in this case the bill will be placed to a greater or less angle. Sew up specimen as before; arrange and place in a long form and bind. The legs of such birds as yellow-legs may be stitched together at the tibial joint, then bent toward the sides, and the toes stitched to the skin.
In making skins of all birds where the back of the head is opened, the orifice should not be sewed up until after the wire has been inserted in the upper mandible, as it may be necessary to add more cotton through here to make the throat or back of the head as full as in life. Sew up this orifice by taking fine stitches in only the extreme edge of the skin, and the same caution must be exercised in sewing up accidental tears in the skin. Very tender skins may have tears mended by pasting tissue-paper neatly over the holes from the inside. In fact it is best to sew up tears from the inside, always using silk thread for the purpose.
Section IV.: Making Skins of Herons, Ibises, etc.—Proceed exactly as in long-necked birds, but to make a compact skin lay the bird breast down, and turn the head and neck on the back, and fasten the legs to the sides. I always wire the necks, and for additional security, to prevent them being straightened by careless or inexperienced persons, I stitch the bill to the skin of the back. In addition to sewing on the inside of the wing, stitch the wing firmly to the inside, by sewing over the outer primary into a pinch of skin on the side, thus the wing is fastened in two places.
Ducks’ skins may be made in a similar manner, but the feathers of the side must be brought over the wings, and the webs of the feet may be spread with a wire, which must be removed, however, when the feet are dry, or it will rust; and galvanized or brass wire is the best for making skins.