Boys' Make-at-Home Things

by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey; Marian Elizabeth Bailey

When the body is done, the rest is easier. Fig. 2 shows the head, made from a piece of wood two and a half inches long by one and one-eighth wide and a quarter inch thick. The outline is marked and whittled into shape, and the beak is slanted down to a point. One quarter of an inch from the end of the neck a hole is made for pivoting, the eyes are marked in with a pencil, and three rows of marks are made across the neck with a little pattern marking wheel. These may also be made around the body and will add to the beauty of the dodo bird. His plume is made of a soft, downy chicken feather, stuck into a hole in the top of his head and glued in place.

The tail feather (Fig. 3) is shaped like the feathered end of an arrow. The “feathered” part is one inch wide by two and a half long, and another inch in length forms the pivoting part. This end is a quarter inch wide and five-sixteenths thick, and the “feathers” are cut in from each side with a slanting cut as shown in the drawing. The bottom is left perfectly level, but the top is slanted down, with three flat cuts, to a sharp edge at the end. A hole is made from side to side, a quarter of an inch back from the small end, for pivoting. Two small nails driven through the body, with the head and tail feathers in position, form the pivots. They must be driven carefully so as not to split the wood, and must be placed so that the head and tail feathers will work up and down very freely.

The legs (Fig. 4) are pieces of wood three and a half inches long, a half inch wide, and a quarter of an inch thick. They are first whittled in an elliptical shape. Then the lower part, for a space of two and a quarter inches is tapered back from the front to give an appearance of standing very straight. At the upper end, for a quarter of an inch from the top, half of the wood is cut away, and the remaining part is fitted into holes cut in the body, three quarters of an inch apart, and glued.

The standard for the dodo (Fig. 5) is made like a small wooden vise. It is a flat piece of wood three and a half inches long by two inches wide and three quarters of an inch thick. One end is beveled slightly, and one end of the top is curved down slightly.

In the remaining flat surface on the top two holes are whittled out into which the dodo’s feet are to be glued. Then a space two inches long and one inch wide is cut out to form the jaws of the vise. To tighten the vise there must be some sort of a screw through the lower jaw. A wooden thumb screw is not easy to get, so the best plan is to get a bolt about three eighths of an inch in diameter. Then cut a hole almost as large in your wood, and screw the bolt in, forcing it to cut its own “thread” in the soft wood.

THE DODO BIRD

Fig. 6 is the weight which makes the dodo work. It is a piece of wood two and a quarter inches high by an inch and seven-eighths square. This is made into a cylinder and rounded at one end precisely as you did with the body. Then a circle is marked around it a quarter of an inch back from the flat end, and this end is slightly rounded off. It may be decorated or not, as you choose.

Now you are ready to make the dodo bird work. Take two pieces of string—stout, but not too heavy—about twelve inches long. Fasten an end of one of them—with a tiny wedge and some glue—into the end of the dodo’s neck, and the other into the small end of the tail. Then bring the two pieces together and knot them about an inch from the other end. Fasten these two ends into the top of the weight just as you did the single ends.