Fig. 21 — Stuffing Iron
This, I would point out to the non-professional reader, is a much more satisfactory way of getting thoroughly efficient tools than going to the expense of ordering a box of "bird-stuffing implements," at a cost of many pounds and finding one half of them unnecessary, and the other half worthless.
[CHAPTER IV.
PRESERVATIVE SOAPS, POWDERS, ETC.]
HAVING skinned a zoological specimen, we require, as a matter of course, to anoint the inside of the skin with some preservative, for the purpose of arresting decomposition and general decay, and also defending it from the ravages of insects for an indefinite period. Many things will partially cure a skin; for instance, rubbing it with dry earth and exposing it to the sun, as I have done with some success when hunting abroad; chalk also will do, if nothing else can be procured. I have at the present moment a raven's head cut off by a rifle ball, cured only with chalk, and which is now, after a lapse of twenty years, in as good a state of preservation as need be. Still we require other aids than sun and chalk to properly preserve our specimens, especially in our usually cold, damp climate; and if we ask what is the sine qua non, a chorus of professional and amateur taxidermists shout out, "Arsenic, of course."
I propose to show the fallacy of this, being quite of the way of thinking of Waterton, who says, "It (arsenic) is dangerous to the operator and inefficient as a preservative." I will, however, give everyone a chance of doing exactly as he pleases by jotting down three different recipes for arsenical soaps. The inventor of the first of these appears to have been one Bécoeur, of the now world-renowned Metz. Bécoeur appears to have flourished about the year 1770, and his formula is still commonly used. It is compounded as follows:
No. 1. — Bécoeur's Arsenical Soap.
Camphor, 5 oz.
Salt of tartar, 12 oz.
Powdered arsenic, 2 lb.
Lime in powder (or powdered chalk), 4 oz.