Fig. 3. [[Click here for negative image]]

The legs are now straddling wide apart. Bring them together parallel to each other, and make a sharp bend at the knee, bringing them over the body in a natural position. Now place the bird on a temporary perch; bend back the head, and arrange the body in the position you think most lifelike. Some difficulty may be found in adjusting the wings, but if preceding processes have been rightly carried out, they will readily fall, or may be easily worked into place. Stick two pins through them at right and obtuse angles to hold them in place (1 and 2, [Fig. 3]). Now your bird will look much better, and with the exception of rumpled feathers, quite lifelike. To remedy this latter, with the knitting-needle and thumb go all over the bird with a kind of picking process; lifting the feathers and letting them gently fall into place. You cannot work over the bird too long in this way; and the more time you spend in dressing the feathers, the better will be your specimen after drying. Now stick two pins along the back, and three along the breast (G, H, I, J, K). Fasten one end of the thread from the bobbin to the projecting head wire, and carefully wind the entire bird. Do this loosely, so as not to disarrange any of the feathers, tightening, however, wherever they tend to rise or look uneven.

This winding process is considered by some to be the most difficult part of bird mounting.

The specimen should now be set away for several days, or even weeks, if the bird be a large one, and allowed to dry; after which it may be unwound; the eyelids soaked, by inserting little flabs of wet cotton until they become soft and pliable; the eyes inserted in putty, and the lids carefully adjusted over them. The protruding head wire and the pins in the wings are cut off, and your bird mounted on the perch which you have already prepared for it.

WINGS AND TAIL.

Wings may be spread by running a wire through the primaries ([Fig. 1], A) into the body, and placing another near the end of the wing as a support while drying. The tail may be spread by running a wire through the quills, near the "pope's nose" ([Fig. 2], E), or by placing a bit of split wood across the tip and tying the open end firmly ([Fig. 3], L). Crests may be raised or spread by inserting a small fluff, or ball of cotton under the feathers, using a pin to hold them in place.

When glass eyes are not at hand, black beads may be used. Or white glass beads may have a pupil (black) surrounded by the iris (yellow or brown) painted with oil colors on the back. If neither of the above can be procured, a half globe of the right size may be cut out of cork or wood and a pin run through its centre. The outside is then to be covered with sealing-wax or varnish until quite smooth, and then painted the required color.

The feet, tarsi, cere and loose skin about the necks of some birds often fade or become dull. These should be carefully painted, imitating the original colors as closely as possible.

You have now completed your first lesson, and I advise that you become perfectly familiar with skinning and mounting birds, before you take up that of animals. For you cannot become too familiar and too much at home in this department; and it will come in play fifty times, where the other does once.