As usual with most processes in taxidermy, there are several ways in which a dry bird skin may be softened, and made ready to mount or make over. I will first describe the one I consider the best in all respects.
Treatment of Small Skins.—Open the skin and remove the filling from the body, neck, and head. Tear some old cotton cloth into strips from one to two inches wide, wet them in warm water and wrap one around each leg and foot until it is completely covered with several thicknesses of the wet cloth. Lift up the wing and put two or three thicknesses of wet cloth, or else thoroughly wet cotton batting, around the carpal joints, and also between the wing and the body. Put some more wet cotton, or rags, inside the skin, in the body and neck, wrap the whole specimen completely in several thicknesses of wet cloth, so as to exclude the air, and lay it aside. If the skin is no larger than a robin, in about twelve to fourteen hours it will be soft enough to mount. The scraping and cleaning will be considered later.
Treatment of Large Skins.—Under this heading it is necessary to place nearly all birds above the size of a robin, for the reason that the legs and feet, being large and thick in comparison with the skin of the body, require special treatment in advance. The legs and wings of some birds require several days' soaking, and were the thin skin of the body to be relaxed for the same length of time, it would macerate, and the feathers would fall off. The legs and wings of large birds must, therefore, be started first in the relaxing process.
Let us take, for example, the skin of a ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus). If the skin is an old one, cover the toe-nails and beak with hot wax, or else by much soaking the horny sheaths will flake off. Wrap the feet and legs with wet cloths, as described above, and let the skin lie without any other wrapping for one day. By the end of that time the joints can be bent somewhat, and they should be manipulated until they bend easily. When they will do this, put wet cloths around the joints of the wings, under the wings, inside of the body and the neck, and wrap the whole skin in a wet cloth of the proper size. By the end of the second day the entire skin will be soft and pliable, and smelling like an African shanty—damp and musty.
Of course the larger the skin the longer it will take to completely relax. Sometimes the wings of very large birds require soaking half as long as the legs, but care must be exercised not to soak any feathered parts too long, or the feathers are liable to fall out and cause trouble. By this process skins may be softened and made ready to mount, according to their size, as follows: Wren to robin, in twelve to fourteen hours; ruffed grouse, two days; great blue heron, three days; bald eagle, four days; condor, five days; ostrich, six to seven days. Skins which are less than one year old soften in about half the time they would require if five years old, and if properly made in the first place, will make as handsome mounted specimens as would fresh skins.
Wet Sand.—Some taxidermists soften dry bird skins by burying them in wet sand after the legs and wings have been relaxed in the way already described. I have tried it occasionally with small skins, and found that the results were quite satisfactory.
A Good "Sweat-Box."—Professor L.L. Dyche, of the University of Kansas, described to me a sweat-box which he has used, and which is certainly a good one for the creation of a damp atmosphere for the softening of skins, and also to keep half-finished birds in over night, to prevent them from drying up. What a deal of trouble the bird taxidermists of my acquaintance might have saved themselves during the last ten years had they known of, or devised, this simple but perfect contrivance. It is made by selecting a wooden box, of the right size to suit, providing a hinged cover, and coating the entire inside with plaster Paris an inch or so in thickness. To make use of it, it is filled with water and allowed to stand until the plaster lining has soaked full, when the rest of the water is emptied out. If a layer of wet sand is spread over the bottom, the saturation of the air inside the box, when closed, will be still more complete.
A Heroic Method of Relaxation.—Mr. William Brewster thus describes "A New Wrinkle in Taxidermy," in Messrs. Southwick & Jencks' "Random Notes," vol. ii., No. 1:
"Wishing to turn a mounted bird into a skin, and having but a limited time to devote to the task, I tried an experiment. Taking a funnel, and inserting the pointed end in the stuffing between the edges of the skin on the abdomen, I poured in a quantity of hot water (nearly boiling hot) taking care to regulate the injection so that it should be rather slowly absorbed by the stuffing, and holding the bird at various angles, that every portion of the anterior might become soaked. The effect was magical; the skin quickly relaxed, and within fifteen minutes I could bend the neck and make other required changes without any risk of a break.
"My first experiment was with a gull; afterward I tried other birds, both large and small, with equal success. I found also that the plan worked equally well with skins which had been overstuffed, or otherwise badly made. In a very few minutes they would become nearly as tractable as when freshly taken from the birds, and much more so than I have ever succeeded in making them by the use of a damping-box. The only difficulty experienced was that the water, especially if turned in too fast, would escape through shot-holes and other rents in the skin, thus wetting the plumage in places. Of course, after the required improvements or changes have been made, the stuffing is so thoroughly saturated that the skin must be placed in a very warm place to dry. I dried mine most successfully by placing them on a furnace register, and leaving them exposed to the full blast of heat for several days."