edges with needle and tweezers.

Pin, or tie with thread, the toes to grasp the perch.

Cut two pieces of thin cardboard for the tail. Curve them slightly.
Place one over and one under the long quills just clear of the coverts
and pin them through in two or three places to hold the quills even
until dry.

In mounting a specimen with spread wings, card the flight feathers full
length with curved strips, same as tail, then run a long sharpened wire
into the body under each wing and lay a loose bunch of cotton over it,
under the quills, to raise them and hold in proper position until dry.

To wrap the body feathers for keeping place until dry, stick two or
three long pins in back and breast, along center of both. These hold the
light wrapping of thread from slipping out of place as it goes on. Lay
the thread around the specimen lightly. If the wings do not set right
without other aid than the wire already in them, pin them with sharpened
wires, one through the double bone just forward of the wrist and one
through close forward of the elbow, running wires firmly into the body.
(For general details see Fig. 11.)

[Illustration: Fig. 11.]

To soak up a dried bird skin for preparation to mount, the simplest and
quickest means is immersion in a weak solution of carbolic acid in
water, leaving for a day or two until tissues are soft.

When the skin is relaxed so that wings and legs may be manipulated
without breaking, squeeze water from it and follow same method given for
cleaning a fresh skin. With this treatment a good dry skin will come out
as soft and workable as a fresh one. Arsenic and grease burnt skins are
hard to get much out of.

To make up dry bird skins for keeping to mount at a future time, follow
regular method of thorough skinning and cleaning. Apply dry arsenic
powder to inner surfaces. Wrap skull, wing, and leg bones lightly with
cotton or tow. Turn skin right side out and push a neck and light body
filling of fiber that will allow ventilation, into place. Arrange the
plumage and hang the skin up by a thread or cord sewn through neck at
base of skull.

To make a cabinet skin for study purposes, roll a neat body and neck of
material to suit size of bird, place it inside the skin, stitch incision
together, plug eye sockets with cotton, tie the elbows together on the
body with a loop sewn through the back, tie bill shut, adjust feathers
neatly and lay the specimen in a hollowed bed made of a piece of wire