. Wanderings in South America, the north-west of the United States and the Antilles in the years 1812, 1816, 1820 & 1824 : with original instructions for the perfect preservation of birds, etc. for cabinets of natural history . us, were I to cut a preserved skin in twoparts, the blade of my knife would point to the head, and thehaft to the tail of the animal. By attention to this, not ahair of the fur will be cut during the operation. I will just add here (although it be a digression), thatthere is no difficulty in making the legs and feet of eagles,turkeys, and other large birds, retain their
. Wanderings in South America, the north-west of the United States and the Antilles in the years 1812, 1816, 1820 & 1824 : with original instructions for the perfect preservation of birds, etc. for cabinets of natural history . us, were I to cut a preserved skin in twoparts, the blade of my knife would point to the head, and thehaft to the tail of the animal. By attention to this, not ahair of the fur will be cut during the operation. I will just add here (although it be a digression), thatthere is no difficulty in making the legs and feet of eagles,turkeys, and other large birds, retain their natural may go through every known museum, and you will findthat the legs of these, and of all large birds, are diied and TAXIDERMY. 503 shrivelled, as though they belonged to the mummies ofancient days. In order to give the legs of birds a naturalappearance, and a natural size, the skin from the very clawsto the top of the leg must be separated from the bone byrunning a working-iron betwixt it and the bone, and thenmodelling the skin with the working iron. The wattles of fowl, the caruncles of turkeys, and thecombs of cocks, by the simple process of internal modelling,may be made to retain their natural All improvements are gained by experience, and, whenI first knew Waterton, he had abandoned the box of cot-ton wool, and employed a far superior mode of fixing hissubject. Instead of a box, he had made a simple framework, as hereshown, both ends being open and the upper part projectingconsiderably. This was bored full of holes at irregular inter- 504 TAXIDERMY. vals, so that an iipriglit rod might be inserted into any ofthem. An ordinary wine cork was bored and passed over therod, so as to slide rather stiffly up and down. A stout pin wasstuck into the cork, a piece of twine tied to it, and the simpleapparatus was complete. The sketch was taken while Waterton was preparing a phea-sant. A large lump of wax is pressed on the beak and fromit projects a sharp needl
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidwanderingsin, bookyear1885
