ised, some tow, wool, wire, eyes,
and a needle and thread, a pot of preservative paste, and a piece of
wood or a wire for a stuffing iron, are all that the amateur or the
professional requires to skin and stuff a small or medium-sized bird
or mammal. Cost of the stone and tools (which, with ordinary care,
will last for years) should be within the reach of all.

Fig. 20--Tow Forceps

The "stuffing iron" mentioned above is best made, if wanted for small
birds, from the broken steel of a wool comber's "devil," about nine
inches long, fixed in a bradawl handle of about four inches, or, if
for large birds or mammals, the iron may be made from a broken fencing
foil, to any size between twelve and thirty inches, with suitable
handle. In either case the smallest end is driven into the handle, and
the top is filed across with a smooth nick, to push in, but not to
retain the tow. See Fig. 21.

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 do