ng the metacarpus, it just misses the carpus and enters the skin
again at the junction of the radius and ulna. If properly managed, the
wire will be snugly hidden in the skin of the wing by the feathers of
the parts along which it has travelled.

Do likewise with the other wing, but this wire often cannot be carried
right through to the opposite side, and must therefore be firmly
secured in the body on its own side; next fix the legs in the manner
before detailed, or, as the bird is to be represented on flight, the
wires need only be entered at the tibia-tarsal joint (q, Plate II).
Push a wire in the tail, and sew up the incision under the wing.

The bird has now its wings, legs, and tail fixed, and the free end of
the supporting wire is sticking out from under the wing. Fix this wire
firmly through the top of a narrow strip of board at such a distance
as to miss the outspread wing; let this board also be long enough to
allow of one end being fixed in a vice or screwed to the edge of a
table, whilst the hawk or other bird clears its surface. The bird
being now "shaped up" a little, take the two thinnest wires and enter
the point of one in each wing at the end of the fleshy part of the
wing (really the bird's middle finger), or through the base of the
first quill, an inch or so from the other wire. This last wire travels
along the outside of the feathers under the wing, and is consequently
not hidden at all when pushed into the body: its use is to curve the
wing upon it into a graceful shape, and when the bird is sufficiently
dry it is pulled out, the first wire at the shoulder being quite
sufficient to bear up the wing when set.

As, however, the wing feathers start up here and there, and do not
readily conform to all the curves of the wires, the wiring and binding
must be supplemented by "braces," which are narrow strips of cardboard
pinned in pairs at intervals below and above the wing, and held in
position by pins running through both braces from the under to the
upper surface. For explanation of this see Plate I (Frontispiece), a
hawk properly "set up" and "bound" to represent it swooping on its
prey.

Putty sometimes greases light-coloured skins around the eyes; it will
be well, therefore, to insert in its stead a little "pipe" or
modelling clay worked up stiff. (Clay will be treated of in a
subsequent chapter. It will be found useful for the faces of some
sea-birds and hawks, and indeed for the greater part of