thin-necked woodpeckers, or any birds, the necks of which are liable
to become broken, should have a wire placed in the neck to support and
strengthen it. Proceed in sewing the wing-bones as directed in small
skins; then make a body of cotton around the end of a wire that has
about an inch of the end bent into the form of a hook, and then the
body may be wrapped about the wire with some of the winding cotton.
The neck-wire should project from the body for about the same length
as the natural neck, or a little more. This neck-wire should also be
wrapped with cotton to the size of the natural neck, but rather thicker
where it joins the body. A small portion of this wire which has been
sharpened, as hereafter to be directed, should project beyond the body.
Now place the body in position inside of the skin, forcing the point
of the wire into the skull, up into the base of the upper mandible as
far as it will go. The heads of long-billed birds may be turned on one
side, but in this case the bill will be placed to a greater or less
angle. Sew up specimen as before; arrange and place in a long form and
bind. The legs of such birds as yellow-legs may be stitched together at
the tibial joint, then bent toward the sides, and the toes stitched to
the skin.
In making skins of all birds where the back of the head is opened, the
orifice should not be sewed up until after the wire has been inserted
in the upper mandible, as it may be necessary to add more cotton
through here to make the throat or back of the head as full as in
life. Sew up this orifice by taking fine stitches in only the extreme
edge of the skin, and the same caution must be exercised in sewing up
accidental tears in the skin. Very tender skins may have tears mended
by pasting tissue-paper neatly over the holes from the inside. In fact
it is best to sew up tears from the inside, always using silk thread
for the purpose.