Hello!
I wonder if someone could help me with a matter of fiction research? I've written a piece that has some taxidermy elements in it, namely a display of preserved birds. I should have done my research first, it seems, for in the story I mention that the birds have their bones left inside of them. Now, from what I've seen on the web, it seems artificial understructures are used. So, the question is...is it at all possible that preserved birds could still contain their skeletons? Is there a technique (perhaps archaic?) in which the bones stayed in? It's important to the theme of my story that they do. Thanks for any information!
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The body and neck are taken out completely. Most people leave the wing, leg and skull bones in the birds. On water fowl I use an artificial head cause it won't shrink and get all wrinkly. The wing and leg bones are used to attach to the manikin with wire. The tissue that has been removed is replaced with cotton, tow (spelling), or wood wool.
Using the full skeleton could be done if it was completely cleaned of meat tissue. It then would have to be wired completly so as to have something to hold things inplace. Then all the tissue would have to be rebuilt with the before mentioned materials to give the mount some body.
It would be a time consuming chore for sure, but could be done.
Maybe a few of the old timers could shed a little more light on this but even they didn't use the full skeleton on birds. Although a few might have.
Hope this helps your story.
Later
Gman
Thanks very much, Gman! Very, very interesting stuff. I'm relieved -- looks like I'll be able to keep the taxidermy element in the story without a great deal of re-writing. You made my day!
These two techniques leave the entire skeleton in place. Prior to the 1750's or so, also, many birds were prepared by simple drying in bread ovens and also contain the entire skeleton. Many current taxidermists even now still leave all wing bones, all leg bones including the femur, and the head and neck bones inside a mount, and the tail bones, thus only removing the torso from what was there originally.