Sonia put the defatted blue magpie skull back into the skin bag and adjusted it carefully. Then she took out another box.
"This is camphor powder - a natural spice that has a strong anti-moth effect. The one I use happens to be produced in Taiwan." She explained, "We have used arsenic ointment to preservative the bird skin, but
The defatted kapok must also be treated to prevent insect infestation.”
As she spoke, she first spread the defatted kapok on the workbench, sprinkled it with a layer of camphor powder, then used tweezers to clamp one side and roll it tightly, and began to fill it with bird feather skin.
"When filling, fill in the order of head, neck, wings, chest, legs, abdomen, and tail. Fill it little by little, so that every part is filled full - but not too much..."
She said: When filling, you must first grasp the form of the bird in its natural state and fill it according to the natural form of the bird. In particular, pay attention to the form of natural history paintings.
"If you don't have a detailed reference for the shape, it's best not to make taxidermy, otherwise the stuffed animal will be seriously out of shape and turn into a completely different animal."
Then she gave instructions while filling: The areas with more muscle tissue in the specimen should be filled more, the chest and abdomen should be filled in, and the neck should be filled less, but no gaps should be left. If the specimen is not filled enough, it will appear after the specimen is completely dry.
Collapse, affecting the appearance.
She stuffed things while talking, and her movements were skillful and sophisticated, which the apprentices admired. But for Sonia, specimen making is her basic skill, not to mention that the conditions here in Lingao are much better.
After filling it, the blue magpie's shape had basically recovered. She used pins to fix the openings of the bird's skin together one by one.
"Don't rush to sew the opening at this time, because the condition of the feathers has not yet recovered. After the feathers are combed, we will observe the effect of the filling. If there are any unsatisfactory areas, we can correct them. Once we are completely satisfied, we can use needle and thread to sew."
According to the "Australian taxidermy method" Sonia learned, after filling, the hair of the specimen should be dried with a hair dryer to restore its fluffy texture.
Although there is no technical threshold for a hair dryer, it is still a bit difficult to put it into the industrial system of the Senate. Therefore, this thing has never been mass-produced. This process is omitted for specimen production. Instead, it is a fully automatic oven that uses low-temperature radiation.
The hair of the specimen is dried in a full way. In order to prevent the feathers from being burned for a long time, the specimen is fixed on a turntable and is constantly rotated at a low speed by a human handle.
This almost "Turkish barbecue" drying requires a lot of patience, otherwise the feathers will easily burn. Sonia handed the specimen to Da Wen and Xiao Wen to bake, and wasted no time in starting the final steps of repairing the swordfish specimen.
The swordfish specimen was basically dry at this time. She checked all parts of the specimen to see if there was any damage that could not be repaired, and then began to scrape latex at the staple joints of the skin to cover the nail heads.
"When brushing latex, be sure to pay attention to a small amount, apply it repeatedly, and then scrape. Don't apply too much at once, but scrape repeatedly to avoid surface depressions caused by the latex setting at one time. The function is to put putty on the carpenter: fill it up
gaps so that it remains consistent with the surrounding skin."
"After scraping the latex, we just need to wait for the latex to dry and form." Sonia put down the tools in her hands, "The last work is to color the repaired areas. This is not a job I am good at - tomorrow I will
Asawi will do it.”
After the swordfish specimen was moved away, the blue magpie specimen with dried feathers was brought back. The blue magpie specimen began the final step: shaping and combing.
The main postures of bird specimens are only flying and standing. However, when finalizing, based on the situation and needs of the specimens collected, scene-based subdivisions can be added to these two basic postures. For example, watching, looking for
Eating, finding a mate, etc. to shape the posture.
Sonia decided not to make too complicated a posture and just used the simplest standing posture. She fixed the blue magpie specimen on a pre-selected branch according to the pre-selected form. With the support of the wooden frame, she then performed the posture
Fine-tuning. Finally, fix everything with iron wire.
Finally, she selected a pair of glass prosthetic eyes of a suitable size and color from a treasure chest-like multi-layered chest of drawers, and carefully installed them into the empty eye sockets of the blue magpie specimen. Because the skull was filled inside, the prosthetic eyes were filled into the skull.
The effect after the eye socket was very good. A lifelike blue magpie specimen was born. Sonia carefully combed the feathers of the specimen, and collected the fallen feathers from time to time and put them into a special kraft paper bag.
"Although the specimens have been completed now, we still need to observe them every day. Deformation, distortion, discoloration, and feather loss areas can be corrected, painted, and feathered in time. After a week, the specimens will be completely dry, and then the scientific names and characteristics will be written on them.
Attach labels with habits. In this way, the specimen is completed." Sonia looked at it with satisfaction, "Do you know how to prepare the specimen?"
"This is too complicated!"
"You have to have a pair of skillful hands."
“You have to be very patient!”
"I would definitely forget a lot of steps..."
"Teacher Suo, how can you multitask?"
…
The apprentices started chattering again. Sonia did not participate in the apprentices' discussion anymore. After a few perfunctory words, she hurried back to her research room.
The pointer on the watch was already close to six o'clock. Just as Sonia was preparing to pack her things and get off work, Dawen sent her a new memo.
"Sending memos so late!" she muttered, picking up the envelope.
Complaints are complaints, but as soon as the official document is delivered to her hand, she must open it and read it immediately. This is what Lin Hanlong emphasized to her repeatedly.
The sealing wax on the seal of the memorandum's envelope clearly bears the coat of arms of the senators - although it is impossible for Sonia to remember the coat of arms of each senator, she still knows the common patterns of the coats of arms of the senators.
Undoubtedly, this was a private memo written to her by a certain senator.
Who could this be?
Sonia suddenly became curious: she is very famous in the Senate, and almost every senator knows her or even recognizes her. However, she does not have many contacts with the senators, mainly several people from the remote exploration department of the Ministry of Science and Technology.
There are several veterans and industrialists involved in the optical industry.
But the sender's name: Du Yibin, she had never even heard of it, let alone knowing it.
Why did a strange elder send her a memorandum? Judging from the official document number, it was not just sent to her, but also to several other elders related to the Natural History Museum.
Out of curiosity, Sonia opened the sealing wax and took out the letter inside.
The letter began with a self-introduction. To be honest, Sonia didn't quite understand the meaning. In order to prevent deviations in her understanding, she called Ju Wenyi and asked her to read it out to her.
Ju Wenyi was stunned for a moment when he picked up the memo, and said hesitantly: "Teacher Suo, this is a private memo."
"so what?"
"Private memos can only be read by the recipient. It's not appropriate for me..."
"What does this have to do with it? The discussion is business anyway. Besides, I can't read." Sonia said unconcernedly, "Read it, read it!"
Ju Wenyi had no choice but to start reading the letter.
The letter began with a short paragraph expressing his admiration for Sonia, but the grammar was confusing and confusing, and some of the words were very inappropriate. Ju Wenyi sweated while reading it, for fear that this was an expression of love written by some ignorant elder.
Wouldn’t it be very unlucky for me to see a letter of love? But then I thought about the official document that the memorandum should be left in the office. It was said to be “private” but actually it was just “private opinion” and not really a private letter. I felt a little bit.
Feeling more settled.
"What is this written about?" Sonia frowned, "He admires me very much? He also said that I have both beauty and knowledge? I am as beautiful as a fish that sinks to the bottom of the water, and he said that I killed a wild goose? I did collect it.
A stuffed wild goose, but not when it's flying."
"Yes, that's what it means." Ju Wenyi said cautiously, "The fish and wild geese are just descriptions..."
"Oh, I understand, it's a metaphor." Sonia nodded, "Then what?"
Ju Wenyi read the second paragraph and muttered: Next, Mr. Du Yuan introduced himself in a long-winded manner. He talked at length about his hobby of natural history, that he had a lot of "experience in raising and breeding animals", and that he had "animal knowledge".
Have a deep understanding and keen interest in habits."
If you are so interested, why don't you go to the farm to feed pigs? Ju Wenyi cursed in his heart. Is this Du Yuanlao trying to express that he and Teacher Suo have common interests? This is very bad...
However, this foreign woman was completely unaware of it. After hearing these words, she actually smiled on her face and praised: "It turns out that he is also a gentleman who loves natural history! This is really great! It seems that he is more interested in animals.
If you understand, you can also raise animals - this is not easy!"
The next paragraph made Ju Wenyi breathe a sigh of relief. It turned out that the reason why the veteran Du Yibin wrote the memo was to propose setting up a "small zoo" in the Natural History Museum to "raise representative and rare animals." Then he listed
There was a lengthy list, all of which were animals that Ju Wenyi had never heard of. Some of the names sounded very weird, such as "Dodo, Elephant Bird, Giant Turtle", etc. Later, for some unknown reason, he wrote a long article about these things.
Habitat and current situation. Chief Du also specifically said that "many animals are already in danger". He looked very anxious.
Although Ju Wenyi felt that Chief Du's literary talent was not very good when he was reading, she could tell that Teacher Suo didn't care. Especially when she heard the description of various animals in the third paragraph, her face showed "
A mixed expression of "pleasure, curiosity". It seems that this paragraph is to her liking.