Fortunately, this time is not wasted and can be used to continue repairing the swordfish specimen. But before that, she had a little natural history to teach.
She neatly cut open the skinned bird body and took out the stomach and crop from the body.
A strong stench permeated the entire room, and it was difficult to block it even with a mask on. The apprentices frowned and covered their noses.
"It stinks, right?" Sonia said, "When we are making specimens, if possible, we should dissect the specimen's stomach, crop, cheek pouches and other organs that store food, so that we can know their main functions. What is food? It’s valuable to know the habits and habitats of animals.”
She carefully cut open the crop and poured out a pile of dark food fragments. The food in the crop was relatively intact, and it could be seen that there were insects and plant seeds.
"You can take a look and see what kind of seeds and insects there are." Sonia used tweezers to push away the food fragments.
Then she opened the stomach pouch. The strong stench of corruption made the students who had been closer move back again. Sonia pushed the contents away on the enamel plate as if she didn't smell it.
The food in the stomach has turned into a semi-mush, and the contents inside can hardly be seen clearly. But after pushing it away and looking carefully, you can still see some undigested food fragments.
"Look, how many kinds of insects and plants can you see?"
The "apprentices" gathered around the two enamel basins, trying hard to hold back the foul smell and carefully identify them.
"There are beetles, but I can't see what kind."
"That's right." Sonia nodded and fiddled with the remains of the beetle.
"snails!"
"This is too easy, the snail shell is very complete." Sonia smiled.
"cricket."
"You can tell from its legs."
The apprentices all talked about many types of insects, but no one could name the plants. No wonder, even if these seeds are not digested, they are still in a semi-rotted state, with very different colors and shapes. Big changes are not easy to see. Sonia herself didn't recognize much of it.
If you use the owner's microscope, you should be able to distinguish more details. However, microscopes from optical factories are still in short supply, and "non-productive departments" such as the Museum of Natural History have to wait in long queues to submit purchase requests. The one configured in Sonia's laboratory was obtained by Lin Hanlong through the back door in the name of a "birthday gift".
But Sonia didn't intend to take this pile of sour and smelly contents back to the research laboratory - she had too many things to do at the moment and couldn't care less about studying the blue magpie.
"This seems to be an animal limb." Valentina said suddenly. She used tweezers to remove a small bone-like object from it.
"It is indeed an animal bone." Sonia looked at it carefully. "It should be part of the limb bones of some kind of amphibian or reptile. I can't tell which one specifically. But judging from the food items of other corvids, , it should be a lizard or a frog,"
"Then it eats a lot of miscellaneous food."
"Yes, corvids have a very diverse diet. Although they mainly feed on insects and other animal foods, they also eat plant fruits, seeds and grains. Common types of animal foods include kowtow beetles, beetles, locusts, grasshoppers, Flies, katydids, crickets, beetles, lepidopteran larvae and other insects also eat spiders, snails, worms, fireflies, frogs, lizards, nestlings, bird eggs and other small invertebrates and vertebrates.”
Sonia effortlessly recited the information she read from "Ornithology". Of course, she did not follow the text exactly - she had dissected many corvids and confirmed this statement through experiments. As a corvid bird, the blue magpie should not be much different.
Finally, by identifying food fragments and residues, they counted plant fruits accounting for 33.8%, amphibians and reptiles accounting for 32.4%, insects accounting for 22.5%, other small birds accounting for 7%, and unidentifiable 4.3%.
After talking about the feeding habits of the blue magpie, it was almost time for the sailfish to be humidified, so Sonia asked them to bring over the sailfish specimen again. The wet cloth has just been untied, allowing the air to slightly dry the moisture on the surface.
Xiaowen brought Sonia a toolbox. Sonia touched the fish skin in various parts and felt that it had softened. She said: "When we repair specimens, we first need to restore them to their original state. Broken areas need to be repaired, and sunken areas need to be refilled. If the filling shows signs of mildew and insect infestation, the old filling needs to be removed and refilled. .”
After saying that, she started to repair it. Repairing specimens is a complicated job. She first adjusts the bracket structure inside the fish body according to the damage of the specimen, then sprinkles defatted kapok with camphor powder to fill the damaged and depressed areas, and then opens the cracked edges of the skin with Nailing with small nails - This step is particularly difficult to do, because the leather will gradually lose water after it softens, so many damaged areas must be temporarily clamped and fixed with special wooden boards.
Sonia had to use special paper to "patch" areas where the leather was damaged and could no longer be stitched with leather staples.
"As long as possible, it is best not to use the patching mode." Sonia said, "Whether it is leather or paper, its strength is different from that of fish skin. The shrinkage rate is different when it is dry and wet, and it is easy to break."
"Wouldn't it be okay if we had swordfish skin?" an apprentice said, "They are both swordfish skins, so the shrinkage rate is the same."
"You're right, but we don't." Sonia agreed.
"Our master is the fishing company, you can talk to him. Leave the fish skin..."
"According to what you say, it would be easier to just catch a new swordfish."
"Besides, fishing companies don't peel skins. It's the job of fish processing plants."
…
Sonia signaled everyone to stop discussing. While waiting for the skin to dry, she was going to start making the Taiwan Blue Magpie.
She put on her gloves and carefully took out a glass bottle with a black skull on it.
"This is an antiseptic paste, a highly toxic preservative. It is also a commonly used preservative when we prepare specimens. Its active ingredient is called arsenic in Chinese. It is actually an arsenic-containing compound. It is very toxic! If you accidentally touch it Your lips, it won’t take more than a minute for you to see God.”
As she spoke, she opened the lid, carefully took out a bamboo spatula, and scooped some out of the bottle. A strange smell emitted from the air.
Sonia unfolded the bird feather skin and carefully applied antiseptic paste to the inside of the bird feather skin. Then let it dry for a while. Then the production started.
"The second important step in making taxidermy is to make a bracket. The material of the bracket is this kind of galvanized iron wire, which is soft enough and has a certain strength." Sonia picked up a pile of Australian galvanized iron wire, "This is Australian iron wire is galvanized and has certain corrosion resistance, so it is specially used for our specimen making."
She said: The choice of wire. The size of the wire should be selected according to the size of the bird. Generally, it is appropriate to support the entire bird specimen. The wire is too thin and cannot support the body of the bird, and it is difficult to shape the specimen. The wire is too thick and it is laborious to build, thread and shape the bracket.
"... Small birds use No. 26 to No. 24 wire, large birds use No. 8 to No. 10 wire, and No. 20 to No. 10 wire is commonly used. As blue magpie is a relatively large small bird, we can choose No. 20. "
Sonia said, pulling out a roll of wire and a pick from the wire. These Aussie tools come from the bottom of their hearts and they feel good.
"We first build the scaffold for the specimen. Before building the scaffold, we must first have a basic plan: what is the posture of the specimen. For birds, there are two basic postures: standing and flying. If More subdivisions can be made. For the specific posture, you can refer to museum paintings; you can also decide based on the condition of the skin taken. Today we will make the simplest standing posture."
Sonia picked up the wire, measured the size and cut three pieces. Use a file to file both ends of each wire.
"The cut wire ends will be sharper. They need to be polished in advance to avoid puncturing the leather when wearing the model - and may also puncture your hands." She said, picking up a piece of wire:
"Generally, three wires are used to build the scaffold. The first one goes from the head to the left foot, and the ventral side of the specimen is facing up at this time." She picked up the bird feather skin and gestured. "The wire should be 3 to 4 centimeters longer than the bird's beak. The feet are 5 to 6 centimeters." She began to thread the wire through the leather, "The movement should be gentle and don't use force. Otherwise, the skin will be easily punctured."
After threading the first wire, do the same with the second wire, from the left wing to the right foot; and the third wire from the right wing to the tail.
"This wire should be 5 to 6 centimeters longer than the tailbone. For species with particularly long tail feathers - such as the Taiwanese blue magpie, the wire at the tail should be made into a 'Y' shape."
Sonia threaded the three wires, carefully held the middle of the three lead wires with her hands, and gently straightened her wings and feet to make the two sides symmetrical. Then bend the wire from the middle. Da quickly handed her a short wire and tied it tightly, then separated it and sorted it out.
Although it has not been filled yet, and the leather feathers supported by the wires are "hanging" on the stand in a weird situation, it can already be seen that it is a bird.
"Even if the bracket is ready, the next step is to fill it." Sonia said, "After the bracket is put on, it must be filled quickly. You cannot wait for the feathers to dry completely. The bird's feathers are still slightly moist now. If Once completely dry, the bird’s feathers are difficult to comb into shape.”
Stuffing specimens. In the past, straw was used to make animal specimens in Fangcaodi. The effect is not very good, and it is easy to corrode, moth-eaten and mildew. Straw is also easy to damage the leather, and the fullness and stability of the filling are also poor. So now I’m switching to defatted kapok.
