Section I.: Plain Stands.—The best stands for the cabinet are simple wooden ones, either of pine or other woods, turned by machinery with a simple cross-piece for perching birds. As a rule, the shaft should be about as high as the cross-piece is long, but in cases of specimens with long tails, the shaft should be somewhat higher, while the base should a little exceed in diameter the length of the perch, and should be about as thick as the shortest diameter of the other parts.

Section II.: Ornamental Stands.—Papier-machÉ used for making ornamental stands is quite difficult to make, but following is the receipt: Reduce paper to a perfect pulp by boiling and then rubbing through a sieve. To every quart of this pulp add a pint of fine wood-ashes and a half pint of plaster. Heat this mass over the fire, and to every quart add a quarter of a pound of glue, which has been thoroughly dissolved in a glue-pot. Mix well until it is of the consistency of putty, when it is ready for use.

In making a twig for an ordinary perch, fasten a moderately stout wire in a wooden base; wind it with cotton, larger at the base, tapering toward the end; bend it in a position and cover with a layer of papier-machÉ, then with a comb indicate the ridges in the bark of a tree, and add knots and excrescences as desired, by moulding small pieces with the fingers. Set aside to dry for a few days. If the papier-machÉ cracks it does not contain a sufficient quantity of glue, or if it shrinks too much, more ashes or plaster should be added. When dry paint with water-colors, made by adding dry paint to dissolved white glue, stirring until the mixture becomes of the consistency of cream. A quarter of a pound of glue will take up a pound of paint. Cover the bottom of the stand with this paint, or with some other color, then sprinkle profusely with smalt or mica sand. When dry, add artificial leaves to the branches by winding the stems around them. Trim the bottom of the stand with mosses and grass fastened on with glue. Stands for cases are made in a similar manner, but it is an improvement to touch the ground-work here and there with dry paint of various colors. A piece of looking-glass may be used to imitate water; and ducks from which the lower portions have been cut away may be placed on this with a good effect. A very good stand may be made by simply winding a wire with cotton and painting the cotton. The cotton can be made into a species of papier-machÉ by soaking it in flour-paste. Rock work is made of either papier-machÉ, cork, blocks of wood, or pieces of turf painted and sanded, or by pasting stout paper over pieces of wood, and the whole structure painted and sanded. If papier-machÉ be used the effect may be heightened by sticking in pieces of quartz or other rock. Natural stumps, branches, etc., may be manufactured into stands or cases to advantage; in short, with the aid of papier-machÉ, glue, moss, grasses, smalt, etc., nature may be imitated in a variety of ways.