TO PRESERVE FURS.—When laying up muffs and tippets for the summer, if a tallow candle be placed on or near them, all danger of caterpillars will be obviated. TO CLEAN ERMINE AND MINIVAR FUR.—Take a piece of soft flannel, and rub the fur well with it (but remember that the rubbing must be always against the grain); then rub the fur with common flour until clean. Shake it well, and rub again with the flannel till all the flour is out of it. I have had a Minivar boa for four years. It has never been cleaned with anything but flour, and is not in the least injured by the rubbing. It was a school companion who told me that her aunt (a Russian lady), always cleaned her white furs with flour, and that they looked quite beautiful. It has one advantage—the lining does not require to be taken out, and it only requires a little trouble. Ermine takes longer than Minivar. The latter is very easily done.—A. B. ON THE METHOD OF MAKING MUFFS AND TIPPETS, FROM THE PLUMAGE AND SKINS OF BIRDS.—We are indebted to a Frenchman for having brought to perfection this useful and ornamental art. Domestic animals of all the feathered kinds afford the materials of which these articles may be made; but those with rich variegated colours, for gay wear, as they are less liable to decay than the sable coverings of birds of prey, would no doubt be preferred. Above all, those animals should be selected whose plumage lies close and smooth upon their backs, for obvious reasons. Diseased birds, or those killed in moulting time, are to be rejected, as the feathers would drop off at no distant period; the birds must therefore be killed in good health, and the skin carefully stripped off soon after their death, especially when the weather is hot; otherwise the same effects would be produced from corruption as from disease. When the skin has been freed from its impurities, it is spread upon a small table, the plumage downwards, the feathers having been previously arranged over each other, according to the natural order. To keep it well stretched, tacks or pins may be driven in, or threads passed down underneath the table. Next clean away the grease or fleshy parts that remain, and close up the rents, if any; the skin is then covered with a size made of glue, in which a small quantity of common salt and a glass of white wine have been mixed up, to bring it to the proper consistency. The skin, thus covered, being exposed to the direct action of the wind, the glue will begin to scale off, and the whole must be scraped away. Should any dampness still remain on the skin, apply the glue once more, dry, and scrape it as before. When well dried, the skin is to be placed away in a box, in which dried wormwood (absynthe), aloes, or some other bitter vegetable is placed. The skins of large, or rank feeding birds, require vinegar and salt to be dissolved in the glue, and the whole to be passed over with a solution of alum. The women of Hudson’s Bay prepare cloaks for their husbands in this way,