I would be very cautious about blowing the dust off the specimens . I don't know their history, but have you tested them for arsenic? There are kits that can help you do this. don't forget your own health and safety. Check out the Conserve-O-Gram about arsenic. I also vaguely remember a Conserve-O-Gram about the care of feathers. Does SPNHC have anything about cleaning mounted specimens? (I don't have my books with me right now to check these things out). I would start by testing them first. If they do have arsenic, use a ventilator and rubber gloves during the cleaning. I'm going on my memory here (who knows how accurate THAT is?) but it seems to me you can dust with a small brush into a vacuum cleaner. Remember, the vacuum cleaner bag then becomes hazardous waste and has to be disposed of properly. Even if the specimen isn't contaminated with arsenic, I would still dust into a vacuum cleaner. Who wants to breathe/spread around all that dust? Just my two cents. Nancy Russell On Sat, 23 Aug 1997 09:20:43 -0400 Ross Weeks <[log in to unmask]> writes: >We have one each of the same, and use at present an aerosol product >that is >intended to gently blow the dust off delicate objects. No damage has >been >noted to these, nor to other locally indigenous birds we exhibit. >