Taxidermy Part 5

Use oil colors and apply as little pigment as may be used for the effect. Kerosene oil is an ideal thinning medium for tube oil colors.

Have very little paint upon the brush when applying the tints to a fish or reptile skin.

A suggestion of natural hues and markings will be found more satisfactory than painting them on heavily. In a day or two when the paint is dry apply a very thin coat of alcohol-cut picture varnish.

Turps-cut varnish is liable to loosen the paint, thus necessitating entire re-finishing. Fasten a panel fish to the setting that is to frame him, with two screws at least, countersinking their heads in the panel back.

The fish piece may be hung as a picture, with screw eyes and cord or it may be hung with one or two sheet metal slots countersunk into the panel back. This will allow the piece to be applied flat to any wall that will hold screws.

Large fishes mounted with rods for pedestal setting should have rods threaded at both ends for nuts. Upper ends that support core board should be bent as shown in Fig. 25. This figure also shows complete method of setting both rod and wire supports in body core and permanent stand.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 25.]

PREPARING AND MOUNTING A SMALL HARD Sh.e.l.lED TURTLE

For the purpose of skinning a hard sh.e.l.led turtle (soft sh.e.l.led species are best unattempted) the belly plate is sawed open as shown in Fig. 26.

A piece of hacksaw blade may be shaped and set into a firm handle with cross pegs of metal, for this purpose, or the small saw found in a hollow handle tool kit may serve. Four corner holes must be bored by which to start the sawing, which, for ease in accomplishing, may be thus done upon straight lines.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 26.]

Through the sawed opening remove the viscera. With scissors and bone snips, free the legs at their joints with the back sh.e.l.l, cut the neck and tail vertebrae free and pull all these members inside out through the opened sh.e.l.l. Skin the head to well down behind the eye sockets, uncovering most of the jaw muscles and stopping where the skin and skull are joined directly on the crown.

Cut the neck off. Clean out jaw meat, tongue, and brain. Turn head right side out and with a stiff wire hook pull out the eyeb.a.l.l.s.

Skin legs clear to toes and remove flesh cleanly from bones.

Skin tail out carefully. In many species this has to be split on under side to remove bone. Dry the sh.e.l.l out with a bit of rag.

Poison well with a.r.s.enic water and let stand over one night, covered with a damp cloth.

A simple method of mounting turtles, that will be found satisfactory for decorative work, is clearly shown in Figs. 27 and 28.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 27.]

A light tow neck is wrapped upon the neck-wire, which is cut about twice the length of the head and neck-skin, and has a small loop bent into it near its outer end, to set into the brain cavity and a loop by front and one by back end of belly opening to hold leg-wires. The front end is run out through the nose. Legs are wired as in a mammal with wires bound firmly to bones with thread or cord. Bones are then covered with a light wrapping of tow, placed lightly and smoothly. This serves only as a core to the filling. Tail is wrapped upon wire to natural size.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 28.]

Legs are now pushed back into place, wires of them and tail are pa.s.sed through loops in body-wire and twisted around it once or twice, and then leg-wires are led to drilled holes in edge of sh.e.l.l and clinched in them as shown in Fig. 27.

Now tie or pin the mouth shut. Legs and head and neck are next filled with sawdust, tamped in with a blunt piece of rod or wire or piece of wood shaped for the purpose. Fill in the front legs and head first and stuff some tow behind them to hold the sawdust in place when the specimen is reversed to fill hind legs. After these are filled, stuff the sh.e.l.l full of tow.

Position the turtle and wire upon a piece of board for a temporary base.

Finish shaping with a whittled modeling tool. Stuff the skin in front of hind legs into proper concavity with wads of tow or cotton and leave these until the specimen is dried.

Stuff the eye sockets with chopped tow. Wipe inside the eyelids a little liquid glue and carefully set the eyes, using care to preserve natural fullness of the ball under lids.

In drying, the tip of the nose will shrink away. When the specimen is dry and the nose-wire is cut off, a wax tip may be modeled on, nostrils being punched into it with a bit of wire.

To set the wax nose, with a sharp knife trim away the shrunken tip, place a bit of wax upon the socket, and melt it into firm contact with a heated wire. Shape the artificial nose with a small wooden modeling tool. Replace faded colors of turtles with thin tints of tube colors.

An ideal method of mounting turtles is to finish head, neck, legs, and tail in compo. No. II.

Use the leg bones and wrap them thinly with tow. Wrap a small, hard, tow neck upon the wire and a thin tow core upon the tail-wire. Cover these cores, to natural size of muscles, with papier mache.

Cover the skull where meat was sc.r.a.ped from jaws. Push the neck, tail and legs into place and wire to sh.e.l.l as in Fig. 27. Stuff sh.e.l.l with tow to hold papier mache filling of limbs in place until dry.

Turtles mounted in this way should be positioned upon a board, modeled with a tool into anatomical lines of neck, legs, etc., and allowed to remain wired upon the board until the compo. begins to harden.

When this is well under way, take the turtle from the board and finish drying, wrong side up in a well ventilated place. Remove the tow from inside the sh.e.l.l to allow of quicker evaporation. Turtles mounted with sawdust dry very quickly and usually very slowly when finished in papier mache.

PREPARING AND MOUNTING A SMALL LIZARD

(Apply the wrapped body principle, given herewith, to mounting small snakes, using a wire through center.)

A horned toad is a good example for us to work out in this department.

Skin the specimen as you would a small mammal, except that body incision runs from jaw to tip of tail and skull is left attached to face-skin.

Keep the skinned carca.s.s in alcohol for reference in making the hard wrapped excelsior body. Mount as you would a bird specimen, except that all leg-wires are set solid same as the two legs of the bird are.

The lizard's leg bones are wired exactly as in a bird and are wrapped with tow or cotton to replace muscles. Wire neck and tail and put the specimen together as shown in Fig. 29.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 29.]

Position the specimen and wire upon a temporary base. Set eyes same as in turtles. When dry finish in same manner as a turtle.

In large lizards a light covering of compo. No. II may be employed over a hard wrapped core, but is not so satisfactory as dry mounting as the skins of lizards are water-proof and consequently do not allow of moisture evaporating. With care in application the first mentioned method may be employed upon nearly all lizard specimens with most satisfactory results.

Alligators may be mounted with wrapped legs and tail and stuffed body, like the small mammal method with the exception of the head.

Be sure to remove all the jaw meat, tongue, and eye socket fat from the skulls of lizard specimens. Replace tongue and other tissues with colored wax and cotton when mouth is opened.

PREPARING AND MOUNTING A SMALL CRUSTACEAN

A crawfish or "land crab" will serve as a typical medium for describing the method of preparing specimens of this nature.

When possible, take notes of the living colors.

Crustaceans may be killed most handily with chloroform. Place the specimen in a large mouthed bottle or other vessel that may be closed tightly. Pour a little chloroform upon a wad of cotton and drop it into the vessel with the specimen and close up tightly.

When beginning work, lay the specimen upon its back and with a sharp scalpel loosen the large thorax plate around its edge and remove it carefully with head and antennae left attached intact.

Separate tail entire from body meat. Split it along fleshy under side and remove muscles from it with the scalpel.

The legs will come apart and must be kept in natural order. If the claws are large and meaty, cut a round hole in under side of thick part and sc.r.a.pe meat out. Apply a.r.s.enic-water to all inner surfaces.

Cut wires of suitable size for all the legs. Have them enough longer than the legs so that a sharpened end will protrude to run through and clinch in the body core. Push wires in full length of legs. (Fig. 30.

shows the details of making the body core of fine excelsior.) Make the core of a size to fit a little loosely into sh.e.l.l of body and tail.