Taxidermy Part 7

Fill nose and upper lip and model them into natural shape. Lastly, fill chin and lower lip. Tuck lower lip up well under upper and model lips and chin into proper relation to each other.

If any compo. has gotten into the hair wipe it out with a damp sponge.

Leave head in the vise until compo. is set and then hang in a well ventilated place to dry. Do not hang near stove or radiator.

When thoroughly dried out, brush dust out of hair and finish the eyelids, nostrils, etc., with wax and cotton, burned in, same as given for finishing a small mammal.

If placing the head upon a shield, use at least four strong screws of a length to go nearly through the two boards.

For mounting a deer scalp tanned, the preparation is very different.

Scalps may be had tanned at a number of reputable fur houses throughout the country at a small cost. To get best results, send scalps and rug-skins in to the tanner with ears skinned out and eyelids and lips split and nose cartilage pared out. Tanned scalps, if kept from moths, may be preserved unmounted for a long time.

When required for mounting, a tanned scalp need only be relaxed with water brushed or sponged into the flesh side and, when soft, poisoned with a.r.s.enic-water and folded together, flesh to flesh, over one night.

The process of mounting a tanned scalp differs from the raw in that it is set up on a wire and plaster sh.e.l.l, more carefully shaped than the excelsior form. The entire scalp is stuck down to the sh.e.l.l with compo.

No. I rubbed well into the skin and upon the sh.e.l.l. The face and ears are set and finished with compo. No. II, which, as before stated, is No.

I thickened to the consistency of modeling clay with plaster of paris.

This method gives much finer and more permanent results.

For details of plaster and wire mannikin, see Fig. 37. This type of sh.e.l.l is made as follows: Set the cleaned skull upon neck-board and back-board same as for wrapping excelsior neck.

Half-inch mesh chicken wire will do, if no free mesh wire can be procured, for building the frame. The wire neck is best placed in halves. The shaping will require considerable cutting and neat manipulation with pincers and hammer and tying with bits of wire. Use staple tacks to fasten wire to edge of back-board. The wire sh.e.l.l should be smaller than natural neck to allow for coat of plaster and fiber. For this make up not more than half a wash basin at a time, mixing the plaster with plain water in the ordinary way. Make the batches middling thick, enough so that it will not drizzle from the wire.

Pick a quant.i.ty of fiber into small handfuls. To apply, dip a film of the manila fiber into the plaster, drag it out over edge of dish to remove surplus plaster, and apply to wire sh.e.l.l. Work fast enough to keep ahead of plaster setting. Wipe each application out smooth as you go. Apply a thin coat, very smooth, all over the skull and model on the jaw muscles with the plaster and fiber.

When plaster is set, surface the sh.e.l.l and remove all inequalities by paring with an ordinary small butcher-knife. Allow to thoroughly dry and apply a good coat of medium thin sh.e.l.lac. Have this type of mannikin completed, dried, and sh.e.l.laced before moistening and preparing the tanned skin.

To prepare mammal skins in the field, for transportation and keeping, remove skins carefully, same as for immediate mounting. Salt thoroughly, rubbing in well, and roll up to drain over night. Next day shake out the first salt, which will be found saturated with juices, rub fresh salt in all over, and roll up over another night. In this condition small skins may be sealed in gla.s.s jars or friction top tins and kept damp thus for some time.

To make a preserving "pickle" for keeping skins wet, boil salt in water until heaviest brine possible to make is produced. Add a tablespoonful of carbolic acid to the gallon while hot. Stir well. Let the solution cool thoroughly before submerging skins in it.

Skins should always be put through the double dry salting before going into "pickle." Keep in covered earthen jars.

For making up into rugs, send animal skins to a good tanner, first skinning out the ears and paring out lips and nose.

To make an open-mouthed rug head, use the natural skull when possible.

Set the jaws open solidly with plaster of paris and at the same time lay a plaster core between lower jaw for the artificial tongue. Set the skull upon a cut-out base-board as shown in Fig. 38.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 38.]

Drive nails half in all around back and side edges of this base-board and wrap on filling of excelsior for jaws and flare of neck. Drive the nails down tight after wrapping is completed.

Mount the head before stretching the skin. Relax the head with water and poison same as deer scalp.

Use plaster and glue-water compo. as in raw deer scalp. If a snarling expression is desired, model the wrinkles on the muzzle with an edged wooden tool. Tuck the lip lining well under the filling, so they will hold in place when the plaster is set. Finish details of face same as in other mounting.

Finish the tongue and gums by melting colored wax and cotton upon core and bone with hot iron, modeling and carving to shape when cool. After the head is mounted and set, stretch the skin. Moisten the flesh side to soften it up well.

Nail down the rear end upon floor to its widest spread, with hind legs pointing back on a slight slant. Draw the skin forward and spread forelegs and front end to widest extent and nail down in accurate line with hind part. Now work from side to side, nailing skin out to its widest extent and in symmetrical lines. Always stretch a rug-skin hair side down. A slight wash of a.r.s.enic-water may be applied after the skin is stretched and while yet moist, care being used not to mess the hair with the solution.

When dry, the skin is ready to line. Lay the felt lining upon the floor and the skin upon it and cut around the skin, allowing three or four inches for pinked edge.

With a pinking iron cut scalloped edge and enough of a narrow strip to gather fully all around just inside the outer edge. Lay skin on lining and mark its edge with tailor's chalk. Sew the gathered edge just inside this chalk mark so that the st.i.tch will be covered by the skin.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 39.]

Quilt skin upon the lining with a good layer of cotton wadding between.

Be sure and not draw down a bunch of hair under each loop. Tie the knots neatly on under side.

Fig. 39 shows incisions to make in removing a pelt for a symmetrical rug. Rug skins are best dried with no preservative whatever. In drying skins, stretch them symmetrically and dry in the shade.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

PREPARING AND MOUNTING A COYOTE

CHAPTER VI

PREPARING AND MOUNTING A COYOTE

This method may be applied to specimens from the size of a red fox or a bobcat up to a timber wolf. Remove the skin and prepare it in same way as that of a small mammal for mounting. When the carca.s.s is bared in skinning, measure the girth of the neck at middle and at base; of the chest just behind the forelegs; the abdomen at its middle; the upper-arm at middle; the forearm just below elbow; the thigh at middle; the shank just below swell of thigh muscles back of knee, and the tail near its base. (See Fig. 40 for measurements.)

Lay the carca.s.s upon a large piece of wrapping paper and take an outline of it complete, both before and after skinning.

Use same incisions and remove skin identically as in small specimen.

Upon the outline sketch of peeled complete carca.s.s set down the girth measurements in their proper places as taken with the tape. As in smaller specimens, these outline sketches will be found of great value as an aid to preserving natural lines in mounting.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 40.]

Wire the leg bones same as in a small mammal, using soft iron rod of sufficient size to support the specimen firmly. In our coyote a quarter-inch rod will be required. In a bobcat a three-sixteenths-inch rod will be large enough to support st.u.r.dily.

Bend the leg rods to fit the joints in position desired. Cut the rods of a length so that six or eight inches will protrude from the feet and eight or ten inches will remain free above to anchor to the body core.

Bind the rods to the leg-bones with strong, light cord, doing the firmest wrapping near the joints.

Working over the body outline, cut a one-inch-thick board core that will set well within the outline. (See Fig. 41.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 41.]

Cut a neck-rod of same size as for legs, having it twice as long as neck and head. Near one end of the neck-rod bend a jog to hold well when set with plaster of paris and chopped fiber into the brain cavity of the cleaned skull.

Wrap the leg muscles upon the bones same as in a small specimen, except pull the excelsior rather smooth for the purpose instead of rolling it in the palms. Make the Achilles tendon in same way and leave back of thigh off to be stuffed.

When the plaster to hold neck-rod in head is set, anchor the skull by the rod to the core-board in proper relation to the body. To do this, run the rod through a hole drilled through the board, clinch rod down forward and back with a hammer on anvil or vise, and fasten with staples, or drill a small hole through core-board each side of rod and tie the rod down with a strong loop of wire twisted down with the pliers.