Taxidermy and Zoological Collecting Part 17

6. The nostrils must be cut through so far back from the end of the nose that the cut will not be visible in the open nostril when viewed from in front. The cartilaginous septum that divides the nostrils like a part.i.tion wall must be split in two, edgewise, from inside, clear down to the very tip of the nose, so that all the flesh can be cut away. Many a fine head is spoiled by having the flesh left in the end of the nose. It seems all right for a short time, but when it dries, it shrinks and shrivels up, and the nose not only loses all character and beauty, but becomes an eyesore.

7. The lips must be cut from the jaw close to the bone, and afterward slit open along the inside, laid out flat, and the flesh pared off carefully with a sharp knife. Leave one-half to three-quarters of an inch of the inner skin of the lip all the way around, so that the form of the lip can be presently reproduced by replacing the flesh with clay.

8. A deer's ear consists of a big, leaf-shaped piece of cartilage, thick at the base and centre, very thin at the edges and the upper end, and rolled together on itself at the base to form a half cone, like a funnel with one side partly cut away. Over this sheet of cartilage is stretched the skin, with no flesh whatever between the two. This cartilage can be completely skinned out and replaced with a leaden imitation. It must be skinned out; for if it is not done, the hair will probably all slip off the ear; but, even supposing that it does not, an equally bad thing happens. When the head is mounted and dry, the ears will begin to shrink and shrivel up like a pair of dry autumn leaves, and the beauty of the head is gone forever! In skinning out the ear cartilage, a sharp scalpel of large size, or a cartilage-knife, is the best instrument, and it should be held in the fingers precisely as one holds a pen in writing. A good, keen pocket-knife is plenty good enough for all emergencies.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 33.--Skinning a Deer's Ear.]

Begin at the fleshy base of the ear, detach the skin from the cartilage by cutting, and by pulling and pushing the two apart with the thumb and fingers (Fig. 33). Of course you must stop at the edge of the cartilage, and be very careful not to cut through the skin there. Keep right on up the back of the ear, gradually turning the ear wrong side out, until you reach the tip (Fig. 34). The ear is now wrong side out, and the skin is detached from the back of the cartilage, but still adheres on the inside. Now begin at the tip, where the cartilage is thinnest (Fig. 35), peel it up, and by the same process as before gradually work the inside skin loose without cutting _through_ the skin at any point, until it is free quite down to the base of the ear, so far within that when the skin is cut straight across and turned right side out again, the point of detachment cannot be seen (Fig. 36).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 34.--The Ear Half-skinned.]

It is likely that the beginner will find this a difficult operation, for it really is so until one has done at least one pair of ears. After that, with a fresh specimen, the process is simple and easy. Save the ear cartilage in your salt-and-alum bath, for you will need it presently as a model in making a leaden imitation to take its place.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 35.--Skinning down the Inside.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 36.--The Cartilage Out.]

9. The skin is now off. To preserve it in the field, first pare away the flesh that may have been left adhering to it, especially at the lips and end of the nose, and wash it clean. If you have a.r.s.enical soap, anoint it thoroughly over the inside, then literally smother it in salt. You need not dry the skin if you have plenty of salt for it. If you have but a limited quant.i.ty, attend to the poisoning to keep off insects, then rub on as much salt as you have to spare, hang the skin up in a shady place over a pole, open it out widely so that the air will circulate freely upon all parts of it, and let it dry. In a dry climate a skin can be dried in this way and successfully preserved (_temporarily_) even when you have neither poison nor preservative of any kind to put on it; but it must be watched and guarded with jealous care until you get it safely home, or in the hands of a taxidermist, to prevent its being eaten up by insects, rats, or dogs.

In moist climates, ground alum is to be used in lieu of salt, and all skins must be dried unless you have a salt-and-alum bath for them. In preserving heads, the sportsman will find that ten pounds of salt, or in the tropics ten pounds of alum, will go a long ways, if care is taken to keep a skin open until it is nearly dry. Never, save as a last resort, dry a skin in the sun, and never hang one up by the nose.

_The Skull._--Of course the skull must always be cleaned and saved, as directed elsewhere.

_Paring down the skin_, preparatory to mounting. See Chapter XIII.

THE WORK OF MOUNTING.--We will suppose that the head skin has been fully cured or relaxed in the salt-and-alum bath, pared down quite thin with draw-shave and knife, the holes have been neatly sewn up, and the ear cartilages skinned out. We will also suppose that the skull has been cleaned with the knife in the first place, and afterward boiled and sc.r.a.ped to remove the last vestiges of animal matter. If the skin and skull have been thus attended to, the mounted head will be clean enough and free enough from all animal odors, when dry, to go into my lady's boudoir, or into the dining-room of the White House.

There are almost as many different methods of mounting mammal heads as there are taxidermists, but I shall describe only my own. I have tried various other methods than that to be described, but without satisfactory results, and I offer this as being at once the simplest and easiest for the amateur, as well as the professional worker, and above all, the one by which the finest results are obtainable. The operator retains full control of the shape of the specimen almost up to the last moment, which I consider a _sine qua non_ in any method. The method should be your servant, not your master. Judging from the extent to which this method has been adopted among the taxidermists of this country since I first described it in a paper read before the Society of American Taxidermists, in New York, in 1883, it may be considered to possess some merit.

1. We have before us the clean skull. Procure about two pounds of plaster Paris, and a piece of board an inch or an inch and a half thick, three or four inches wide, and about two feet long. This is to be the neck standard.

With the hatchet round off the corners of one end. Then, with a saw and cold chisel, cut a long, narrow hole in the base of the skull, so that the end of the neck standard can pa.s.s through it into the brain cavity, and strike against the top of the skull (Fig. 37). The opening should be cut lengthwise with the skull, and only just large enough to receive the end of the board comfortably. In case it is desired to have the head turned to one side, looking to the right or left, the neck standard must be fitted into the skull accordingly. An iron rod may be used instead of a wooden standard, if the operator finds it more convenient.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 37.--Internal Mechanism of a Deer Head.]

2. Now place the skull upside down on the table, with the forehead on a level with the table-top, and proceed to set one end of the neck standard in the skull. This is done as follows: Into about a quart of water, placed in a basin or large bowl, sprinkle the plaster Paris, a handful at a time, until the water is filled with it and will take up no more. Then stir it thoroughly with a spoon, and after placing the end of the neck standard in the skull cavity in a _perpendicular_ position, pour the plaster around the end of it, filling the brain cavity, and piling it up on the base of the skull in a copious ma.s.s, so that when it hardens the board will be immovably fixed. The plaster should also fill around the articulations of the lower jaw, to make that also a fixture in its place. The neck standard should be set _at a right angle_ with the axis of the skull. This may seem strange to you at first, but you will presently see that the angle is correct.

While the plaster is hardening, which it will do in about twenty minutes, you must leave the head undisturbed and busy yourself with giving the final touches to the skin, or to the preparation of some clay and tow for future use.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 38.--Complete Manikin for Deer Head, without Clay Covering.]

3. When the plaster has fully set, you are ready to decide upon the length of neck to be shown, and the general pose of the head. Having decided upon the former, which is a matter of taste, you can have an a.s.sistant hold the side of the neck standard up against the side of a door-post in about the pose you wish it to have, while you stand off and survey it at a distance, and change the elevation until it suits you. Then, mark where the neck standard is to be sawn off, and also the precise angle, and saw it off.

Having done this, have the head held up against the wall as it will be when mounted, and see that the elevation of the nose is right. If it is too high or too low, saw off the end of the neck standard at a different angle, and be sure that the att.i.tude is right before proceeding farther.

4. The next step is to cut a board to fit into the lower end of the neck.

Its approximate circ.u.mference can be determined by measuring the width and depth of the neck the proper distance down. The shape of the board must be about like that shown in Fig. 37--a broad oval, broadest at the top, or else an ellipse. Bevel off the upper and lower ends on opposite sides to match the outline of the neck, and then screw it firmly to the lower end of the neck standard. It may be necessary to alter the shape of the neck-board a little later on, which is easily done.

5. Now take some excelsior, or straw, or fine, soft hay, and build up a false neck of the proper shape and size to fit the skin by placing the material around the neck standard and winding it down with cotton twine (Fig. 38). It is a very pleasing task to form a neck by this easy process, and impart to it the graceful curves, the taper, and flatness near the head so characteristic of the deer. You can show the windpipe and gullet by sewing through the neck from side to side, and forming a hollow from the corner of the jaw down the side of the neck, as shown in the figure. You now have the form of the neck wholly under your control, and your eye and hand will be held accountable for the result. Be careful to make the neck _much smaller_ than it is to be when the skin is on. The thick coat of hair makes a vast difference in the size, and adds perhaps half an inch, or more, all around.

If you are mounting an old skin that has for years been in a dry state and requires much powerful stretching to bring it out to its proper size, you will be compelled to stuff the neck with straw in the old way, so as to put great pressure upon it from within, and stretch the skin by sheer force. Of course you will lose many of the fine points, but very often a skin is so hard and refractory that it can be mounted in no other way. In working by this method the neck is stuffed from the lower end, and the neck-board fitted and screwed into place afterward.

6. Make the neck smooth by winding; make it symmetrical and true to nature, and try the skin on it occasionally to test the proportions of your manikin. There is to be no "stuffing" of the neck after the skin is once on, therefore the manikin must be made correctly.

7. When the neck is at last finished, work up about half a pailful of potters' clay until it forms a soft, sticky paste, and cover the neck with a coat of it about an eighth of an inch thick, to insure absolute smoothness.

8. Put a proper quant.i.ty of clay on each side of the skull to form the animal's cheeks, and enough upon the back of the skull, forehead, and muzzle to replace the flesh and skin that has been cut away. On no account attempt to stuff a fresh head with tow, or any fibrous material, for it is a practical impossibility to keep it from becoming too large. Instead of clay you might possibly use papier-mache, putty, or plaster Paris, if you prefer either; but clay has many and great advantages over all other materials. Plaster Paris acts too quickly to be of much real use, putty is greasy and inert, and papier-mache dries too slowly when underneath a skin.

9. Before putting the skin in place, sew up whatever rents there may be in it, and replace the cartilage of the ear with thin sheet lead, or sheet tin, cut the proper shape and trimmed down thin at the edges. Rub a little clay on the metal to enable the skin to stick to it. Sheet lead can be purchased at about 10 cents per pound at almost any large plumbing establishment. The finest material, however, and which I have used for years, is pure sheet tin, which the National Museum procures of The John J.

Cooke Co., Mulberry Street, New York, at 26 cents per pound. It is thin, easily cut and shaped, and just stiff enough to work perfectly in imitating the shape of an ear cartilage. Good, firm, card-board can be used for the ears instead of lead, when you can not get either of the sheet metals.

10. Anoint the skin copiously with a.r.s.enical soap, give it time to absorb the poison, then put it in place on the skull and neck, and adjust it carefully. Fasten the lips together at the end of the muzzle by taking a st.i.tch in each and tying the thread. See that the eyes come exactly over the orbits, and then put two or three tacks through the skin of the forehead, into the skull, to hold it in place. Sew the skin tightly together around the base of the antlers, and sew up both arms of the =Y=.

11. Sometimes the skin of the neck is so much stretched that to fill it out would make the neck, when finished, entirely too large. In such cases, with a clay-covered manikin, it is possible to make a fresh skin contract mechanically by crowding it together in minute wrinkles in order to make an undue fulness disappear.

12. Before sewing up the skin along the back of the neck, (which must be done with very strong _linen_ "gilling thread," well waxed to keep it from rotting) put enough clay at the base of each ear and on the back of the skull to properly form those parts. Observe that in a live deer the base of the ear is quite close up to _the burr of the antler_, and it also has a peculiar shape, which should be studied and faithfully reproduced, but can hardly be described.

13. If the manikin is of the right size and shape, you are now ready to sew up the skin; nail it fast with small brads around the lower edge of the neck-board, and trim the surplus off neatly and evenly. Screw the head upon a rough shield or piece of board, so that it will stand alone on your table while you are working at the face.

14. Unless you have carefully studied a deer's head in the flesh, or have a cast to work by, you can not reasonably expect to be able to make the head precisely as it should be. Fifteen minutes of close and studious examination and note-taking of a head in the flesh will do for you what my poor pen could not hope to accomplish with ten pages of written matter.

15. There yet remains that part of the work which requires the most artistic treatment. In finishing the face, the first thing is to shape the cheeks, which is quickly done provided they are filled with precisely the proper quant.i.ty of clay. By trial you will find whether more clay must be put in, or some taken out. After the cheeks, form the eyebrow, fill the orbit with clay, and with a small wire nail fasten the skin down in that deep pit which is found in front of the anterior corner of the eye. Press the skin down upon the muzzle, fill in the lips with clay, and fold them as they were before skinning. Before bringing the lips together, fill out the nose, the chin, and corners of the mouth--but _not too full_, however. That done satisfactorily, bring the lips together as they were in life. No wiring or sewing is necessary, nor even pinning. It is to be supposed that you have kept the skin of the lower jaw pulled well forward into place, and if so, the lips will go together easily and stay there for all time to come. In modeling the end of the nose and the nostrils, _give the latter good depth_. Make the opening so deep that no one can ever see the bottom of it. No little fault disgusts me more than to see the nostrils of a deer, buffalo, or elk all plastered up with putty, as if the animal had never drawn a breath. Make your animal look as if it were _breathing_, rather than standing up with rods in its legs, and its hide full of rubbish.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XI. HEAD OF p.r.o.nG-HORN ANTELOPE. MOUNTED BY THE AUTHOR.]

16. The eyes come next. Arrange the lids carefully over the clay, which nearly fills the orbit, then insert the gla.s.s eye, (which in every ruminant should have an elongated pupil and white corners), and work it into its exact position. Do not have too much clay behind it, or it will have a bulging, overfed, or choked-to-death expression. Do not let it protrude until it could be knocked off the head with a bean-pole, or la.s.soed with a grape-vine. Keep the eye well down in the orbit, and the front corner well sunken. An animal's expression depends upon the eye more than any other one thing, and the expression of the eye is dependent upon the disposition of the eyelid and the line of sight. A good gla.s.s eye has just as much power of varied expression as has a living, naked eyeball--which is _no power whatever_--unless it be the eyeball of an angry cat.

17. See that both eyes look at the same point, in front, about eight feet distant; that precisely the same amount of iris shows in each, in short, that both are exactly alike in every respect. A deer should have a mild, but wide-awake--not staring--expression, and the att.i.tude should not be unpleasantly strained, either in the curve of the neck or the carriage of the head. Avoid the common error of making a deer's head too "proud." No goose-necks or goitre on your deer, if you please.

Having finished the eyes and fashioned the nostrils, cut some pieces of pasteboard, bend them to the right shape, and either sew or pin them upon the ears to hold them in precisely the right att.i.tude until they dry. If the ears have lead in them they will support themselves. Lastly, wash the head thoroughly to get all the dirt and clay out of the hair, and comb it until it lays naturally. Now hang the head up in a dry room and leave it for a month, if possible, two weeks at all hazards.

When quite dry and shrunken, brush it well, and rub around the mouth, nose, eyes, and ears with a tooth-brush to remove the last remaining suggestions of clay. (See chapter on "Finishing Mounted Mammals."). Paint the end of the nose and edges of the eyelids with vand.y.k.e brown and black, using oil colors. The hairless parts of the lips are entirely concealed, consequently there is no painting to be done around the mouth unless the shrinkage has slightly parted the lips. If this has occurred put some black paint in the crack.

By all means mount a handsome head upon a rich and handsome shield. Tastes differ widely, but for my part I dislike a thin, light shield, and one not nicely finished is also an eyesore. The wood should be of a color that will harmonize best with the color of the head upon it. The finest shields are made of cherry ebonized, or red-wood, black walnut, oak, mahogany, or maple, and highly polished. The best shape for a shield is such as that seen behind the caribou head in Plate XVI.

CHAPTER XX.

FACIAL EXPRESSION AND MOUTH MODELING.

We have now reached one of the most interesting features of all taxidermic work. There is no royal road to success in this direction, nor aught else that leads thither save hard study, hard work, and an artistic sense of the eternal fitness of things.

The large _Felidae_ (tiger, lion, leopard, etc.) are the finest subjects for the taxidermist that the whole animal kingdom can produce. They offer the finest opportunities for the development of muscular anatomy, and the expression of the various higher pa.s.sions. The best that I can do with the s.p.a.ce at my disposal for this subject is to offer the reader a few hints on how to produce certain expressions, ill.u.s.trated by an accurate drawing from one of my mounted specimens.

In the first place, _strive to catch the spirit of your subject_.

It frequently happens that the att.i.tude desired for a feline or other carnivorous animal is one expressive of anger, rage, or defiance. For a single specimen, the most striking att.i.tude possible is that of a beast at bay. Unless a carnivorous animal is to be represented in the act of seizing something, the mouth should not be opened very wide. It is a common fault with taxidermists to open the jaws of such an animal too widely, so that the effect striven for is lost, and the animal seems to be yawning prodigiously, instead of snarling. Open the jaws a moderate distance, indicating a readiness to open wider without an instant's warning. The thick, fleshy part of the upper lip is lifted up to clear the teeth for action, and the mustached portion is bunched up until it shows two or three curving wrinkles, with the middle of the curve upward. This crowds the nostril opening together, and changes its shape very materially. In most carnivora, but most strikingly so in bears, the end of the lower lip falls away slightly from the lower incisors.