Animals up to the coyote in size are usually mounted by similar methods to the preceding. Sometimes a piece of board is substituted for the body wire, especially in the larger specimens, the wires to which are too heavy to clinch readily. The skull is on a separate neck wire and all wires are fastened to the back board by passing through holes and then stapling.
Of course it is possible to mount small specimens by the same methods most large ones are, by drawing the skin over a hard filling, in fact a statuette, which must be made to fit the skin. This method in the case of small animals requires so much time that it is impossible in ordinary commercial work.
Strive to put your mounted animals in easy natural poses unless you are making a grotesque, in which case go the length.
Clean the eyes and teeth with a brush when dry, and beat the fur to make it stand out. Fasten securely on whatever form of mounting you have decided on, countersinking the wires on the under side. Accessories, as a piece of food in the mouth or paws, are added now if they have been prepared for.
A slip with record of the specimen written on it and pasted to the under side of stand will usually be appreciated. If the mouth is wanted open it should be braced in that position, the lips, etc., held in place by clay. When it is dry this can be dug out with awls and modelling tools and the tongue, gums, and inside the mouth modelled in mache or some plaster composition. The tongue may be modelled in connection with the lower part of the mouth or made separately and fastened in place with a brad and some glue.
Colored wax, pink for the inside and black for the lips, applied hot with a little brush in several coats finish the open mouth. A little black wax will join the eyelids to the glass eyes if they have shrunk away and the inside of the nostrils should be coated with a little pink. Bare skin on the end of the nose should be varnished.
CHAPTER XV.
MOUNTING LARGE ANIMALS ENTIRE.
Though at one time nearly all animals were mounted by the soft body or stuffing method as described in the previous chapter, very few of the larger ones are so treated now. An adequate frame is built in a body of the proper size and proportions, the surface of which reproduces those muscles lying next the skin. The skin, well pared down and poisoned, is sewed, pinned and glued to this surface.