If a skin has been ripped up the front to the chin careful sewing will make it presentable, though such seams are hard to conceal.
The heads of birds of prey and the larger game birds show up well mounted and need no special treatment from that generally given. The neck only is made up on a wire, one end of which is sharpened to thrust through the skull while the other is stapled or clinched to a bit of board round or oval shape. The skin of the base of neck is fastened to this by sewing back and forth across the back. Heads of fish like bass and pike are prepared by cutting off just back of the gills and cleaning from the back all brains and flesh.
After poisoning, fill them with tow or cotton, bracing the mouth open if wanted so and keep in the desired position until dry. Then the fibrous filling is removed and they are filled permanently with plaster or paper pulp and a piece of board fastened in the back of head to furnish a hold for screws from the back of the shield or panel.
The inside of the mouth will need remodelling with wax and the whole given a coat of white varnish. Any bright colors which may have faded should be retouched with oil colors before varnishing.
Suitable mounts for small heads are in the regular shield and round and oval shapes, and rustic panels of natural wood. A number of small heads may be mounted on one long panel.
CHAPTER XVII.
MOUNTING HEADS OF LARGE GAME.
Mounting heads, of horned game especially, is a branch of taxidermy which suffers no diminution in popularity. Such work is turned out at the present time in far better shape than it was years ago, but many fine heads still remain that were gathered in days of abundance of buffalo, elk and mountain sheep.
In skinning horned heads never open the skin up the front of the neck; not only are such seams difficult to hide but the skull with antlers cannot be entirely removed from the skin as it should be.