Practical taxidermy

by Montagu Browne

Gently press the skin all over with the hands, deftly patting it with a small piece of smooth flat board to reduce any lumps, and to get the putty to work evenly over the surface. Get some short wires and set the head, with the mouth open as much as you require. One wire may be pushed through the nostril, another may go under the tongue, and a third parallel to it beneath the under-jaw. Arrange the teeth, some of which you will find loose, and, with "needle points," fix into position the gill-covers, which tie over with a little wrapping cotton to keep them from springing up out of place. Next look to the fins, under which put some pieces of peat, covered by stiff card-board, and nicely display them, pinning them down and binding the wrapping cotton over them.

As a last operation, go over the whole of the outside skin with the carbolic formula, No. 15. When this dries, which it will do in the course of an hour or so, varnish the whole upper surface with best clear "paper" varnish, which will have the effect of keeping the skin and scales in position. Let the fish be now put by in a moderately warm situation to thoroughly dry, which will, in the case of a large specimen, take about a month. The skin is then like leather, with no colour in it at all, and must, of course, be subsequently coloured up according to nature, the eyes put in, and mounted in a case with appropriate water-weed; notes on all of which will be found in Chapters XII., XIII., and XIV.

Sawdust or bran may be used for stuffing the fish, which, with the addition of putty and tow to certain parts, will shape it up very fairly. Some taxidermists use tow alone, but this I do not think advisable.

Small fish, up to 2 lb., may, after skinning, have a bent wire inserted as before, and be filled entirely with plaster of Paris, which must be mixed in readiness, and poured in the skin to fill out every part. The cut edges of the skin are now brought together, and the whole fish turned over to show its proper side and rapidly patted into shape, before the plaster has time to set.

Beautiful models of the thicker-skinned fishes maybe made by this method, but rapidity of execution is a sine quâ non.

As the student progresses he will find that it will not be necessary in all cases to cut through the scapular arch of the under side to clear out the head. As a proof, I may mention that I have just finished an 18 lb. fish, the head of which was skinned out by this process.

Small pieces of cabinet cork (about one-eighth inch thick) will be found very useful for spreading the fins of small fishes. [Footnote: Notes on repairing fins will be found in Chapter XII.]

In the event of the scales rising from the use of wet plaster or any other cause, "wrapping" cotton, i.e., "darning" cotton, or shoemakers' hemp, must be bound over them to keep them in place.

Since the foregoing was written I have considerably modified and improved on my former method. Having tried wet "pipe" or modelling clay, with which to stuff the skin, I found that although at first the working and general shape were excellent, yet that, after a few days, the skin shrank and puckered in so abominable a fashion as to render all the labour bestowed upon it of no avail. This was most unfortunately tried upon a twenty pound pike, and so utterly misshapen did it become as to necessitate the relaxing of the specimen — the removal of the clay — and the ultimate shaping up again, by the dry plaster process. [Footnote: Several correspondents have written as to the relaxing of fish skins. This is a very easy process, nothing more being done to the skin than plunging it in water until sufficiently softened.]

This substitution of dry plaster of Paris (price about 4s. per cwt.) for sand is one of the very best things ever tried. Having skinned your fish in the manner before directed, crowd the head with peat and the face, and parts of the skin inside, and around the fins and tail, with putty. Lay the fish-skin, cut uppermost as before, and ladle in dry plaster, beginning at the tail end; as this fills in, sew up, being careful to shorten the skin, making it deep, and not long and narrow at that part; being particular also to well ram in with a short stick the plaster to fill all out, and to remove ugly creases or depressions. When about a third of the fish is done, fasten your stitches and go on filling in at the head; as you work toward the middle, lift head or tail very gently to peep underneath at the progress you are making.