Practical taxidermy

by Montagu Browne

As the stuffing progresses, deepen the body toward the middle, being careful at the same time to well ram in the plaster. Finally sew up.

Now take another board, a little more than the length and breadth of the specimen, lay it upon the top of the skin and tie it to the board on which the fish is resting; by this means you will be enabled to reverse the fish without cracking the skin or destroying the "set" of it. Untie your boards and the object is before you right side uppermost. It will now be seen if your modelling is true or not; in the latter case, note where all imperfections occur, reverse the fish once more, and ram more dry plaster in between the stitches, or if the latter be sewn up too tightly, cut them where needed, sewing up again when all is satisfactorily accomplished.

The specimen being once again right side uppermost, will appear somewhat flat along the centre, this arises from the plaster accommodating itself to the flat surface of the board. You must now, therefore, pass a wet cloth several times over the surface of the skin, and proceed to pat it in a light and dexterous manner into a more rounded shape with your hand, or by the aid of a piece of board shaped in the manner of a small flat bat.

The head will require a great deal of attention; it is now flat and, perhaps, drops down upon the board, causing the upper gill cover to open more widely than it should; to obviate this, prop the nose from the underneath by a piece of peat, or by a wedge-shaped piece of wood; the tail may be twisted or thrown up by the same means if required. The mouth may be kept open as much as desired by pointed wires, one driven through the "nostrils" of the upper jaw, the other wire resting against the teeth inside the lower jaw. The fins being kept damp during the preceding operations, must now be "braced out" by the process heretofore described, and the fish washed, varnished, and dried in the usual manner.

Nothing, you will observe, has been said as to the oval-shaped piece of board previously used inside the pike mounted by the first process. This is wanted when the fish is thoroughly set and dried; when this takes place, cut the stitches and carefully shake out the plaster. If a large fish, replace this by tow, moderately packed; on this lay an irregularly oval-shaped piece of three-quarter inch board, edges rounded and cut to the shape, and almost the length of the fish.

No wires are needed at the head and the tail (one end of the board running into the head), but only those required to support the specimen in its case. When this board is properly in position inside the fish, nail the edges of the skin on it with tacks of a suitable length. Nothing is now needed to complete the fish but the fixing of the eyes and the colouring of the skin. The eyes are hollow, and fixed by wax (see Chapter XII).

In cases where it is undesirable or inconvenient to mount a fish as a whole, the head only may be treated as a taxidermic object. In this case cut off the head behind the scapular arch, leaving sufficient of the skin of the "neck" for nailing on the block. The head being skinned and preserved, as above directed, is then nailed by the skin of the neck on to a similar block to that shown in Fig. 27. The mouth is set open when required, and the gullet and underneath the tongue filled up and modelled with either clay, cement, or wax, the tongue remodelled or substituted by a copy in wax or cement, the composition and application of which is fully explained in Chapter XII.

Notes of the colour of the various parts of your specimen should have been taken previously; in some cases, it is a good plan to make a water-colour drawing of the whole or certain parts of your subject when fresh.

FISH CASTING . — Casting fishes by the plaster of Paris method deserves description, as by this means you are enabled to get correct copies of the shapes and peculiarities of any specimen, from the smallest to the largest. Procure some plaster of Paris of a finer quality — known as "S.F." — than that you have been using previously in modelling mammals, or to fill out the skins of fishes; also some tempered clay — described in Chapter VII. — and some strips of board calculated to the depth, width, and length of the fish you wish to "cast." The specimen having had all the mucus washed from its most perfect side, is laid upon one or two sheets of brown paper or common card-board ("straw-board")covering the work-table. [Footnote: I see that Rowland Ward advises the fish being washed with dilute vitriol (sulphuric acid and water) to remove this mucus.]

Decide now as to the attitude you wish it to finally assume, and taking some of the tempered clay, cut it into thin slices, build it on, as it were, until only the upper half of the fish is exposed, build under the fins — including the caudal one — and spread them out as you wish; the clay will usually stick to their under surfaces, and hold them in position. Should they "run back," stick fine pins in them here and there, being sure, however, to cut of the heads of the latter close to the upper surface of the fins.