Taxidermy and Zoological Collecting / A Complete Handbook for the Amateur Taxidermist, Collector, Osteologist, Museum-Builder, Sportsman, and Traveller

by William T. Hornaday; W. J. Holland

[a]Fig. 27.]—The Finished Specimen.

Avoid getting one jaw fuller than the other; it is only boys and men who chew tobacco who have cheeks that are not bilaterally symmetrical. Avoid getting one eye too far back, forward, up or down, but match the one that is correctly placed.

Fill in the end of the nose, the lips, and the chin with clay, fold the lips naturally and press them into place. If the skin around the mouth is not unnaturally drawn back, the lips will stay in place, and dry there without any fastening. If the skin is drawn too far back, the lips must be pinned in place until they dry. The advantage in using clay for filling out the head is that it enables you to press the skin down upon it and mould all the parts into their natural shape and size, without giving to the head that unnatural, puffed out, stuffed appearance, which is almost unavoidable when tow only is used.

Introduce clay at the eye opening until the addition of the glass eye inside will make the organ sufficiently prominent. Insert the glass eye edgewise through the opening, turn it in position and embed it in the clay. With a large needle, or your awl, adjust the eyelids upon the glass, and if the eye is not right, work it into its proper position. Adjust both eyes alike, and, above all, see to it that they both look at the same point, be that point real or imaginary.

The same amount of iris must show in each eye, and the position of the pupils must correspond exactly. Do not make them unusually staring, as though about to burst from their sockets. It is the eye more than any other one feature that gives any animal, living or stuffed, its expression, and this is due entirely to the arrangement of the lid and brow. The eyeball has, in itself, no more power of varied expression than a glass marble; therefore the facial expression of a mounted animal is wholly under the control of the taxidermist, provided he takes the trouble to procure good glass eyes of the right size and quality.

Unless the ears of your specimen are very small and insignificant, it will be necessary to cut two pieces of thin card-board the shape of each ear, but larger, and after getting the ear in position, pin it between them, so that it will be held in a natural position and good shape until it dries. Do not thrust the pins through the ear, but through the card-board around the edge. The last thing is to arrange the toes and feet naturally, and pin each toe in place until it dries. Since our squirrel is to be holding a nut, we will cut off the foreleg wires, all but half an inch, and bring the paws close together at the proper elevation. We must now drill two small holes in opposite sides of a hickory nut, force the wires into them until the nut rests nicely in the paws, and there let it remain. If necessary, we will tie the toes in position around the nut until they are dry. It is a common fault with beginners in taxidermy to slight the toes of their specimens, both birds and mammals, and, as a result, all such specimens have a slovenly, tramp-like appearance.

Nature alone can tell you how to pose the tail to represent the state of the animal's feelings. Try to look at your work with the eye of an artist, analyze it, and catalogue its faults, so that you will be sure to avoid them in the next specimen.

If the hair needs no more washing, comb it out carefully at the last moment, and set your specimen on a shelf to dry, out of the dust if possible, and out of the sunshine, and watch it while it is drying to see that the head and feet dry in good shape. At the end of two weeks, or perhaps three, the little mammal will be dry and hard, and ready for the last touches. Pull out all the pins which have been holding the toes, ears, lips, or eye corners in place, and if they leave any holes, fill them up with putty. I have not told you how to stuff a head with the mouth open, and model the soft parts in papier-maché and wax, because you will hardly want to try anything so difficult at present, and it involves processes which cannot be described within the limits of this chapter.

When your mammal is quite dry, dress the fur with a fine comb and brush, and beat it with a small piece of whalebone or a little switch, to make it stand out from the skin, full and fluffy, as in life. This end must be accomplished, no matter how long it takes.