[a]Fig. 47.]—Tiger's Tongue, Top View.
Regulate the heat carefully, so as to make it gentle. Melt a small portion of a cake of wax in one of your clean tin cups, and if it is the tongue, roof of the mouth or gums, that you have to cover, color the wax a delicate flesh tint by putting into it a very little vermilion, or other suitable color, from your Windsor & Newton oil-color tube. Oil colors mix very well with hot wax; but in using it, it is necessary to keep the wax well stirred with the brush, or the color will settle to the bottom.
Take a clean, dry bristle brush, of the right size (the flat brushes are always best for wax), with a good, compact point, dip it into the hot wax, stir from the bottom, and then, before the wax on your brush has even two seconds in which to get cool, apply it to the surface to be covered, with a quick, dextrous touch, sweeping it on broadly to keep it from piling up and making the surface rough. This wax business requires genuine skill, and, after beginning, one must not be discouraged because it does not "go right" at first, but try, try again. After your hand has acquired the trick, the beauty of the results will amply repay your labor.
It is very difficult to change the surface of a coat of wax after it is once on; therefore try to get it right with the brush. Of course, if the color or surface does not suit you, scrape it all off, and "to 't again." To treat the roof of the mouth, the specimen must be turned upside down. At the point where the black lip joins the pink gums, the two colors can be nicely blended by letting the last layers of pink wax lap over a trifle, upon the black, so that the latter will show through the former here and there, and give the line of demarcation a mottled appearance, with the two colors thus blended together. Much can be done by taking advantage of the transparency of thin layers of wax when its color is light.
After the wax has cooled, something can be done to smooth the surface, and give it a very shiny appearance, by carefully scraping the surface over smoothly with the edge of a knife, or a sharp bone-scraper. The latter tool will be found of great value in modeling a mouth in papier-maché, and also in trimming up the wax after it has been applied.
Cleaning Glass Eyes.—Always have the glass eyes of a finished specimen faultlessly clean and well polished, to give the brilliancy of life. If paint gets on the glass, remove it with a drop of turpentine, and polish afterward with a bit of cotton cloth. Some of the old-fashioned taxidermists have the habit of smearing a lot of nasty lamp-black in the eyes of every mounted mammal, for what purpose no one knows—but possibly in imitation of actresses, some of whom have the same unaccountable trick, and a hideous one it is in its results, in both cases. There is only one point in its favor—it is the easiest way in the world to give an animal a black eye.