Part 11 (1/2)

If the worker intends to mount only birds and small mammals, he will need but a very small portion of the tools and materials enumerated above. But fie! Where is the taxidermist worthy of the name who will admit that his resources are limited, or that he is not able and ready to ”set up” any animal that may be brought to him, no matter how big or how bad it is.

Perish the thought that he is not able to cope with dog, deer, or even elephant.

We now start on the supposition that you have acquired all the tools and materials you are likely to need, and that our subsequent work is not going to halt or hang fire on account of the lack of this or that article.

CHAPTER XIII.

PRELIMINARY WORK IN MOUNTING MAMMALS.

RELAXING DRY SKINS.--Nearly all mammal skins that go from one country to another are sent in a dry state, and it is a rare exception to obtain a foreign skin in any other condition. It therefore behooves the mammal taxidermist to become a thorough expert in softening dry skins of all kinds and sizes, and bringing them into mountable condition.

To relax a dry skin, rip it open, remove the filling material, and immerse it in a weak but _clean_ salt-and-alum bath (see Chapter IV.) until it becomes soft, be the time required three days or three weeks. If you are in a great hurry, soak the skin at first for a brief period in clear water, and if it is milk-warm, so much the better. Sometimes a skin is so old and hard and refractory that the bath of salt and alum seems to make no impression upon it, in which case try clear water. In a few hours it will yield and collapse, and then it must be put into the bath, or the water will soon macerate it, and cause the hair to slip off. You can leave the skin in the salt-and-alum bath as long as you choose without endangering it in any way.

The inside of every dry skin usually has over it a hard, inelastic coating which, when once gotten rid of by shaving or sc.r.a.ping, leaves the skin underneath measurably soft and elastic, according to its kind. If the skin is a small one, or no larger than that of a wolf, the best way to get it in working order is to lay it flat upon the table, and go at it vigorously with the skin-sc.r.a.per (see Fig. 24). In this there must be no half-way measures, no modesty, no s.h.i.+rking. Bear on hard, dig away at the same spot with all your energy, first in one direction, then crosswise, then diagonally. Sc.r.a.pe as if you were sc.r.a.ping on a wager, and presently the skin will become so thinned down it will become quite soft, and even elastic. This is hard work, it starts the perspiration and keeps it going, but it will conquer the hardest skin that ever was made.

To make a skin sufficiently elastic to mount, it must be turned wrong-side out and sc.r.a.ped all over thoroughly with a skin-sc.r.a.per, from nose to tip of tail, and phalanges. Small skins yield far more readily and kindly than the larger ones. The skins that are hardest, h.o.r.n.i.e.s.t, and most refractory are those of the capybara, all of the _Suidae_ (hogs), and tropical deer. I have mounted skins of these that when first softened were precisely like horn,--and at best with such subjects the resulting specimens are only ”pa.s.sable.”

Sometimes when the sc.r.a.per can make no impression, it becomes necessary to laboriously pare down the inside of an entire skin with the knife before sc.r.a.ping it. This is tedious, but effective, for a sharp knife leaves no room for argument.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 24.--Skin-Sc.r.a.pers, about one-fourth actual size.]

All skins larger than a gray wolf, whether they be fresh or dry, need to be stretched on a beam, and pared down with a sharp draw-shave that has adjustable handles. This useful instrument can be bought at any large hardware store for $1.25. Keep it thoroughly sharp. The beam should be about seven feet in length, and six by three inches in size, and laid flat.

One end of it is to be bolted firmly down to your bench by two movable iron bolts, and the half which projects beyond the edge of the table must have both of its upper edges rounded off so that it will represent half a cylinder with the convexity uppermost. The table itself must be fastened securely in place. Throw the skin over the rounded end of this beam, drive a stout ”scratch-awl” through it, just beyond the reach of your arms, stretch and flatten the skin upon the beam, and with the draw-shave carefully shave down the entire skin until it is thin enough.

Be very careful at first, until your hands acquire skill, or you will cut through the skin, which, in the case of an animal like a hair seal means an unsightly, permanent defect. Do not be afraid of paring a skin too thin so long as you stop at the roots of the hair.

Of course you can not pare down the skin of the head and feet with the draw-shave, and these must be treated with the knife and sc.r.a.per. The skin of the head of every mammal must be pared down and sc.r.a.ped particularly thin all over, especially the eyelids, lips, and nostrils, so that when these parts are backed up with clay you can model them into exquisitely fine form and expression. If you slight the skin of the head, good-by to all expression; you will merely be able to ”stuff” it, and that is all. If its features look coa.r.s.e, uncouth, and wooden, it will probably be because the thickness and inelasticity of the skin defies your art.

Of course the joints of the feet must be got into working order. The leg bones and skull require to be thoroughly sc.r.a.ped and cleaned, and the skin itself worked up as nearly as possible to the condition of a fresh subject.

CARVING WOODEN SKULLS AND LEG BONES.--It is absolutely essential that every mammal to be mounted should have a skull, and all save the smallest should have leg bones also. If the skull and leg bones that belong in a skin are missing, I invariably carve others of the same size out of soft pine to replace the lost members. These bones are imperatively necessary to give shape and length to the various joints and angles of the limbs, to shape the head, to give a foundation for the attachment of wires, and to build upon generally. Very often the skull of an animal is of such value to science that it must be kept out of the skin at all hazards, and exhibited separately. Then it must be duplicated in wood.

Every mammal taxidermist _must_ learn how to carve wooden bones, and the quicker he becomes expert at it, the better. Very few tools are required, and these are as follows: A small hatchet, a pair of 8-inch calipers, a pair of 8-inch dividers, gouges of three sizes, 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 inch; chisels of about four sizes between 3/8 and 1 inch, a draw-shave, a spoke-shave, a good sharp pocket-knife, and the usual supply of boring tools.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE V. PARING DOWN A LARGE MAMMAL SKIN.]

To carve a wooden skull, proceed as follows: If you have not the genuine skull to use as a pattern, you must procure one from an animal of the same species, and ascertain its size in comparison with what the wooden skull must be, _e.g._, whether it be larger or smaller. Then procure a piece of soft pine timber, free from knots, and thick enough to turn out a skull of the proper size. If this can not be found in one piece, glue together several pieces of pine until they form a block of the proper size. On the top of this block place your genuine skull, and trace its outline on the wood, making your outline larger or smaller, as it may need to be, and bilaterally symmetrical. Now take your hatchet and hew the two sides of the block down exactly to this outline. This represents the ”ground plan” of the skull.

To get the side elevation, sketch out on the side of this block a side-view outline of the skull, and then hew down to that. With your dividers, locate exactly the inner edge of the orbits, and then mark out with a pencil the entire circle of each orbit. With a gouge carve out the hollows neatly, and then with your flat chisels attack the cranium, round off its angles, and so work over the entire skull.

Measure frequently with the calipers to see that the dimensions are correct. There is no need to go into any of the details of the back part, or basi-occipital portion of the skull, nor with any other details except those that lie on the surface. It is important to shape the orbits, zygomatic arch, the frontal bones, the muzzle and lower jaw, quite accurately, for these bones bear scarcely any flesh. In making skulls for apes and monkeys the greatest care is necessary to produce the facial angle, orbits, and muzzle, so sharply characteristic of the various families.

When a wooden skull is used, the mouth should always be closed, unless it is very necessary to have it open. While it is possible to take moulds from a real skull, and cast a full set of teeth in plaster or lead, or to set real teeth, or painted wooden imitations, into a wooden skull, the result is generally unsatisfactory to a critical eye. When teeth are cast and painted, the paint always changes color with age, causing the teeth to look ”made up.” If you can not have a real skull with genuine teeth in it, for whatever mammal you are mounting, no one has any right to require that it be mounted with open mouth, unless the head is to go on a rug instead of a scientific specimen.

Observe the following precautions in making a skull:

1. Be sure that it has the proper facial angle.