T rr irii HEAD OF EOYAL BENGAL TIGER. MOUNTED BY THE AUTIIOR. , TAXIDEEMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING A COMPLETE HANDBOOK FOR THE AMATEUR TAXIDERMIST, COLLECTOR, OSTEOLOGIST, MUSEUM- BUILDER, SPORTSMAN, AND TRAVELLER BY WILLIAM T. HOENADAY For eight years Chief Taxidermist of the u. S. National Museum; for seven years Zoological Collector ana Taxidermist for Wctni's Natural Scit-nce Establish- ment; late Superintendent of the National Zoological 1'ark; author of " Two Years in the Jungle,'' etc. WITH CHAPTERS ON COLLECTING AND PRESERVING INSECTS BY W. J. HOLLAND, PH.D., D.D. Cltancellur Western 1'nirfinit// of /'t»n.-,i/li-'i>i«i ; l'>'miii,-nt i-j ///<• .!»/,/, ,/<;/ nf Xdence and Ait c; PMsbwg.and the Iron City Micronc 24 plaice an^ 85 "Ccjt 3llustiations FOURTH EDITION NEW YOIIK CHARLES SCRIBNEirS SONS 1894 COPYRIGHT, ISfll BY CHARLES SCRIBNEK'S SONS TROW DIRECTORY PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY NEW YORK Co G. BROWN GOODE, LL D. WHOSE LIBERAL POLICY HAS HONE SO MUCH FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF AMERICAN TAXIDERMY THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED AS AN EXPRESSION OF APPRECIATION OF HIS VALUABLE PfUI.IC SERVICES IN THE ORGANIZATION, DIRECTION, AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM AND ALSO OF SINCERE PERSONAL REGARD PREFACE. IN these heydays of popular zoology, when eager young nut uralists are coming to the front in crowds, and fine new scien tific museums are starting up on every hand, there is small need to apologize for the appearance of a work designed ex pressly for the naturalist and museum-builder. Had justice been done, some one would have written this book ten years ago. The rapid and alarming destruction of all forms of wild ani- mal life which is now going on furiously throughout the entire world, renders it imperatively necessary for those who would build up great zoological collections to be up and doing before any more of the leading species are exterminated. It is already too late to collect wild specimens of the American bison, Califoruian elephant seal, West Indian seal, great auk, and Labrador duck. Very soon it will also be too late to col- lect walrus, manatee, fur seal, prong-horn antelope, elk. mouse, mountain sheep, and mountain goat. All along the Atlantic coast and in Florida the ducks are being exterminated for the metropolitan markets, and the gulls, terns, her. ms, egrets, ibises, and spoonbills are being slaughtered wholesale for the equally bloodthirsty goddess of Fashion. If the naturalist would gather representatives of all these forms for perpetual preservation, and future study, he must set about it at once. This work is offered as my contribution to the science of /oology and the work of the museum-builder. It is entirely "an affair of the heart," and my only desire in regard t<> it i- that it may be the means of materially increasing the world's store of well-selected and well-preserved examples of the beau tiful and interesting animal forms that now inhabit the earth and its waters. The sight of a particularly line animal, either Vlll PUEFACE. alive or dead, excites v/ithin me feeling's of admiration that often amount to genuine affection ; and the study and preserva- tion of such forms has for sixteen years been my chief delight. In these pages I have sought to give, in clear language, the detailed information which I have found deplorably lacking in all " manuals " on this subject that I have ever seen, save one, in French, published many years ago, and which, while very tiresome to write out, are precisely what the practical worker wants. I hold a permanent grudge against those who have written b afore me 011 the subjects here treated of, because of what they did not write. The average book on taxidermy con- tains four times too much " padding," and not one quarter enough practical information. " If this be treason, make the most of it." The students of entomology are indebted to Dr. Holland for his admirable chapters on Insects, and I leave them to make their own acknowledgments. My own very sincere thanks are hereby tendered him for his valuable contribution to this work, thereby making it complete. I am also under obligations to Mr. Charles Bradford Hudson, the accomplished artist, whose skill has done so much to explain and embellish the text. The spirit and interest with which he entered into his share of the work very materially lightened and encouraged my own tardy labors. My thanks are also due to my valued friend, Mr. Frederic A. Lucas, of the Department of Comparative Anatomy, National Museum, and one of the founders of the Society of American Taxidermists, for advice and assistance in the preparation of the illustrations relating to work on skeletons. Mr. W. Harvey Brown, Naturalist of the U. S. Eclipse Expedition to Africa, kindly wrote for me nearly all of the chapter on " Mounting Disarticulated Skeletons ; " Messrs. "William Palmer and John W. Hendley, of the National Museum, also rendered me valu- able services ; for all of which I gladly record here an expres- sion of my thanks and appreciation. Having already retired from taxidermy forever, this is posi- tively my " last appearance " in this field. W. T. H. BUFFALO, N. Y. CONTENTS. Pixrt 1. COLLECTING AND PRESERVING. CHAPTER I. PA OR THE WORKER, AND THE WORK TO BE DONE, .... 1-7 CHAPTER II. OUTFITS, AND HINTS ON HUNTINC, . . n-1!) CHAPTER III. How TO SELECT AND STUDY FRESH SI-KCIMENS, . . 2it-'J:> CHAPTER IV. TREATMENT OF THE SKINS OF SMALL MAMMALS, -j I 80 CHAPTER V. COLLECTING AND PRESERVING THE SKINS <>K LAIK.I; MAMMALS, ::; I". CHAITER VI. COLLECTING SKINS OK SMALL P.iuns, . . . 46 •">? CHAPTER VII. COLLECTING SKINS OK LAK<;E Untns, . CHAPTER VIII COLLECTING RKI-TILKS, . >'><• X CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. PAGE COLLECTING FISHES, 71-79 CHAPTER X. COLLECTING MAKINE INVEUTEBKATES, 80-8!) t CHAPTER XI. COLLECTING BIRDS' EGGS AND NESTS, 90-97 Part 2. TAXIDEKMY. CHAPTER XII. THE LABORATORY AND ITS APPOINTMENTS, 99-101 CHAPTER XIII. PRELIMINARY WORK IN MOUNTING MAMMALS, . . . 102-107 CHAPTER XIV. PRINCIPLES OF UNIVERSAL APPLICATION IN MOUNTING THE HIGHER VERTEBRATES, .... 108-114 CHAPTER XV. MOUNTING SMALL MAMMALS, . . , 115-128 CHAPTER XVI. MOUNTING LARGE MAMMALS : ORDINARY METHODS, . . . 129-139 CHAPTER XVII. MOUNTING LARGE MAMMALS: THE CONSTRUCTION OF MANIKINS, 140-149 CHAPTER XVIII. FINISHING MOUNTED MAMMALS, . . . 150-157 CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER XIX. PAGE MOUNTING MAMMAL HEADS AS TROPHIES AND ORNAMENTS, . . 158-1 7 CHAPTER XXVII. MOUNTING LOBSTERS AND CRABS, . . 217-219 CHAPTER XXVIII. ORNAMENTAL TAXIDERMY, . '-Mil -'-'v CHAPTER \.\I\ GROUPS AND GROUPING, . . --'•' --"' CHAPTER XXX. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF GROUP-MAKIV.. Xll CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXI. IAO:: GROUPS OF MAMMALS, . ... . . 240-247 CHAPTER XXXII. GROUPS OF BIRDS AND REPTILES, . . . . . 248-250 CHAPTER XXXIII. HINTS ON PAINTING MUSEUM SPECIMENS, .... 251 -£57 Part 3. MAKING CASTS. CHAPTER XXXIV. PRINCIPLES OF UNIVERSAL APPLICATION IN MAKING MOULDS AND CASTS, . ... . . . 259-267 CHAPTER XXXV. CASTS OF MAMMALS, FISHES, AND REPTILES, 268-270 fllirt 4. OSTEOLOGY. CHAPTER XXXVI. COLLECTING SKELETONS, . . 271-S81 CHAPTER XXXVII. CLEANING LARGE SKELETONS BY MACERATING, . . . 282-2S4 CHAPTER XXXVIII. CLEANING AND MOUNTING SMALL SKELETONS, . 285-205 CHAPTER XXXIX. MOUNTING A LARGK DISARTICULATED SKELETON, .... 21)0-304 CONTENTS. Xlll Part 5. THE COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF IN- SECTS. CHAPTER XL. THK CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS, CHAPTER XLI. E<;r;s AND LARVVE: BREEDING AND REARING, CHAPTER XLII. COLLECTING IMAGOES, CHAPTER XLIII. PREPARATION, CARE, AND DISPLAY OF INSECTS, PAGE 305-308 309-319 320-327 328-338 flart U. GENERAL INFORMATION. CHAPTER XLIV. INSECT PESTS, AND POISONING. * * CHAPTER XLV. UsEFt'L INFOIIMATION, CHAPTER XLVI. THE BEST BOOKS OF REFERENCE, 339-345 346-350 351-355 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FULL-PAGE PLATES. I. HEAD OF ROYAL BENGAL TIGER. (Frontispiece.) PAGE II. Two PAGES FROM AN OLD FIELD NOTE-BOOK (Double Plate), . 22 III. MEASUREMENTS OF A LARGE MAMMAL, 38 IV. How TO CUT OPEN AND MOUNT A FISH, 76 V. PARING DOWN A LARGE MAMMAL SKIN, 104 VI. INTERIOR MECHANISM OF A HALF-MOUNTED WOLF, . . 132 VII. MANIKIN FOR BENGAL TIGER : FIRST STAGE, . . .142 VIII. MANIKIN FOR BENGAL TIGER : COMPLETED, .... 148 IX. MANIKIN FOR MALE AMERICAN BISON : HALF FINISHED, . 152 X. MANIKIN FOR AMERICAN BISON: COMPLETED, . . . 15(5 XI. HEAD OF PRONG-HORN ANTELOPE, 168 XII. WORKSHOP OF A BIRD TAXIDERMIST, 182 XIII. MOUNTED BIRD. WITH INTERIOR STRUCTURE EXPOSED, . . 192 XIV. MOUNTING AN ALLIGATOR : LAST STAGE, .... 206 XV. AMERICAN LOBSTER, 217 XVI. SPECIMENS OF ORNAMENTAL TAXIDERMY (Double Plate), . 222 XVII. A FIGHT IN THE TREE-TOPS, . . . . . . . 2:51 XVIII. GROUP OF COYOTES, .235 XIX. GROUP OF AMERICAN BISON (Double Plate), .... 240 XX. A LlGAMENTARY SKELETON, MOUNTED AND DRYING, . . 288 XXI. SKELETON OF AN AMERICAN BISON, 298 ( FIG. 1.— BEATING THE BUSH, 320 \ FIG. 2.— A SUCCESSFUL STROKE, 320 \ FIG. 1. — BOTTLING A SKIPPER, 326 ^ FIG. 2. — JAPANESE PORTER WITH COLLECTING BOXES, 326 FIG LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. TEXT ILLUSTEATIONS. PART I. COLLECTING AND PRESERVING. PAGE 1. THE BEST KNIVES FOH A COLLECTOR OR TAXIDERMIST, 15 2. SQUIRREL PARTLY SKINNED, 27 3. SKINNING A SQUIRREL'S HEAD, 4. A MODEL MAMMAL SKIN, . . . . . . . .34 5. ANOTHER FORM OF MAMMAL SKIN, G. OPENING CUTS ON A LARGE MAMMAL, 40 7. OPENING CUTS AT BACK OF PRONG-HORN ANTELOPE'S HEAD, . 41 8. A WELL-MADE DRY DEER SKIN, 4:> 9. FOOT OF AN ORANG-UTAN, 44 10. NAMES OP THE EXTERNAL PARTS OF A BIRD, .... 47 11. FIRST STEPS IN SKINNING A BIRD, .50 12. BIRD SKIN, WRONG SIDE OUT, 51 13. THE BIRD SKIN IN POSITION, 53 14 THE SKIN HAL? WRAPPED, .54 15. SPREADING THE TAIL, 55 16. THE SKIN FULLY WRAPPED, .55 17. A PERFECT BIRD SKIN, 56 iy How TO S:I\PR A HERON SKIN, .... .60 10. How TO OPEN A TURTLE, ... .00 20. AGASSIZ TANK. FOR ALCOHOLICS, 21. BIRD NEST, in situ, ...... 22. WIRE STANDARD FOR NESTS, .... .93 23. NEST ON WIRE STANDARD, WITH LABELS, 94 PART II. TAXIDERMY. 24. SKIN SCRAPERS, ABOUT ONE-FOURTH ACTUAL SIZE, . . 1C3 2H. LEG MAKING AND WIRING, 117 26 WIRING TOGETHER, . .119 26 ;. THE LEGS WIRED TOGETHER, 121 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xvii FIG. FAGS 27. THE FINISHED SPECIMEN, 124 28. AUTHOR'S METHOD OF MOUNTING BATS ON GLASS, . . 128 29. ARTIFICIAL, SKELETON FOR HAND OF AN ORANG-UTAN, . . 131 30. FILLERS OF VARIOUS KINDS, 133 31. AN IRON SQUARE, 130 32. LEG IRONS OF AN AMERICAN BISON, 144 33. SKINNING A DEER'S EAR, 101 34. THE EAR HALF-SKINNED, . . 101 35. SKINNING DOWN THE INSIDE, 1G2 30. THE CARTIL.VGE OUT, 102 37. INTERNAL MECHANISM OF A DEER'S HEAD, . . . 104 38: COMPLETE MANIKIN FOR A DEER'S HEAD, . . . 1G5 39. MODELING TOOLS OF WOOD, .173 40. MODELING TOOLS OF WOOD, . 1?:! 41. MODELING TOOLS OF WOOD, . . .173 42. STEEL MODELING TOOL, ... .... . • 174 43. STEEL MODELING TOOL, . ...... 174 44. STEEL MODELING TOOL, . . . .174 45. SIDE VIEW OF TIGER'S TONGUE, ... . .175 46. END VIEW OF TIGER'S TONGUE, . . ... 175 47. TOP VIEW OF TIGER'S TONGUE, ... . 175 48. WIRING A BIRD'S LEO, 184 49. CROSS-SECTION OF ARTIFICIAL BODY, is.~> 50. THE FINISHED BODY AND NECK, 185 51. How THE LEG WIRES ARE INSERTED AND CLINCHED, . . . is<; 52. THE WINDING OF THE BIRD, 1X9 53. CAST OF THE NECK AND WINDPIPE OF A HERON 1!I5 54. METHOD OF MOUNTING ALCOHOLIC REPTILES, .... 203 55. MEDALLION OF YELLOW PIKE, 213 50. CROSS SECTION, 213 57. WALL CASE OF BIRDS, 223 58. WOOD DUCK, . 232 PART HI. MAKING CASTS. 59. BEGINNING TO MAKE A PIECE MOULD, 200 60. SECOND STEP IN MAKING A PIECE MOULD, ... .201 01. LAST STEP IN MAKING A PIECE MOULD, . 202 XViil LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. via. PAGE 62. THE FINISHED MOULD, . 262 63. THE BEGINNING OF A WASTE MOULD, . 263 64. SECOND STEP IN MAKING A WASTE MOULD, .... . 264 65. 265 PART IV. OSTEOLOGY. 66. 274 67. ROUGH SKELETON OF -A BIRD, . 277 68. STEEL BONE-SCRAPERS, . . 286 69. SKELETON OF A BAT, AS EXHIBITED, . 291 70. SKELETON OF A BIHD, MOUNTED AND DRYING, 292 71. WIRING A SKELETON WING, 293 72. SKELETON OF A TURTLE, . 294 73. THE SACRUM AND SPINAL ROD, . . 298 74. ATTACHMENT OF SIBS TO A VERTEBRA, . 298 75. MIDDLE JOINT OF THE HIND LEG : SIDE VIEW, . 300 76. MIDDLE JOINT OF HIND LEG : REAR VIEW, .... . 301 77. BONES OF THE FOOT : SIDE VIEW, . 301 78. BONES OF THE FOOT: REAR VIEW, . 301 79. THE KNEE-JOINT, . 302 80. 302 81. FRONT VIEW OF ELBOW-JOINT, . 302 PAET V. THE COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. 82. • APPARATUS FOR INFLATING LARVAE, . 314 83. DRYING OVEN, ... . . 315 84. DRYING OVEN FOR LARVA SKIN (After Riley), . 315 85. WIRE BENT INTO SHAPE FOR MOUNTING LARVA (After Riley), . 316 86. BREEDING CAGE (After Riley), . 317 87. BREEDING CAGE, . 818 88. NET-FRAME (After Riley), . 320 89. NET-HEAD, FOR REMOVABLE FRAME (After Riley), . 321 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XIX Fir;. PAGE 90. FOLDING NET (After Riley) . 321 Q1 . 322 92. PERFOR VTED P\PER Disc FOR JAR, 3°° METHOD OF PINCHING A. BUTTERFLY 325 94. MANNER OF FOLDING PAPER ENVELOPE, . 328 95. BUTTERFLY IN ENVELOPE, . 328 96. DOUBLE MOUNT .... . 330 97. FRAME FOR MOUNTING BEETLES, . . 330 98. SETTING-BOARD, . 331 99. SETTING-BOARD (After Riley), . . 331 100. SETTING-BLOCK, . . . . 331 101. SETTING-BLOCK, WITH BUTTERFLY, . 331 102. SETTING-NEEDLE, .... . 332 103. Box FOR RECEIVING SETTING-BOARDS, . . 333 104. SHINGLING SPECIMENS. 334 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. PART I.— COLLECTING AND PRESERVING. Eternal vigilance is the price of a collection. CHAPTER L THE WORKER AND THE WORK TO BE DONE. THE need of thoroughly skilled collectors is increasing every hour ; and right here let me say to the young naturalist athirst for travel and adventure, There is no other way in which you can so easily find a way to gratify your heart's desire as by becom- ing a skilful collector. The most important vertebrate forms are being rapidly swept off the face of the earth by firearms, traps, and other engines of destruction. In five years' time— perhaps in three — there will not be a wild buffalo left in this country outside of protected limits. There are less than one hundred even now — and yet how very few of our museums have good specimens of this most interesting and conspicuous native species. The rhytina, the Californian elephant seal, the great auk, and the Labrador duck have already been exterminated. For many years the West Indian seal was regarded as wholly extinct, but a small colony has lately been discovered by Mr. Henry L. \Vard on a remote islet in the Gulf of Mexico. The walrus, the manatee, the moose, mountain goat, antelope, mountain sheep, the sea otter, the beaver, elk, and mule deer are all going fast, and by the time the museum-builders of the world awake to the necessity of securing good specimens of all these it may be too late to find them. 2 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. Even in South Africa, where big1 game once existed in count- less thousands, nothing remains of the larger species save a few insignificant springboks, and no game worth mentioning can be found nearer than the Limpopo Valley, eight hundred miles north of the Cape! Noiu is the time to collect. A little later it will cost a great deal more, and the collector will get a great deal less. Sports- men, pot-hunters, and breech-loading firearms are increasing in all parts of the world much faster than the game to be shot, and it is my firm belief that the time will come when the majority of the vertebrate species now inhabiting the earth in a wild state will be either totally exterminated, or exist only under protection. But do not launch out as a collector until you know how to collect. The observance of this principle would have saved the useless slaughter of tens of thousands of living creatures, and prevented the accumulation of tons upon tons of useless rub- bish in the zoological museums of the world. It costs just as much to collect and caro for scientific rubbish as it would to do the same by an equal number of scientific treasures. Between fool collectors on one hand, and inartistic taxidermists on the other, the great majority of the world's zoological museums have been filled with objects that are anything but attractive ; and for this state of affairs the collectors are more to blame than the taxidermists. Bad work in collecting is, in nine cases out of ten, due to one of two causes — ignorance or laziness. By some curious process of reasoning, many really intelligent men conclude that they can go into the field and collect successfully without having learned a single thing about methods, or asked a word of advice from a competent instructor. Many seem to think that the only thing required is main strength, and that even that may be exert- ed by proxy. Even now, men who have travelled and written books go to South America and dry all their skins in the sun —after having carefully removed all the leg bones — and their small skeletons they boil ! Some of the worst mammal skins I ever saw were made by a professor of natural history, who actually managed to do nearly everything as it should not have been done. And yet, collect- THE TTOKKEtt AND THE WORK TO BE DONE. ing- all kinds of animal specimens, in all climates, is perfectly nimple to any one who has enough enterprise to inform himself of the most reliable methods, and put them in practice. I will confess I feel very deeply on this point, for I have toiled, needlessly, unnumbered hours, and days too, in overcom- ing1, as far as possible, the inexcusable blunders of collectors. I have seen thousands of dollars wasted in tliis way that could have been saved by good work in the field. It is easier to mount two good skins within five per cent, of perfection than to mount one poor one not nearly so well. Let me advise the directors of all scientific museums, institutions of learning, and patrons of natural history generally, when appealed to by an enthusiastic collector for funds with which to go abroad and collect an untold amount of pricoless specimens, in every case withhold your aid until the would-be collector demonstrates conclusively that he has learned how to collect. If he has not wit enough and grit enough to acquire ability, and then prove property, he is not fit to send anywhere, save back to the bosom of his family. These are the qualities which are required to make a first- class collector : He must have a fair general knowledge of zoology, especially the vertebrates. He must be a good shot, a successful hunter, and capable of great physical endurance. Then he must be a neat and skilful operator with the knife, and conscientious in the details of his work, down to the smallest particulars,' for without this quality his specimens will always be faulty and disappointing. In addition to all these require- ments he must be a man of tireless energy, incapable of going to bed so long as there are birds to be skinned, and who, when- ever a doubt arises in his mind in regard to the necessity of more work on a specimen will always give the specimen the benefit of the doubt. I strongly advise every one who becomes a collector to learn to sketch from nature. No matter whether you have any artis- tic ability or not, if you are determined about it, you can learn to make pencil sketches of rare specimens in the field, and of native houses, costumes, weapons, etc., and remarkable natural objects of all kinds, which, even though crude and inartistic in finish, may be of permanent value to the scientific world. The 4 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. camera and dry plate are of great value, but commend me to the pencil and sketch-book that " sticketh closer than a brother," and that never fail you on account of weather, weight, or acci- dents. Therefore I say, sketch ; sketch poorly if you cannot sketch well, but above all, sketch. The moment you make up your mind to go on a collecting trip, even if be only into the next county, read everything you can get hold of which will tell you aught about the natural his- tory of the country you are to visit. Ask what has been written, search library catalogues for titles of books, then get all you can, and read all you get. Only the churl will refuse to lend you a book you cannot afford to buy. Read all about the phys- ical geography, geology, climate, inhabitants, fauna and flora, for all these will have a direct bearing on your work. If you are going to unexplored territory, about which nothing has been written, then " read up " on the adjacent countries, for even that will be very useful information. GUIDES AND COMPANIONS. — No matter where you go, you will be obliged to have one or more companions, who know the coun- try, to act as guides and general assistants. It may be that you can find a single person combining the necessary qualities of a guide and .interpreter with those of a boatman, a teamster, or porter. The expense of such assistants must be counted upon from the very first. It may be stated as a general rule that in the tropics the services of natives can be had cheaply,- while those of Europeans are generally dear in comparison with what they do. CLOTHING AND FOOD. — These subjects I propose to leave entire- ly alone. They make excellent " padding " for a work of this kind when there is a lack of really useful information with which to fill up ; but every man feeds and clothes himself according to the dictates of his temperament, his purse, or his own sweet will. Whether his way is the best or the worst, he will still have food and clothes more or less suitable to his needs, and time spent in advising him what to wear and to eat is time wasted. These questions are generally controlled by the local- ity and circumstances. PRESERVATION OF HEALTH. — There are certain hygienic princi- ples which apply all the world over, and since their observance THE WORKER AND THE WORK TO BE DONE. 5 becomes in the tropics a question of life and death, I will record them. Their observance has preserved my health intact in unwholesome jungles in a way that I consider nothing- short of wonderful. Never sleep on the ground in the wet portions of the tropics when possible to avoid it, but keep above the poisonous mias- matic vapors that lie close to the earth. Boil water before drinking it, if it is thought to be bad, and avoid stagnant water at all times. Drink no spirits whatever except when really sick or debili- tated, nor wine, nor other alcoholic beverages. Avoid brandy, whiskey, and rum as you would the plague. Eat no unripe fruit, and with moderation of even ripe fruits, excepting bananas, which are harmless and most excellent food. Avoid eating large quantities of meat, but give the prefer- ence to rice, and farinaceous foods generally. Wear light flannel shirts, and at all hazards keep the head and nape of the neck well shielded from the sun. Pith helmets are best. After getting wet, do not sit down in the hot sun with your wet clothes on, but if you must remain in the sun, keep mov- ing. By means of rubber clothing, or " ponchos," keep from get- ting wet whenever you can. On coming into camp with wet garments, do not sit down in them to rest, but change immediately to dry clothing and foot- gear. The strict observance of this rule will save many an at- tack of fever. MEDICINES. — Every traveller or collector who goes beyond the ready reach of doctors (and for that matter also every family living in the country) should have a small box filled with cer- tain medicines and simple appliances as a resort in all cases of emergency. Very often a deal of mischief can be pi-evented by having the proper remedy at hand and ready for immediate ap- plication. TVho has not seen great suffering endured for the lack of a simple remedy costing only a few cents ? No matter where I go in the field, or how much luggage I am impeded with, I always carry with me a small, square, japanned tin box 6 TAXIDEKMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. (10 inches long, 7 inches wide, and 4 inches deep) which con- tains the following- : 1 roll silk court-plaster (about 1 yard). 6 curved surgeon's needles and silk thread. 4 ounces spirits of turpentine. 4 ounces tincture of arnica. 2 ounces syrup of ipecac. 1 ounce paregoric. 1 ounce ammonia. 2 ounces castor oil. 1 pint lime-water and linseed oil. 1 pint best brandy. 1 bottle Collis Browne's chlorodyne. % ounce quinine. 1 package Epsom salts. 1 package senna leaves. 1 package carbonate of soda. 2-ounce bottle of Squibb's diarrhoea mirfc- ure. 1 box Beecham's pills. 1 small measuring-glass. 1 piece of small rubber tube, a foot long. 12 doses of tartar emetic. The above makes a formidable showing, but the whole stock costs only about three dollars and fifty cents, and the box, with lock and key, about one dollar more. I have lately added to this outfit a most valuable and helpful little book, entitled " Till the Doctor Comes," by George H. Hope (G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York), which to any traveller or country dweller is worth twice its weight in gold. Fortunately, however, it costs only fifty cents, and no one need be without it. While a traveller or hunter should never drink brandy or whiskey as a beverage, it is a most excellent thing to have in many cases of sickness or accident, when a powerful stimulant is necessary. Above all things, however, which go farthest toward preserving the life of the traveller against diseases and death by accident, and which every naturalist especially should take with him wherever he goes, are habits of strict temperance. In the tropics nothing is so deadly as the drinking habit, for it speedily paves the way to various kinds of disease which are always charged to the account of " the accursed climate." If a temperate man falls ill or meets with an accident, his system responds so readily to remedies and moderate stimulants that his chances for recovery are a hundred per cent, better than those of the man whose constitution has been undermined by strong drink. There are plenty of men who will say that in the tropics a little liquor is necessary, " a good thing," etc. ; but let me tell you it is no such thing, and if necessary I could pile up a THE WORKER AND THE WORK TO BE DOXK. 7 mountain of evidence to prove it. The records show most con- clusively that it is the men who totally abstain from the use of spirits as a beverage who last longest, have the least sick- ness, and do the most and best work. As a general rule, an energetic brandy-drinker in the jungle is not worth his salt, and as a companion in a serious undertaking, is not even to be regarded as a possible candidate. CHAPTEE II. OUTFITS, AND HINTS ON HUNTING. IN making* up an outfit with which to work on specimens in the field, away from civilization perhaps, you must first decide definitely upon the line of work you intend to do, for upon this the extent and character of your outfit must depend. The requirements to be met are economy of space, weight, and labor, with no necessary article lacking. The mere item of keeping- one's tools in order, and always accessible, is much more im- portant than it would at first seem to be. There must be no confusion, and not a single article must get lost. Good tools, and plenty of them, in good working order, go a great way toward the production of faultless specimens, having the highest pos- sible value. I think I may say without boasting that on my third collect- ing trip abroad (to the East Indies) my outfit came as near per- fection in size and arrangement as can ever be reached withoTit far greater expense than that entailed. I was obliged to pack and unpack the whole of it at least fifty times, but its arrange- ment was so systematic and compact that the complete packing up never required more than fifteen minutes, and I could go to it in the dark and find any article desired, even to a needle and thread. The whole arrangement was very simple. To start with, the entire outfit of firearms, am munition, tools, hunting-gear, and a good stock of preservatives was contained in an iron-bound black walnut chest about the size of a carpenter's tool-chest. To keep my loading implements and ammunition in order, I had an ammunition-box of walnut, 14| inches long, 12| wide, and 44 deep, outside measurements, divided inside into five compartments, which held and kept in order all the append- OUTFITS, AND HINTS ON HUNTING. 9 ages belonging- to my three guns, and enough ammunition to last a month for ordinary shooting. Another small box, made of ash, one-quarter of an inch thick, and divided into four compartments, contained an assortment of knives, labels, and small tools (see list below), and was in every way mulium inparvo. Both these boxes had their places in the chest, and my guns, each in its own box-case, were pro- vided for in the same receptacle. I have had made for col- lectors going out from the National Museum nearly a dozen tool-boxes in exact duplication of the original mentioned above, and I can confidently recommend both it and the ammunition- box as serving their purposes most satisfactorily. Since my outfit for the East Indies proved very satisfactory, and with one or two additions is precisely what I should take were I to go again on a similar expedition, I give below a full list of its contents. The additions I should make would be a Winchester 7-shot repeating rifle, calibre 45-75, with the neces- sary ammunition, a double-barrelled breech-loading gun, No. 12, and possibly a wooden tank 2 feet x 2 feet x 2 feet, with a screw top, for tho preservation of mammal skins in a salt and alum bath. This last addition is rendered necessary by the fact that I have adopted a different method of preserving skins from that I had followed up to that time. Instead of drying all skins as I did then, I now preserve the majority of them in a wet state, and keep them so, except such as are desired as skins for study, and not for mounting. The apparatus necessary for collecting insects will be described in the section devoted to work of that class. OUTFIT FOR GENERAL COLLECTING, Vertebrates and Invertebrates, both Large and Small, Dry and in Spirits, and on a Large Scale. 1 Agassiz tank (copper), in wooden box, for alcoholics. 1 chest of black walnut, iron-bound, to contain all the articles enumerated below: 1 Maynard rifle, two barrels, calibre 40, 40 pounds shot, assorted sizes. and 4.VS5 10 pounds Maynard bullets. 1 double barrelled breech-loading smooth- 1,000 Berdan primers. bore gun. No. 10, in case ($:)0). 12 pounds Orange ducking powder. 1 Maynard shot-gun, No. 16. 1 Smith & Wesson revolver, cal. 32. 1 cartridge-belt an-I cartridge-bag. 00 pounds arsenical soap. 15 pounds dry arsenic. 1 dozen large skinning-knives. 10 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. 1 dozen small skinning-knives. 6 scalpels. 2 claw hatchets. 1 saw. 1 large skin ssraper. 1 geological hammer. 1 bull's-eye lantern. 1 A No. 1 field-glass. 1 compass. 2 brushes for arsenical soap. 1 blow-pipe and set of egg-drills. 1 hydrometer and test-glass. 1 thermometer. 2 pairs hunting-shoes. 3 rubber blankets. I double woollen blanket. 1 Ashanti hammock. 3,000 labels, three sizes. 1 tool-box, size 7 x 13 x 3 inches, to contain the following : 4 skinning-knives. 2 pairs scissors. 1 brain hook. 1 pair long forceps. 1 pair short forceps. 1 pair cutting -pliers. 1 pair flat pliers. 2 sets skeleton-scrapers. 1 small skin scraper. 1 flat file. 2 three-cornered files. 1 cold chisel. 2 awls. 1 4-inch saw (for turtles). 1 tape measure. 1 2-foot rule. 1 ivory thimble. 1 oil-stone. 1 spool thread. 2 dozen labels. C papers glover's needles. With this outfit I collected, in two years, more than $15,000 worth of salable skins, rough skeletons and skulls of mammals, many of which were very large ; birds, reptiles, and fishes, espe- cially the large and important species ; also fishes and fish skins in alcohol and brine; crustaceans, shells, starfishes, corals, and a few insects. In not a single case did I ever fail to collect a desired specimen through lack of implements and preserva- tives with which to care for it, and only three or four specimens spoiled on my hands in course of preservation. One of these was an orang skin, the last one I took, which spoiled because I had to pack it up and travel with it without giving it even one day's drying ; and the others were skins which spoiled while I was on my back with jungle fever. The outfit listed above is of such a nature that for a trip across Africa, South America, or even a much shorter distance on foot or horseback, away from rivers and wagon-roads, it would be difficult to take the whole of it. But then, on some expeditions, for example, such as are made through Darkest Africa, the travellers are generally glad to get through with their lives, to say nothing of more cumbersome luggage, and very little collecting is done. In nine cases out of ten, how- ever, it is advisable to take along a good outfit, even though OUTFITS, AND HINTS ON HUNTING. 11 there be three or four boxes of it, for, except in such journeys as those mentioned above, there will always be a way to get it along-. It will cost a few dollars for freight, and some trouble in management ; but if you are a good collector, and mean busi- ness, you will not mind that in the least. Where there's a will there's locomotion ; and to collect well, or even at all, one must have something to collect with. It is an expensive and exceed- ingly laborious business at best, so don't go expecting to have your " baggage checked through to destination, free of charge." But there are a great many of my readers who, while they may never want to go off into a howling wilderness, might greatly enjoy collecting on such trips as they do take. Then, again, there are sportsmen and travellers who will willingly carry into good game districts a book of instructions, and enough tools to enable them successfully to remove and pre- serve the skins of valuable trophies of the chase, and other specimens which should be kept on account of their scientific value or their beauty. To meet .the requirements of both the amateur and the sportsman I recommend : THE TRAVELLER'S HANDY OUTFIT, For a Collector of Jfammals, Heads, Trophies, etc., and also Birds. Firearms, as you please. A tool -box of }^ inch ash, size 7x13x3 inches, containing the following : 2 large skinning-knives (see Fig. 1). 2 cartilage knives (see Fig. 1). 1 pair scissors. 1 small oil-stone. 1 spool thread. 1 package needles. 1 package labels, 1 2-foot rule. 1 tape measure. 1 brain hook. 1 pair 9-inch forceps. 1 pair short forceps. And if eggs are to be collected, then must be added : 1 blow-pipe. 1 set of egg-drills. With the addition of 10 large skinning knives, this was the identical outfit I took with me on two collecting trips to Mon- tana, during which we skinned and skeletonized 24 buffaloes, about 20 antelope, 10 deer, 9 coyotes, and a goodly number of birds and small mammals. The points in favor of this outfit are its cheapness, compact- ness, portability, and great general utility. It can bo carried in a knapsack behind a saddle on an overland journey, and to 12 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. an explorer it is useful in a hundred ways besides those for which it is specially intended. FIEEAKMS. — The gun question is a good deal like the wife question — every man prefers to choose for himself, and advice is chiefly superfluous. Nevertheless, to those who have as yet no preferences, I will briefly state mine, and the reasons for them. If I could have but one weapon, I should choose the May- iiard rifle, calibre 40, with extra long cartridge, and a No. 12 shot-barrel fitting to the same stock, and interchangeable in less than fifteen seconds of time. The rifle is light and handy ; it hits hard, and is as true as steel ever gets to be. It will hit every time precisely where you hold it. Its construction is so simple it seldom breaks or gets out of order, the brass shells never wear out, and when loaded are about as impervious to water as marine torpedoes. Should you go under water — rifle, cartridges, and all — you have only to " bob up serenely," and go on firing as if nothing had happened. By the addition of a shot-barrel, at a very slight expense, you have, in reality, two good breech-loading weapons that will serve you well for general purposes. For ordinary large gam 3 I also prefer the Maynard rifle, but of a heavier calibre than the above. Calibre 45 is the best size, taking the U. M. C. Co.'s Bullard cartridges loaded with 85 grains of powder and 295 grains of lead. These with the May- nard make a beautiful combination. It carries point-blank up to 170 yards, if not even 200 ; the ball has great accuracy and penetration, with a very low trajectory, and very little recoil. A heavier bullet means a hearty kick and loss of accuracy, and one of 500 grains of lead means occasional blood at your end of the gun, and a black and blue shoulder. For such great beasts as the elephant, rhinoceros, and hip- popotamus, the choice must lie between a double 8-bore rifle, and the No. 8 smooth-bore. For my part, I would rather hunt my elephants with such a gun as I used on them in India, a No. 8 smooth-bore, double-barrelled, which, though weighing less than 10 pounds, never kicked seriously, even with enough pow- der (6 drachms) to send a zinc bullet through an elephant's skull and brain, and out on the other side. With such a weapon OUTFITS, AND HINTS ON HUNTING. 13 there will be no need to run after an animal, nor run away from it either, after you get one fair shot at it.* For hunting large birds and small mammals a No. 10 shot- gun is the best ; but if you are specially interested in birds and care little for mammals, a No. 12 breech-loader with top-snap action will be preferable. For my purposes, however, my No. 10 double Werner and No. 16 Maynard always worked beauti- fully together, and I think these two sizes afford the best com- bination a collector can iind. Being very strongly built, I often loaded my No. 10 with a single ball, and bagged many a fine Indian bison in that way. I always used heavy brass shells with all my shot-guns, for the following reason : I could not spare room to carry paper shells, the rains I encountered would have spoiled too many of them, and away from home they were too expensive a luxury for me to afford. The brass shells are expensive to start with, but they last forever, or until they are lost. HINTS ON HUNTING. — The duty of a naturalist to his specimen begins when he levels his gun at it in the field. Do not shoot a specimen to pieces, or mutilate it beyond recognition by its own mother. Study the moral principles of your guns, find out exactly what they will do with what you put into them, and then don't shoot your specimens too much. What is a tiger worth with the top of his head blown off, or a deer with a great hole torn in his side by an explosive bullet ? Three vital principles to be observed in hunting specimens are the following : See everything ahead, and allow nothing to see you. Shoot to kill, but shoot so as to get your specimen with the least possible mutilation. A squirrel shot with a rifle is usually unfit for a specimen, and a bird with its legs shot to pieces, mandibles shot off, and half its tail feathers torn to pieces is about the same as no bird at all, unless it happens to be a rare one. In using a rifle, get as close to your game as you can (unless it be a tiger or be£.r !), so as to be sure of get- ting it. With the shot-gun, get as far away as you dare, so as to get no more shot into your bird than is necessary to kill it. * For further particulars, see Two Years in the Jimgle. New York : Charles Scrib- ncr's Sons. 14 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. It is a disgrace for a collector to shoot a bird to pieces and be obliged to throw it away. I append a showing of what I use in collecting, according to circumstances. It is hardly likely that any two collectors in the world agree on these points, therefore I do not expect that these tables will suit the old hands. I put them forth as mere suggestions to beginners. RECOMMENDATIONS IN REGARD TO HUNTING WITH THE RIFLE. Animals to kill. Weapon to use. Charge of powder. Weight of bullet. Best distance. i Elephant Smooth-bore, 6 drs. Spherical 30 yds Tiger, bear, elk, deer, sheep, seals, large crocodiles No. 8. Maynard, 45. 85 grs. pure zinc. 295 grs. 75 " Apes, monkeys, small ruminants, and small carnivora Maynard, 40. 60 " 200 " 50 " RECOMMENDATIONS IN REGARD TO HUNTING WITH THE SHOT-GUN. Animals to kill. Weapon to use. Charge of powder. Charge of shot. Deer .. No. 10. 6 drs. 20, No. 8 buckshot. Fox . . " 10. 5 " IK oz., No. 00. Woodchuck " 10. 3 " IK " " 2. Squirrel " 12 3 " \y, " " 6. Chipmunk " 16. 2 " 1 " " 10. Ea^le crane, vulture 10 or 12. Eagle Duck Powder. 5 drs. IK Double 00. Turkey buzzard 10 or 12. 4 " IK No. 4. Crow 13. 3 " IK " 6. Quail 12. 3 " IK " S. Robin 12. 2V drs. 1 " 10. Warbler 16. 2V " 1 " 12 Humming-bird. 16, or 2 " 1 oz. dust shot Auxiliary, 22.* Of course it would be easy to recommend a large assortment of different weapons for different purposes, but when it comes to providing an outfit of firearms, I must say I never cared to take care of more than three or four weapons, and I doubt if * For No. 22 use wood powder and a gun-cane. It makes no noise, does not frighten the little birds and mammals, and, i_ you are wicked enough, you can use it on Sunday. The Winchester is useful for rapid fir- ing at short range, but the Maynard is the weapon to depend upon for perfect accu- racy at all ranges. KNIVES. — For general use the best knife for the collector or taxidermist is a steel- handled cartilage-knife, as shown in Fig. 1, B. It costs seventy -five cents. There are two kinds of cartilage-knives, but the one shown has the best-shaped blade. For heavier work the best knife I have ever used or seen is the so-called " killing- knife," No. 01512, as shown in Fig. 1, A, made by John Russell, Green Eiver Works, Turner's Falls, Mass., the retail price of which is only seventy-five cents. Had I designed it myself, especially for collectors' use, I could not have done bet- ter. The shape of the blade, the thick- ness of it, and the shape of the handle are OUTFITS, AND HINTS ON HUNTING. the average amateur will feel disposed to maintain a small arsenal. In preparing the above tables I have limited the weap- ons to those I have actually used. For my use, the following constitutes a model collector's outfit of firearms for all pur- poses in all countries. It is cheap, but first class, not cumbersome, easily cared for in all climates, and equal to every occasion that can arise : 1 No. 8 double breech-loading smooth-bore, and 1 Auxiliary barrel, No. 22, for very small birds (price, 1 Calibre 45-85 Maynard rifle, 1 calibre 40-60 rifle- barrel, and 1 No. 16 shot-barrel, all to fit inter- changeably on the same, stock, A smaller rifle- barrel might also be added, but it is not really nec- essary. 1 Calibre 45-75 7-shot Winchester. 1 No. 12 breech-loading shot-gun. 15 l«;=5.v. sv.s Pro. 1.— The Beet Knives for a Collector or Taxidermist (about two-thirds actual size). A, Russell's •• killing-knife;" B, Cartilage-knife. 16 TAXIDEllMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. all perfect. If you cannot procure one of these knives, then buy a good butcher-knife, and grind the blade down to this shape. A knife with a straight edge is not fit to use, for many reasons. Always keep a good coarse (water) whetstone for large knives, and a Wichita oil-stone and oil for your finer knives, and th.3 final touches to your large ones. SEASONS FOB COLLECTING. — Mammals. — In the temperate zone never take fur-bearing or game animals before September 1st, or later than February 1st, if possible to avoid it. On most of these mammals the pelage is the finest during November and December. It is then at its maximum length, very clean and well dressed, and also at its brightest color. The rumi- nants begin to shed in May (the American bison as early as March), and by July the new hair upon them is only about half an inch long, but very fine and sleek. At that time it does not have its natural color. In our country, September, October, and November are the months par excellence for the taking of mammals, especially the large species, for after December 1st the storms and snows of winter render their haunts untenable for the hunter, unless he builds a cabin in the woods and makes a winter of it. The haunts of the mountain sheep and goat must be abandoned by December 1st, at the latest, on account of the snow. The best time to take families of young mammals is from May to August. If taken earlier they are too young, and later they have passed their most interesting age. The smaller the species are, the quicker the young mature, and in collecting all such, the naturalist must be 011 the keen lookout to take them at the precise time they reach the most interest- ing size and age. Birds. — In the temperate zone the best months for bird collecting are March, April, May, June, September, October, and November ; but since the study of migration depends upon collections and observations made all the year round, there is really no time to begin collecting, and no time to cease. At the same time the amateur will soon discover that, aside from the birds that are found only in their particular season, the greatest number of species to be obtained in the Northern United States come in the months mentioned ; and, of course, in the cold half of the year they are most plentiful in the South, whither they OUTFITS, AND HINTS OX HUNTING. 17 go to escape the cold weather. In the northern regions bird- collecting naturally begins with the spring migration from the South, and is most active from that time up to the end of June. During July and August the old birds are moulting, and the young ones have immature plumage and stub tails. A rule which can be safely applied- to all tropical climates is that the dry season is best for either collecting, sport, or travel. Never collect in the rainy season if you can help it. Animal life is doubly hard to find, specimens are desperately difficult to preserve, and field work is very trying on the patience and the constitution. In the Arctic regions, hunting and collecting must be done in midsummer, or not at all. While it is true that in the torrid and temperate zones there is a certain amount of work to be done all the year round, there is always a particular season which may be regarded as the harvest-time. COLLECTING BY AMATEURS. — There is one kind of collecting which should be discouraged in every possible way, and that is the postage-stamp style of collecting by boys who have no real love for natural history. Boys in their teens often make col- lections of bird-skins, eggs, and nests in precisely the same spirit that prompts them to gather coins, postage stamps, and autographs — " to see who can get the most kinds." This vicious propensity is apt to involve a very good boy in a useless and inexcusable wrarfare against the feathered tribes. Many a time I have been saddened by the sight of drawer upon drawer, full to overflowing, of poorly made skins of our most beautiful song- birds,— hundreds of them in a single collection, perhaps not worth ten cents apiece in any market, — each skin merely recording the important fact that it was shot on a certain day in a certain place. There is a way to prove whether a juvenile collector has really a love for the study of birds. Let the one who furnishes the sinews of war — parent, guardian, or elder brother — demand that he shall mount every good specimen he kills, and be able to tell all about its habits, food, economic value, etc. This will in any event result in great good. If the collector is not really absorbed in the study of bird-life, the labor such a course involves will soon deter him from indiscriminate slaughter ; and even if he is destined to become a distinguished member of 2 18 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. the A. O. U., it will be all the better for him to be taught to place a high value on every bird, living or dead. SHOOTING BIEDS AS A PASTIME.— I cannot, without being pro- fane, find language strong enough to adequately express my ab- horrence of the damnable practice some parents have of provid- ing thoughtless boys with shot-guns and ammunition for the slaughter of birds and small mammals, just for the fun (!) of the thing, or to become proficient in the use of the gun. For the killing of birds for food, or to mount for the cabinet, or to study intelligently, there is some excuse ; but for the slaughter of birds as a boyish pastime there is no excuse whatever, and either boys or parents who have such a disregard for life as to make it possible should be fined as heavily as can be done under the law. Firearms and their users are multiplying at such a frightful rate that it seems highly probable the time will come when there will be no more wild birds or quadrupeds left upon the face of the earth. It is a good thing for a boy to be taught to shoot, and skill in the use of a rifle may fairly be regarded as an accomplishment ; but the taking of life is .not in the least necessary to its acquire- ment. If a boy wants to shoot for the sake of becoming an ex- pert with the gun, give him a rifle and a target, or a shot-gun and clay pigeons, that he may start in the right direction. Do this, and the chances are ten to one that he gets ten times the sport and twenty times the benefit out of rivalry at the target that he would out of roaming over the country and killing every bird he can discover. Even in the immediate vicinity of Wash- ington a song-bird can hardly raise a note without attracting a boy with a gun. POISONING AND TRAPPING MAMMALS. — Inasmuch as there are in print a number of good books that treat this subject exclu- sively, I may be spared the labor of taking it up here. The reader must be assured, however, that traps and strychnine are very valuable allies in collecting, and he who ignores them will lose much. Above all things, carry with you plenty of strych- nine, use it industriously, and it will bring you many a fine car- nivore you would not get otherwise. Poison a skinned carcass by cutting gashes an inch deep in the rump and other fleshy portions, and putting strychnine in them. Also cut up chunks OUTFITS, AND HINTS ON HUNTING. 19 of meat in little cubes, put poison in the centre of each, and scatter them around for the benefit of the wily wolf and fox, the fat and festive badger, the wary golden eagle and raven, and other meat-eaters in general. On our hunt for buffaloes in Montana, Mr. W. Harvey Brown was our Borgia, and his indus- try and strychnine laid low some of the finest small specimens we obtained, including specimens of all the species mentioned above. After putting out poison, search the vicinity thoroughly for two or three days, and the chances are your efforts will not be in vain. Dr. C. Hart Merriam and his collectors have reduced the trap- ping of the very small mammalia to an exact science, the like of which I venture to say has never been seen before. They use three kinds of traps — the Lamb steel-trap, No. 0 ; the Cyclone, and the Climax. These are all small, all may be used with bait, or quickly modified to serve as runway traps, for arvicolas and the like. Boiled oatmeal mixed with corn meal is the stand- ard bait used for small rodents. For shrews, small camivora, and omnivorous rodents, meat baits are used, such as birds' heads, intestines, pieces of skin, and meat — in fact anything fleshy. CHAPTEE HE. HOW TO SELECT AND STUDY FKESH SPECIMENS. SELECTION OF SPECIMENS. — This is the golden rule in collect- ing1 : Preserve the first specimen you collect of every species you en- counter, lest you never get another. When you have obtained too many of a kind, it is an easy matter to throw some away. At all hazards, try to obtain one really fine adult male and female of each species, to serve as standards of comparison in your subsequent studies. Remember that immature, undersized specimens are not typical representatives of a species, nor do they add glory to a collection. At the same time, quite young specimens, say one-fifth to one-tenth adult size, are always very interesting, and should be collected and preserved whenever possible. Collect your mammals and birds during- the season when their pelage and plumage are at their finest. Especially should every specimen that you propose to mount be strictly first-class. Life is short and species many, and when you do go through with the task of mounting a specimen, it should be so fine in every way that you will never need to replace it for the reason that it is too poor to keep. Of rare species, the rule is to preserve every specimen taken, and, I may add, make as many different kinds of preparations of a rare species as you know how to prepare. For example, of the guacharo bird, or cave-bird of Trinidad (Steatornis caripensis), my friend Jackson and I prepared skins, skeletons, and alcoholic specimens, and took a full assortment of nests and eggs. MEASUREMENTS. — It is of great importance to acquire a fixed habit of carefully measuring every specimen you prepare, unless you are already in possession of an abundance of measured specimens of the same kind. After getting into the habit of measuring, it takes only a very few minutes to do the work, and HOW TO SELECT AND STUDY FRESH SPECIMENS. 21 the value of the information thus obtained is sure to be equal to ten times its cost. Hecord the measurements on the label bearing* the name of the object, and by all means adopt for each class of objects a certain system of measurements, which should always be fol- lowed. Under their respective headings, in the following- chap- ters on collecting, I will give directions for measuring small mammals, large mammals, and birds, according to the system I think most useful. CASTS. — The great value of casts as working models and records cannot be overestimated nor ignored without loss of accuracy. They are especially valuable in preserving- records of the forms of mammals ; and the methods of making them— all very simple and easy — will be found fully described and illustrated in the chapters devoted to " Making Casts " (Part III). PHOTOGRAPHS. — To the taxidermist and collector, photographs of dead animals are of very little value unless it be a large picture of the head of a large specimen, such as a moose. Photographs of live animals taken "broadside on," as the sailors say, are extremely valuable aids in mounting ; but these you get only in the zoological gardens. I never took a camera into the field with me, and have always been glad of it, for it would not have repaid the trouble it would have involved. Xo man who has his hands full of shooting, preserving, and packing specimens can afford to waste time on a camera with which to take dead animals, because it is apt to fail to em- phasize the very points you most wish to have recorded. I have had enough dead animals photographed to feel sure on this point. On the other hand, the taxidermist who permits himself to be wholly unable to make simple sketches, with a fair degree of accuracy, from animals in the flesh, is seriously handicapped. It is only the heaven-born genius — as yet unborn, I believe — who can study animals and remember everything he sees. Written descriptions help out a great deal, especially when particular emphasis is called for, and in the absence of sketches, photo- graphs are the next best thing. It is an excellent thing to be able to photograph animals, both living and dead ; but the trouble is, 22 TAXIDERMY AKD ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. one cannot always get the game and the camera together. A note-book and a pencil one can always carry, and even when you have the camera, the former often proves the better ally of the two. OUTLINES. — For years it has been my constant practice to make outlines of dead animals, on large sheets of paper, before skin- ning them. My plan is to lay the specimen on its side on a sheet of heavy manila paper, place the legs and feet in an easy walking attitude, pin or nail them fast in place, then mark en- tirely around the animal with a long lead pencil. To get an exact diagram of a rather large mammal, I invented a wooden square, cariying a pencil point at its outer angle, with which it was easy to get the exact outline of a large animal, or large skull. In mounting a specimen, such an outline is of great value as a check on errors in proportion that might easily be made in putting it together. FIELD NOTES.— There are hundreds of specimens on which you will not need to take notes, unless you have the time to study their habits, find out what they eat, how they live, etc. But of rare and interesting objects you will want to record all the information you can gather regarding their life history. To determine what they feed upon, examine the contents of their stomachs. If there is no time to do that in the field, then pre- serve the stomachs in alcohol, carefully labelled, and examine the contents at your leisure. Learn how to observe, and then put down in black and white, between substantial leather covers, all that you do observe, and all that is told to j^ou by the natives about species with which they are familiar. Do not forget to ascertain and record the native names of your speci- mens, for after you get home you will be certain to wish to know them. One thing is certain; when you come to write about your collection, you will wish you had taken more notes in the field. While a specimen is fresh, take careful notes as to the color of all the soft parts that will lose their color when the skin is dry. Learn to describe colors accurately, and, if possible (though this seems like asking a great deal !), try to describe colors so that afterward, when your notes get cold, you your- self will know what they mean ! PLATE n.— Two PAGES FROM AN OLD FIELD NOTE-BOOK.— A TAXIDERMIST'S NOTE?. <£ ( i/2^<£fe^ Je^^r^.) £ HOW TO SELECT AND STUDY FRESH SPECIMENS. 23 In describing the colors of soft parts, I would advise you to purchase the following1 Windsor & Newton tube colors (oil) and use them as standards for reference : Ivory black, Vandyke brown, burnt limber, burnt sienna, raw sienna, Naples yellow, Indian yellow, chrome yellow, Indian red, vermilion, purple lake, cobalt blue, and indigo. LABELLING. — For scientific- purposes, a specimen without a label is not quite so good as no specimen. It takes up room, and is useless. The most important record to make on a label is the name of the locality in which it was taken. Next in im- portance is the date of its capture. You may leave off every- thing else if you really must, for as to its name the specimen can speak for itself. But it is by all means desirable that the label should give the name, locality, date, sex, and some meas- urements. I need not mention " name of the collector," for the collector can always be trusted to look out for that without advice from anybody, even under the most discouraging cir- cumstances. CHAPTEE IV. TREATMENT OF THE SKINS OF SMALL MAMMALS. MANY hundred beautiful and curious quadrupeds are shot every year and allowed to perish utterly for lack of the little knowl- edge and skill which would enable the hunter to remove and preserve their skins. The operation is simple and easy, the re- quirement in tools and materials quite insignificant, and the operator has only to exercise a little patient industry to achieve good results. There are few circumstances under which a de- termined individual finds himself thwarted in his desire to re- move and preserve the skin of a dead animal. In nineteen cases out of twenty the result hinges on his own disposition. If he is lazy, a thousand things can hinder his purpose ; if he is de- termined, nothing can. A sharp pocket-knife, a little powdered alum and arsenic in equal parts, or failing that, common salt alone, will do the business in lieu of a better outfit, for any small mammal that ever lived. I begin with small mammals, because it is squirrels, rabbits, cats, woodchucks, weasels, opossums, raccoons, and foxes that the beginner will fall in with long before he is called upon to wrestle with such subjects as deer, bear, elk, or buffalo. These general directions apply to the skinning of all terrestrial quadru- peds up to the size of a setter dog, and the preservation of their skins in a mountable condition. MEASUREMENTS. — The following are the most valuable meas- urements to take of a small mammal. 1. Length, from end of nose to root of tail. This is to be taken with the head stretched out straight as far as it will go. Meas- ure from the tip end of the nose to the point where the tail joins the body. In my judgment it is always best in determining this latter point to take the angle made by the tail (underneath) TREATMENT OF THE SKINS OF SMALL MAMMALS. 25 and the rump when the tail hangs or is bent down at an angle of forty-five degrees to the spinal column. This point is always fixed and constant, and can be quickly and accurately determined by bending the tail down and sticking a pin or awl at the angle. To measure an animal like a monkey on the top of the tail is to attempt the location of a point which can rarely be determined twice alike. For this reason I have alwaj^s taken this measure- ment in both large and small mammals underneath the tail. 2. Length of tail, from root to end of vertebrae. 3. Length of It ind foot. Bend the heel at a right angle, and measure from the outer extremity of the angle to the tip end of the longest toe, including the nail. 4. Height at shoulders, if the animal bo not too small. To take this, lay the animal on its right side, then, as nearly as you can, place the right leg and foot in the position they would assume if the animal were standing erect (the sole of the foot must be parallel to the axis of the body), and measure in a straight line from the bottom of the heel to the top of the shoulders. Re- cord, also, 5. The color of the eyes, and the other soft parts. 6. Weight, in certain cases. Do not forget what has been said in Chapter LTI. about outlines and sketches. On one corner of the outline-sheet w<> record the name of the specimen, locality, date, sex, measure- ments, color of eyes, lips, feet, etc. It takes but a few moments' time, and the result is a complete and accurate record of what the animal was in the flesh. These sheets are numbered and filed away, the skin is numbered and put in the bath, and even though it be not until five years later that we are ready to mount it, we can tell as accurately what the animal was like as if it had been received only the previous day. If the specimen is a baboon, for example, with several colors on its face, it was for years my practice to make a rough sketch of the face and put upon it the various colors that belong there, in oil-colors, usually, though sometimes with water-colors. It was also my custom to spend half an hour or so in taking a mould, and making a quick cast in plaster Paris of the face of every monkey or baboon which came to me, unless I already had one which would answer as a model to copy in finishing the face. 26 TAXIDEKMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. SKINNING SMALL QUADEUPEDS. — Lay the animal flat upon its back, head to your right. Hold your knife with the edge up, and push the point through the skin of the throat, precisely in the middle of the neck. Now push the point of the knife for- ward under the skin, between it and the flesh, and divide the skin in a straight, clean cut along the middle of the neck, breast, and body, quite to the base of the tail. If the animal has a large, fleshy tail, like a dog or raccoon, it must be slit open along the under side (without cutting the hair) for its entire length, except an inch or two at the base. If the tail is small, slender, or bony, like that of a squirrel or a rat, it can usually be slipped out of the skin by pulling the bony part between two sticks held close together against the skin of the tail. The sole of each foot must be slit open, lengthwise, from the base of the middle toe straight back to the heel, and in case the foot is large and fleshy, like that of a dog, the cut must be con- tinued on up the leg, perhaps one-third of the way to the knee, to enable the skin of the leg to be turned wrong side out over the foot. Having made all the opening cuts, begin at the abdomen, catch one edge of the skin between thumb and finger, and with the knife cut it neatly and cleanly from the body, leaving as lit- tle flesh as possible adhering to the skin. In using the knife do not go at it in a daintily finical way, as if you were picking bird- shot out of the leg of a dear friend ; for, if you do, it will take you forever to skin your first specimen, and there will be no time left for another. Learn to work briskly but carefully, and by and by you will be able to take off a skin with a degree of neatness and rapidity that will astonish the natives. It is not a dissecting touch that is called for in taking off a skin, but a firm, sweeping, shaving stroke instead, applied to the inside of the skin, and not to the carcass. This applies to all skinning operations on all vertebrates except birds. After starting at the abdomen, we come very soon to where the foreleg joins the body at the shoulder, and the hind leg at the hip. Disjoint each there, and cut through the muscles until each leg is severed from the body. Skin each leg by turning the skin wrong side out over the foot quite down to the TREATMENT OF THE SKINS OF SMALL MAMMALS. 27 toes. That done, cut the flesh away from the bones of the leg and foot, neatly and thoroughly. Never leave the foot of an animal unsldnned, unless it happens to be a very small one, like a chipmunk, or smaller, and the proper way is to skin the flesh out, even then. Kio. 2.— A Squirrel partly Skinnod, showing Process. Be careful to leave all the bones of each leg attached to each other by their ligaments at the joints (see left hind leg in Fig. 2), and to the skin itself at the toes. Never tlirow away the leg bones, unless the skin you are preserving is to be kept as a pelt or a rug. Detach the skin from the back, shoulders, and neck, and 28 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. when you come to the ears, cut them off close down to the head. Turn the skin wrong1 side out over the head, until you come to the eyes. Now be careful or you will do mischief. Work slowly with the knife, keeping1 close to the edge of the bony orbit, until you see, through a thin membrane under your knife edge, the dark portion of the eyeball — iris and pupil. You may now cut fearlessly through this membrane and expose the eye. If your work has been properly done, you have not cut the eyelids anywhere. If you are ever in doubt when operating on the eye, thrust the tip of one finger fairly into the eye and against the ball, from without, and cut against it. This is always an excellent plan in skinning large mammals. Skin down to the end of the nose, cut through the cartilage close to the bone, and cut on down to where the upper lip joins the gum. Cut both lips away from the skull, close to the bone, all the way around the mouth. The lips are thick and fleshy, and must be split open from the inside and flattened out so that the flesh in them can be pared off. Do not mutilate the lips by cutting- them away at the edge of the hair, but leave the inside skin, so that in mounting1 you can fold it in (with a little clay replacing1 the flesh) and thus make a mouth anatomically correct. Do not shave off the roots of the whiskers, or they will fall out. Gash the flesh between them (they are set in rows), but leave the follicles themselves untouched. Pare away the membrane which adheres to the inside of the eyelids, and turn the ear wrong1 side out at the base, in order to cut away the flesh around it. If the ears have hair upon them, they must be skinned up from the inside and turned FIG. s.-skinning a squirrel's wrong side out quite to the tip, in order to separate the outside skin, which holds the hair, from the cartilage which supports the ear. For a full description of ear skinning, see another chapter. The great principle which is the foundation of all valuable field work on mammal skins is this : A skin must be so taken off, cleaned of flesli, and preserved that the preservative powder or fluid can act directly upon the roots of the hair from the inner side of the shin, and over every portion of its surface. Neither alum, nor salt, TREATMENT OF THE SKINS OF SMALL MAMMALS. 29 nor alcohol (unless it be of great strength) can strike through a thick layer of flesh and penetrate through the skin to the epi- dermis quickly enough to save it from decomposition. The epidermis of most animals is of such a close and oily nature that preservatives cannot strike through it from without, and therefore when a skin is removed it must be cleaned of flesh and fat, so that the preservative liquid or dry powder can come immediately in contact with the cutis. The skin is now off. If the lips have been opened out, the ears skinned to the tip (if they be haired), and the" feet well skinned down, we are ready to go on. But first we must clean the skull. Cut the flesh all off, or the most of it at least, for it is not possible to get it all away at the base ; cut out the eyes and tongue, and with your brain-hook, or a piece of wire ham- mered flat at the end and bent up at a right angle, patiently draw out the brain through the occipital opening at the base of the skull. By this time, perhaps, the skin will be bloody in places, or possibly it was dirty to start with. Now is the time to wash it thoroughly in clear water. Remember that a skin which has been dried with blood upon it is damaged forever. It stains the hair, and very often forms a hard, gummy mass which nothing will dissolve. PRESERVATION OF THE SKIN. — The next step depends upon what you propose to do with the skin, or it may depend upon the conditions under which you are collecting. 1. If you are in your laboratory preparing skins to mount, preserve them all (except quite young specimens and certain others) in a soft, or wet state, in a salt-and-alum bath. 2. If you are in the field (especially the tropics), making a large collection of mammal skins for mounting, by all means do the same if possible. 3. If the skins are for purposes of study as skins, during which fre- quent handling and examination is absolutely necessary, make them up as dry skins. 4. If you lack facilities for preserving them wet, then make dry skins of them. 5. If the necessities of travel and transportation make it necessary to reduce the weight to the lowest possible limit, and to divide it up for car- riage overland, make up all skins dry, both little and big. 6. If you have only one or two skins to preserve, it will be less trouble to you to make them up dry at once. 30 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. Here are the two methods : A. THE SALT- AND- ALUM BATH. — This is the finest solution ever discovered for the preservation of the skins of quadrupeds that are destined to be mounted. It is inexpensive, simple, and easy to make ; its action is perfect ; its strength can be regu- lated to suit any kind of a skin ; it never gets stale ; and if properly handled will preserve a skin for a hundred years in the same pliable and elastic condition as when it leaves the ani- mal's back. In only two or three instances have I ever known it to change the color of the hair in the least. Every taxider- mist knows that it is far easier to mount a fresh specimen in line style than an old, dry skin which has lost all its elasticity. The work on a soft skin (i.e., one which has never been dried) can be done more easily, more quickly, and vastly better. With a dry skin you can make only wrhat it will let you ; but with a wet skin you can make just as fine a mount as your skill is capable of producing. And with the latter it makes no dif- ference whether the skin came off the animal last week or ten years ago, except in the case of very young animals. Of these the bath softens the leg bones. For years it has been my cus- tom to preserve r.ll skins that I expect to mount (except the young of the smaller species) in this salt-and-alum bath, and it is almost superfluous to add that I strongly advise all others to do the same. In many ways it is a great economy to do so. Directions for Making It. — For every gallon of water put in three-quarters of a pound of alum (one pint) and a pound and three-quarters of salt (about one quart), and heat the liquid to the boiling-point, stirring occasionally, so that the salt and alum will dissolve. Then pour it into a wooden, earthen, or glass vessel, or a tank lined with lead (for zinc or galvanized iron will not answer), and when it is cool, or even milk warm, it is ready for use. Test it with your salometer (which you can procure for fifty cents of Bahmann & Hoehn, 21 Park Place, New York), and see that it stands at 15°. This is the normal strength. If stronger than that, e.g., 16° or 17°, the skin will be hardened too much. It can go as low as 13° with safety, but that is the limit. At 12° skins are liable to lose their hair. Directions for t/se.— If the hair is tight on the skin every- where, simply immerse it in the bath, leg bones and all, giving TREATMENT OF THE SKINS OF SMALL MAMMALS. 31 it plenty of room at first. Move it up and down, and leave it as much spread out and free from folds as possible. Remember that the fluid must act upon the inside of the skin, for the epi- dermis is often almost impervious to it. If you allow the skin to lie upon itself in thick folds, stuck together on the inside, those spots are liable to lose their hair in a most unaccountable and aggravating way. If the skin is small and thin, the bath soon does its work ; but if it is a large skin, move it up and down, and all about, every day for the first two or three days. By the end' of that time its preservation will be complete. Half -.Bailed Specimens. — Very often a subject will be brought to you in the flesh, several days old, green on the abdomen, and the hair starting to slip off between the hind legs. If the hair pulls out readily On various parts of the body and limbs, it is a gone case ; but if it starts only a little on the lower part of the abdomen, and is firm everywhere else, put some bath, with a lit- tle extra alum in it, on the fire to get warm, snatch that skin off in a hurry, and without stopping for any fancy touches whisk it into the warm bath. The bath should not be so hot that you cannot bear your hand in it. It will act like magic. Then you can gradually finish your work on the skin, so as to keep it safe from harm. Very often quick work, and a warm bath with plenty of alum in it, will save a skin in fine, mountable shape, when nothing else will. The alum acts as a powerful astrin- gent, drawing together the fibres of the epidermis around the root of each individual hair, and likewise binding together the cutis and epidermis. Cleanliness. — You will observe that as fresh skins are put into a bath it gradually loses its strength, and it is also liable to be- come, in time, so dirty with blood and grease that it must be thrown away. Keep skins that are greasy (bear, seal, etc.) care- fully by themselves, and never put the skin of a deer, cat, or any animal with a fine coat in a greasy or dirty bath. If a bath is clean, but of too low strength, make some extra strong bath, say 20°, and add to it and bring it up to 15°. Keep all your bath receptacles tightly closed, or the liquid will evaporate very rapidly. Text /'in/ flit- lidfji. — If you have no salometer, and are not over- particular, you can test your bath by tasting it ; but unless the 32 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. bath is new and untouched, I prefer the little salometer. By tasting the bath when first made in the proportions given above, and remembering the degree of its astringency upon the tongue, you can make that a standard for comparison — if it suits your taste ! Skulls and Leg Bones. — The leg bones of all small and medium- sized mammals, even up to the deer, can just as well go into the bath, after they have been thoroughly cleaned of all flesh and ten- dons. The skulls, however, had better not go into the solution. Clean them carefully, anoint them all over with thin arsenical soap, put a tag on each to show to what skin it belongs, and let it dry. Don't lay it aside without poisoning, or it will be swarming with dermestes before you know it. As before stated, a skin must have room while it is curing, but when that has been thoroughly accomplished, which with the largest skins never takes more than four or five days, they can be packed together like sardines so long as the bath is strong enough. B. MAKING DRY SKINS.— Poisoning and Preserving. — When the skin has been removed and cleaned, the next step is to sew up from the inside any holes that may have been made in the skin by bullets or knives. Then make up a mixture of two-thirds powdered alum and one-third arsenic, and rub as much of it upon the inside of the skin as will stick there. The alum is to preserve the skin, the arsenic to poison it against the attacks of insects. Apply this mixture thoroughly, especially in the feet, ears, head, and tail, for these are the points the dermestes at- tack first. Another Method, and one which I almost invariably follow when I am compelled to make dry skins, is to anoint the skin with strong arsenical soap,* — the finest poison for skins yet dis- covered,— then rub on the skin, as soon as the soap has been fully absorbed, a mixture of fine salt and powdered alum, in equal proportions. Though the arsenical soap may be thought " mussy " at first, it should not be used thin and watery, but as a thin paste, like thick cream. The advantages of this method are — (1), that the skin is more thoroughly poisoned, especially externally, on the hairless portions ; (2), the skin dries without * See recipe in Chapter XLV. TREATMENT OF THE SKINS OF SMALL MAMMALS. 33 becoming1 so hard and brittle and inelastic ; and (3), it can be softened and mounted much more easily and successfully than skins prepared by the first method. For skins which are to be mounted, the advantages of this method are very obvious. TJie Simplest Method. — If you have neither arsenic nor arsenical soap, and yet wish to save a skin so it can be sent to a taxider- mist in good condition, prepare it with fine salt alone. Use the salt liberally, and if the weather is warm, leave the skin turned wrong side out and roll it up in a quantity of it. If you use it sparingly, the skin will absorb it all in a day or two, literally " cry for more," and failing to get it will sweat and spoil. It is simply a question of enough salt. Even when collecting in the field, I nearly always cure small skins with salt only, so that they will stay quite soft and fresh until they get to the laboratory, and then go into the bath with- out ever having been dried. Rats. — Skins preserved with salt only must be carefully guarded from the attacks of mice, rats, cats, dogs, and other vermin that go about seeking what they may devour. MAKING UP A DHY SKIN. — The Legs. — Having applied the pre- servatives, if you propose to make up your specimen as a dry skin, wrap a little tow, oakum, cotton, or cotton cloth around the bones of each leg, to partly replace the flesh, and keep the skin away from the bone, so that both can dry quickly. If you have no other material, paper will do. In the East Indies, where transportation was difficult, I used to carry with me bundles of coarse brown paper such as the grocers use, and used it for wrapping the leg bones of monkeys, foxes, and the like. But for the small rodents, one must have either tow, oakum, cotton, or cloth, the preference Jbeing in the order named. On no ac- count should the skin be left to dry down upon the bone. The proper filling out of the legs is desirable in order that they may have a neat, shapely, and natural appearance, so that the hair will lie naturally, and can be studied to advantage. If this part of the process is neglected, the skin of the leg shrivels up, dries down upon the bone, and looks like a mummy. In the tropics the moisture in a leg bone is sufficient to cause the decay of the skin which surrounds it unless they av separated by some kind of wrapping. To avoid this, some tropical collectors allow their 3 34 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. skins to dry ivrong side out, a most lazy and vicious habit, the results of which are in most cases totally worthless. Having- wrapped the leg bones enough fairly to replace the flesh, turn back the skin of the leg until it comes right side out again, adjust the skin neatly, and make the member as shapely and natural as you please. The Skull. — There are two ways of dispos- ing of the skull. The universal custom has been to replace it in the head, with a little fill- ing in the cheeks and orbits, the lips neatly adjusted on the teeth, and the eyelids also in their place, half open. This makes the best- looking skin, and unless you wish to study the skull, is the best method to follow. For skins that are specially designed for study, the plan lately adopted by the curator of mammals of the National Museum is an excel- lent one. It is to remove the skull entirely from the head, and in case of all mammals smaller than a coyote, put it in the centre of the body, with the filling, in the line of the seam along the belly, so that by cutting a few stitches in the dry specimen it may be read- ily taken out at any time. The advantages of this arrangement are obvious. The Tail. — The tail must be disposed of ac- cording to its character. If it is long and slender, take a small wire, wrap it with tow or cotton cloth, so that the skin cannot touch the iron at any point, insert it in the tail and sew it up with a few long stitches. If you have not the means wherewith to do this, whittle a slender stick to a point, and insert it in the tail from within two inches of the body out to the tip. If the tail is large, and has been split open for its entire length, it can be left flat. Filling. — Begin at the head and fill out the head, neck, and body to about the natural size of the animal when alive, but no PIG. 4. — A Model Mam- mal Skill. TREATMENT OF THE SKINS OF SMALL MAMMALS. larger. Setter leave it too small than f II it too full, and stretch the skin out of proportion. With needle and thread sew up the skin to give it a neat appearance, beginning1 at the throat. Comb and brash the hair so that it will lie naturally, and show its texture and colors to the —_^ best advantage. Take a stitch also in the centre of the lips to hold them together. ShapiiHj - - The ends to be sought in laying out a skin to dry are, to have it take up a limited amount of space in a drawer, to have all breakable points protected, and at the same time to have all parts of the specimen accessible for ex- amination. The shape of a dry skin, therefore, must depend upon its character. The hand- somest collection of small mam- mal skins that I have ever seen is that of Dr. 0. Hart Merriam, Chief of the Bureau of Eco- nomic Ornithology and Mam- malogy, Department of Agri- culture. Although it is purely a private collection, it contains at this date 5,750 skins. Dr. Merriam's method of shaping a skin is certainly, so far as looks are concerned, the best yet devised. Fig. 4, on the op- posite page, shows it perfectly. The tail is wired, and extends straight out behind, lying be- tween the hind legs, which also extend directly backward. Tho forelegs are drawn forward iust far enough apart to allow the head to lie between them. The skin is well shaped, and lies flat Fio. 5. — Another Form of Mammal Skin. 36 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. upon the belly, with all the members resting1 clown upon the bottom of the drawer. With specimens having long tails this arrangement is open to one objection. In the rough-and-tumble experiences that collections made in the field almost inevitably go through be- fore they reach safe anchorage in the museum, a long tail stick- ing straight out for its full length is very liable to suffer dam- age in various ways, especially at the tip. For this reason I always bend the tail down and lay it along on the belly, with a stitch or two to hold it there, safe from harm (Fig. 5). And with such animals as monkeys, sloths, cats, etc., having long and slender forelegs, I always place those members close along- side the body, instead of extending them their full length to- ward the front. STEEL COMBS. — For dressing the hair of an animal it pays to have a furrier's fine steel comb, and a coarser comb of German silver, such as can be obtained at seventy-five and fifty cents each, respectively, of J. Euszits, No. 73 Mercer Street, New York. The same furrier also furnishes a very large steel robe-comb (like an infant garden rake), which is very useful on large mam- mals having long, matted hair, such as buffaloes, camels,- llamas, and the like. CHAPTER V. COLLECTING AND PRESERVING THE SKINS OF LARGE MAMMALS. THE fundamental principles to be observed in skinning- a large mammal are, in general, precisely the same as those which govern the same process in small mammals, and which have been recorded in detail in the preceding chapter. Having done my best to afford the student a clear and full understanding of those principles, it is almost unnecessary to say anything about large mammals. A keen-witted worker could skin any mammal and preserve the skin by the light of the directions already given, with such variations as common-sense would dictate. But, in order to aid the student to the fullest extent, we will endeavor to state the exceptions and variations of method which are necessary in disposing of large subjects. MEASUREMENTS. — Up to this hour there has been a total lack of system and uniformity among naturalists and hunters in tak- ing measurements of large quadrupeds. I have in several im- portant cases found it utterly impossible to interpret the mean- ing of measurements taken by other collectors — and it is very likely they have experienced the same difficulty in understand- ing mine. In the hope of securing uniformity hereafter in ob- servations of this kind, I venture to propose the following sys- tem, which will apply to all terrestrial mammals larger than th:- fox, except the large quadrumana. If the method here proposed is rigidly adhered to, it will produce a uniformity in results that will certainly increase the value of specimens collected hereafter. The measurements are listed in the order of their importance, and are fully indicated in the accompanying illus- tration (Plate LLI.). Straight lines indicate straight measure- 38 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. ments between two points, not following curves ; and curved lines indicate circumference measurements. Record all measurements in feet and inches, and fractions of an inch. If you would have your records understood by the few rather than by the many, then bow to the dictates of the French and German naturalists, who, as a rule, care not a brass farthing for American science or zoological nomenclature, and employ the metric system. The chances are as twenty to one that no one outside of the English language will ever care a continental about your measurements, and for this reason United States measurements ought to bo good enough for us. There is no more reason why 120,000,000 English-speaking people should adopt the metric system for a few Europeans who might care for their measurements, than that we should write all our zoo- logical books and papers in French or German. If you wish to make your records available' to the pec.plc, who will care for them, make them in the United States language. 1. Length of head and body to root of tail (Plate III., A-A). -In taking this measurement, lay the animal upon its side, stretch the head straight forward as far as it will go, and hold a stick perpendicular against the tip of the nose. Erect another perpendicular rod under the tail, close to where it joins the body, at the angle formed by the lines A and II, then measure between these two perpendiculars. 2. Height at the shoulders (B-B). — This is a difficult measure- ment to take, because it is subject to the management of the operator. Plant a perpendicular rod close against the shoulders at the highest point. Then hold the foreleg perfectly straight, at a right angle to the axis of the body, and bend 'up the foot into the position it would assume if the animal were standing upon it. In short, place the foreleg and foot exactly as they would be were the animal alive and standing, with its weight rest- ing upon it, and measure from the bottom of the heel in a straight line to the perpendicular at the shoulders. 3. Girth behind foreleg— In taking this, always measure at the point where the girth of a saddle touches the horse, and draw the tape-line taut upon the skin. If the hair is thick and long, part it. 4. Circumference of the neck. EH •J 6, o g a H Q H W O W « K (2 a w - o W i w K COLLECTING AND PRESERVING THE SKINS. 39 5. Depth of flank (E-E). — To a taxidermist, this is often a very important guide in the construction of a manikin. There is always a thin fold of skin at the point where the skin of the hind leg- passes to the side of a large animal, as indicated by the dotted line in the figure, at the lower end of the line E-E. Erect a perpendicular at the upper end of the line E, and meas- ure between the two points. G. Circumference of forearm (F-F). — To be taken at the point where the forearm has the greatest circumference. 7. From head of humerus to head of femur. — This is always of extreme value in building a manikin. As the animal lies upon its side, hold the foreleg the same as when you measured the height at the shoulders. Then feel for the two high points G-G, where the skin rests on the outer extremity of the arm and thigh bones (not the pelvis), at shoulder and hip, and meas- ure between the two points. 8. Length of tail (H-H). — Hold the tail down at an angle of forty-five degrees with the axis of the bod}7, or the line A- A, and measure from the angle A-H to the end <>///,<• i\->'trl>rce of the tail. If you measure to the end of the hair, let this be a supplemen- tary measurement. These are the measurements which should always be taken on a large animal. Of course, of certain subjects, there are many other measurements that you will want, but your own needs will tell you what they are. \\KIGHT. — It is very desirable to ascertain the weight of an an- imal whenever possible. A thousand times, at least, have I been asked the weight of my big tiger (495 pounds), and that number of times have I been glad that in spite of jungle fever, I persevered with my 50-pound scales, and weighed the animal piecemeal, after he had been skinned and cut up. With a par- ticularly fine animal it is well worth the trouble it costs. SKINNING A LAEGE MA.M.MAL. — Pdp the skin open by a clean, straight cut from the throat along the neck, breast, middle of the belly, and on to the root of the tail. We are now obliged to slit the legs open along their entire length, so that the cuts will be as much out of sight as possible when the animal is mounted. In making these opening cuts, always insert the point of the knife under the skin, edge uppermost, to avoid cutting the hair. 40 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. To rip open a leg-, seize the foot in your left hand, bring1 the leg against your own knee to hold it tense and firm, then insert the point of your knife into the middle of the foot at the back, and cut straight up the back of the leg until you come to the "knee" on the foreleg, and hock-joint on the other. At these points gradually change the di- rection of the cut and ran it on up the inside so that it will finally come to the body-cut at a point exactly between the legs, and as much as possible out of sight. The lines in the accompanying- fig- ure (G) show how the cuts in the legs should be made. In skinning1 the head of an animal having antlers or horns, it is necessary to make an opening at the back of the neck shaped like a Y- FIG. 6. — Opening Cutn oa a Large Mammal. -*«- i /i i Make the cuts as shown in Fig. 7, on opposite page ; cut completely around each horn at its base, and skin the head by working downward over the forehead and cheeks. The skull is then taken out through this Y * Thoroughness. — The principles to be observed in skinning1 the body are precisely the same as those given for small mammals. Remember that it is easier to take the skin off clean and free from flesh as you cut it from the animal, and can stretch it tight with your left hand in order to shave the flesh off clean, than it will be to clean the skin after it is off. An excess of flesh left on the skin means unnecessary weight, a waste of preservatives, and longer time in curing the skin. A clean, thin skin is more easily and quickly cured and carried than one badly taken ofT. My habit is to clean a skin so thoroughly in taking it off that no paring down is necessary before curing it — unless, indeed, it * For detailed instructions in skinning large heads, sec Chapter XIX. COLLECTING AND PRESERVING THE SKINS. 41 be the skin of an elephant or other pachyderm. "When I once preserved the skin of a large, old elephant in an Indian jungle, I kept ten native chucklers at work upon it for three days, thin- ning it down to a portable degree. The Legs. — If tho specimen is of medium size, c.y., not larger FIG. 7.— Opening Cuts at Back of Prong-horn Antelope's Head. than a deer, disjoint the legs at shoulder and hip, and leave all the leg bones attached to the skin, just as with small mam- mals; but, of course, cutting off the flesh and tendons carefully. If the animal is larger than a deer, the skin would be too heavy and cumbersome to handle if all the leg bones were left attached to it. Therefore, with your elk, moose, buffalo, etc., cut off tho 42 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. foreleg- at the " knee " (so called), and the hind leg- at the hock- joint, leaving the calcaneuni, or heel-bone, attached to the canon bone, and thus remaining- with the skin. The bones from the two upper joints of the legs are to be cleaned of flesh, tied in a bundle, and sent with the skin — unless the collector happens to be travelling^ by pack train in mountainous country, far afield. In such a case we can forgive him for throwing away the large bones of the legs if he will only bring in the skin, skull, and lower leg bones all right. The point is, in mounting a skin we must have leg bones — if not the real ones, then they must be counterfeits carved out of wood, to give shape to the legs, par- ticularly at the joints. And he who tries it once will find it is a two or three days' job to carve a large set of leg bones, even with patterns by which to work, to say nothing of having to evolve models from one's inner consciousness. Therefore, I say, save the leg bones. Betvare of Blood. — By all means keep the hair from getting bloody, but if you cannot possibly keep it clean, keep it as clean as you can. Remember that blood must be washed out on the spot, no matter how scarce water is, nor whether the mercury stand at 110° above zero, or 10° below. If a wound bleeds pro- fusely, throw plenty of dry dirt or sand on the hair that has become bloody, to absorb the blood. The dirt can be knocked out with a stick, and it will take the blood with it. If the white hair of the prong-horn antelope once gets soaked with blood, it is impossible to remove all traces of it. The soft, tubular hairs get filled with blood wherever there is a break, and enough of it will always remain to mark the catastrophe. In the Bad Lands of Montana I once washed three long and bitterly cold hours on a fine antelope skin that had lain twenty -four hours with blood upon it, but had to give up beaten, at last, and throw the skin away. Shaping. — Since these directions will be used chiefly in pre- paring the skins of deer, antelope, and kindred ruminants, the accompanying illustration (Fig. 8) is given to show how such skins should be made up when they are to be preserved dry, either for study or for mounting. It is best to defer folding up a skin until it is partially dry and has begun to stiffen a little. COLLECTING AND PRESERVING THE SKINS. 43 SPECIAL AND EXCEPTIONAL DIRECTIONS. — Apes and Monkeys.— If you are in the jungle, the chances are that you will have no plaster Paris with which to make casts, in which case you must make the sketching- pencil and tape-meas- ure do double duty. With such a wonder- ful and characteris- tic form as a gorilla, chimpanzee, or orang- utan, you cannot ^MMB^V-V^'^ n}\ study it too much ^L^^^ unless you study it until the skin spoils. Above all things, study every feature of the face, and also its expression, so that you can make a copy of it two years after- ward which shall be both mathematically and artistically cor- rect. If you have plaster Paris, fail not to take a mould of the face, and also of one hand and foot, so that later you can make casts. The same ad- vice applies to the great baboons with their IV;irful and won- derful faces and is- chial callosities, some of them gotten up with all the colors of the rainbow, and far more brilliancy. Kemember that when the skin dries all those colors totally disappear, and the skin turns to the color of parchment. Therefore, ovit with your box of colors at once, and make a color-sketch of the face. If you have skill FIG. 8.— A Well-made Dry Deer Skin. 44 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. but no colors, or colors with no skill, then out with your " Ridg- way's Nomenclature of Colors," make a large diagram or sketch of the head, and mark the names of the respective colors upon it. Whenever the skin of any animal has any noticeable color, record the fact in as definite terms as possible. All the great anthropoid apes should have the opening-cut for the body made along the middle of the back, up to the back of the head, instead of along the abdomen and breast, which are generally but thinly haired, and on tlie throat are quite naked. By doing this, the sewed-up seam comes at the back of the mounted specimen, in the hair, and out of sight. With adult specimens of the gorilla, chimpanzee, and orang the skeleton is quite as valuable as the skin, therefore every bone must come FIG. 9.— Foot of Oraug-Utan, showing Opening Cuts. forth and be carefully preserved. Skinning the fingers is a tedious task, and one which requires some skill, especially when it comes to working the end off so that the nail is left in its place in the skin, and without mutilation. But when the value of a skin and skeleton runs up into hundreds of dollars, you can well afford to spend a whole hour in skinning a hand, if you cannot do it in loss time. The opening cuts for the hand and foot of any ape or monkey are to be inado as shown by the dot- ted lines in the accompanying sketch of the foot of an orang- utan (Fig. 9). This is necessary even in skinning t mall quadru- manes which are to retain their leg bones, because the skin of each finger must be separated from- the bone so that the pre- servative powder or liquid can get at the inside of it. The Eyes and Nose. — Bo exceedingly careful in skinning the face. The eyes are deeply sunken in their sockets, and if you COLLECTING AND PRESERVING THE SKINS. 45 are not very careful your knife will make an ugly gash at the corner of the eye before you know it. A finger held in between the lids against the eyeball will be a safe guide. Of course, you will cut the lips away at the gum, and split them open after- ward from the inside to remove the flesh. And, of course, the proboscis of the baboon and the long-nosed monkey of Borneo must be skinned out quite to the tip while the specimen is fresh, or it will dry up horribly. The Ear. — The ear of a quadrumane, especially that of a chim- panzee, because of its great size, is a very miserable part to pre- serve, unless you have a salt-and-alum bath at hand. If the car- tilage is entirely skinned out — itself a difficult thing to do — it will afterward be almost a practical impossibility to give the ear its proper shape. Therefore the cartilage must remain. The skin can be loosened from the cartilage at the back of the ear, however, which is a great gain. Do this, and insert a good quantity of powdered alum. Then paint the whole ear over on both sides with arsenical soap, and put on all the powdered alum that will stick — unless the skin is to go in the bath. In that case treat each ear to a little strong alum water for an hour *» or so. CHAPTEK VI. COLLECTING SKINS OF SMALL BIBDS. THE lives of hundreds of thousands of wild birds have been sacrificed to no purpose by persons claiming1 to be ornithologi- cal collectors, and yet who had not the knowledge, skill, or in- dustry to make up good bird skins. There are now in this country numerous large collections of bird skins that are a sight to behold. The ability to make up fine, clean, shapely, well-pre- served skins, and make them rapidly also, is a prime requisite in anyone who aspires to be sent off to interesting " foreign parts " to shoot, collect, and see the world — at the expense of someone else. An aspiring young friend of the writer, whose soul yearned to travel and " collect," missed a fine opportunity to make a very interesting voyage on the Albatross, for the sole reason that with all his yearning he could not make good bird skins, — and it served him right for his lack of enterprise. Let me tell you that, while twenty years ago any sort of a bird skin was acceptable to a museum, now such specimens must be first class in order to be well received. Fine skins are the rule now with curators and professional ornithologists, and poor ones the exception. Although the work itself is simple enough, it is no child's play to perform it successfully. It is best for the beginner to learn first how to skin small birds, and make up their skins, and when he has mastered these details he is prepared to undertako the preparation of largo specimens, and learn how to overcome the exceptional difficul- ties they present. To this end the present chapter will be de- voted to setting forth the leading principles involved, which are most easily learned from small specimens. We will first undertake the work of skinning a small bird — a robin, thrush, or blackbird, whichever you happen to have. If COLLECTING SKINS OF SMALL BIRDS. 47 in skinning, skin-making-, and mounting you master the robin, for example, which is the highest type of a bird, you will be well prepared for the great majority of the other members of the feathered tribe. Shoot your specimen with as fine shot as possible, and not too much even of that, in order to avoid shooting its mandibles, feet, legs, and feathers to pieces. As soon as it is dead, plug the throat, nostrils, and all iramnls il/at bleed, with bits of cotton, to keep the blood and other liquids from oozing out upon the feathers, and putting you to more serious trou- ble. Carry the spec- imen home in any careful way you choose, so as to avoid rumpling or soiling the plum- age. By all means let your first prac- tice be upon clean 1 )irds. A bird should lie an hour or two after being shot, in order that the blood may coagulate. Warm specimens bleed very badly in skinning. "We are now in our workroom, with the gun standing quietly in its corner, and a robin lying on the table before us. Look at it. Study its form and structiire, and remember what you see. Notice how smoothly the feathers lie — how nicely they fall over the angle of the wing at the shoulder — how completely the thigh is buried in the feathers of the breast and side, and also where the legs emerge from the body feathers. Notice how * From Steele's Popular Zoology, by permission of the American Book Company. FIG. 10.— Names of the External Parts of a Bird.* 1, Crown ; 2, forehead ; 3 nostrils (or cere) ; 4, upper mandible ; 5, lower mandible; 6, throat; 7, neck; 8, spurious quills; 9, occiput; 10, ear ; 11, nape ; 12, breast ; 13, middle coverts ; 14, large cov- erts ; 15, belly ; 1C, tibia ; 17 tarsus ; 18, inner toe ; 19, middle toe ; 20, outer toe ; 21, thumb ; 22, under-tail coverts ; 23 tail ; 24, primaries ; 25, secondaries ; 26, tertiaries. 48 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. short the neck is, how the eye does not bulge out of the head, and note the fact that the breast and belly look full, round, and comfortable, instead of presenting that ghastly, drawn-Tip, evis- cerated appearance so often seen in the amateur's mounted specimens. Note the color of the eye, the bill, the cere, tarsi, claws, and all other parts that will require painting when the specimen is mounted, if it ever should be. Now take the fol- lowing MEASUREMENTS. — It would be high treason for me to recom- mend any other system of bird measurement than that directed by Dr. Coues in his incomparable " Key to North American Birds," and it is hereby set forth : 1. Length. — Distance between the tip of the bill and the end of the longest feather of the tail. 2. Extent of wings. — This means the distance between the tips of the outstretched wings as the bird lies flat upon its back. 3. Length of wing. — Distance from the angle formed at the (carpus) bend of the wing to the end of the largest primary. In birds with a convex wing, do not lay the tape-line over the curve, but under the wing, in a straight line. 4. Length of the tail. — Distance from the roots of the tail feath- ers to the end of the longest one. Feel for the " pope's nose ; " in either a fresh or dried specimen there is more or less of a palpable lump into which the tail feathers stick. Guess as near as you can to the middle of this lump ; place the end of the ruler opposite the point, and see where the tip of the longest tail feather comes. 5. Length of bill. — Dr. Coues takes " the chord of the culmen," which is determined thus : " Place one foot of the dividers on the culmen just where the feathers end ; no matter whether the culmen runs up on the forehead, or the frontal feathers run out on the culmen, and no matter whether the culmen is straight or curved. With me the length of the bill is the shortest dis- tance from the point indicated to the tip of the upper maii- dible." 6. Length of tarsus. — Distance between the joint of the tarsus with the leg above, and that with the first phalanx of the middle toe below. Measure it always with the dividers, and in front of the leg-. COLLECTING SKINS OF SMALL BIKDS. 49 7. Length of toes. — Distance in a straight line along the upper surface of a toe is from the point last indicated to the root of the claw on top. Length of toe is to be taken without the claw, unless otherwise specified. 8. Length of tlie claius. — Distance in a straight line from the point last indicated to the tip of the claw. 9. Length of head. — Set one foot of the dividers over the base of the culmen, and allow the other to slip just snugly down over the arch of the occiput. For skinning a small bird, the only instrument imperatively necessary is a good-sized scalpel or a sharp penknife. You can use a pair of small scissors now and then, if you have them, to very good advantage, in severing legs and wings and clip- ping off tendons. Have ready a dish of corn meal to absorb any blood that is likely to soil the feathers. Now push a wad of cotton up the vent, and we are ready to remove the skin. No, there is one thing more. The wings lie close to the body, and will be continually in our way unless we break them so that they will fall back and leave us a clear field. It is the humerus that must be snapped in two, as close to the body as possible. Those of small birds are easily broken with the thumb and finger, but in a large bird they must be treated to a sharp blow with a heavy stick, or a hammer. Lay the bird upon its back, with its head toward your left hand ; part the feathers in a straight line, and divide the skin from the centre of the breast straight down to the end of tho breastbone, and on until the vent is reached. Cut through tho skin only, for if you go too deep and cut through the wall of the abdomen you will have the intestines and various other troubles upon your hands. Skin down each side of the bird until you come to the knee- joint, which lies close to the body, and well within the skin. Sever each leg completely at the knee, leaving the thigh attached to the body, turn the skin of the leg wrong side out over the fleshy part, quite down to the joint, and then cut away every particle of flesh from the bone of the leg. Sever the tail from the body close to the ends of the tail feathers, without cutting through the skin. Now take the body between the thumb and forefinger of the left hand, holding it 4 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. at the hips,, raid with the other hand separate tho skin from the back. From this point we proceed to turn the skin wrong- side out over the shoulders and head. When* the wings are reached, cut them off where they are broken, and turn the skin down over the neck. Avoid cutting1 through the crop. If blood flows at any time, absorb it all with the corn meal or plaster Paris. Almost before you know it you have skinned your bird down to the head, for it hangs head downward during the latter part of the operation, suspended on a small wire hook thrust through the pelvis, so that you can work with both hands. It is a trifle more difficult to turn the skin over the head. Push it up from the back of the head with the thumb-nail, working it patiently at all points, and stretching tTie skin gradually until it will pass over the widest part of the skull. Presently the crisis is past, the skin slips clown without trouble, and we see by the way it is held at a certain point on each side of the head that we have come to the ears. Cut through the skin close up to the head, and a little farther on we reach the eyes. Now be careful. Cut very slowly at the eye, and close to the head, until you can see through the thin membrane and define the exact position of the eyeball. Now cut through the mem- brane, but do not cut the eyelid on any account. A little farther and wo come to the base of the bill, where the skin and our skinning stops. Cut through the back of the skull so as to sever the head com- pletely from the neck, and lay bare the base of the brain. Re- move the brain from the skull ; cut the eyes out of their sockets ; cut out the tongue and remove all flesh from the skull. Skill each wing down to the first joint, or the elbow, and stop the " wrong-side-out " process there. The ends of the second- FIG. 11.— First Steps in Skin- ning a Bird. COLLECTING SKINS OF SMALL BIRDS. aries must not be separated from the bone of the forearm, or the ulna. It is possible to clean out the flesh from the forearm and also from the arm bone (humerns) without detaching th'1 ends of the secondaries, as you will readily see. Cut away any flesh which has been left at the root of the tail, but do not rut the ends of the tail feathers. The next thing- is to poison the skin. Do this with a. mixture of powdered arsenic and alum, in equal parts. Some of our most extensive collectors use no alum, simply pure arsenic in liberal quantity-, but I consider that the use of alum also is always desirable, and under certain conditions it is extremely so. Some collectors use arsenical soap exclusively, even on small birds, and on large birds I, too, have used it quite extensively, supplemented by an immediate sprinkling of powdered alum, to do the curing of the skin. For genuine thoroughness in poison- ing and preserving, I will back arsenical soap and alum against all other substances the world can produce ; but in treating small birds Hi at are to be made up as dry skins, I prefer and recommend powdered arsenic and alum, as stated above. Whatever poison you decide to use, apply it thoroughly to every part of the skin, the skull, wings, legs, and tail. Now put a ball of c/otton in each eye-socket to fill up the cavity, and you are ready to reverse the skin and 1 tring it right side out once more. It is usually some trouble to get the skin back over the skull, and that I accom- plish in this wise : Let the skin rest on the edge of the table, place both of your thumbs on the back of the skull, and with all your ringers and finger-nails, reach forward and begin to crowd the skin of the Fio. 12.— The Skin Wronp Skle Ont, and Ready to be Poisoned. 52 TAXIDEEMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING head back where it belongs. At the same time, you must push on the skull with your thumbs, as if trying to push it into the neck, and in a very short time, by a combination of coaxing and crowding, the skin made passes the critical point on the skull, and, presto ! the whole skin is right side out once more. Now take it by the bill and give it a gentle shaking to stir up the feathers so that they will fall back naturally. Pluck outward the cotton in the orbit into the 'opening of the eye, to imitate the round fulness of the eyeball. The wing bones of very small birds need not be wrapped with cotton, but the leg bones should be, always. Now take a bunch of cotton batting of the right size, and roll it between the palms until it attains the proper size to fill the neck, and is a trifle longer than the entire body and neck. Fold over one end of this, take it between the points of your forceps, insert it through the neck, and into the cavity of the skull. Tuck up the other end at the tail, and give the cotton body its right length. Then in the middle of the skin, pull the cotton roll apart sidewise, spread it out and lay on it a ball of cotton to form the body. Next, take hold of the broken humerus with the forceps, and pull it inward until the joint of the wing appears, and the two humeri lie parallel and close to each other. This draws the wings into place. Be sure to put enough cotton in the body of a skin ; for a little plumpness and rotundity is desirable in a small skin. Avoid making cylindrical bird skins; avoid the East Indian native habit of crowding the breast of a bird clear up into its neck, and also avoid stretching a skin. We have now to finish the head by inserting a little bunch of cotton in the throat, until that part is properly filled, and plucking out or cutting off the surplus. The mandibles must be held together by a thread or a pin until they have dried in position. Next adjust the wings, legs, and tail. The tail should be slightly spread, and there are two ways of doing this. One is to reverse the natural overlapping of the tail feathers, which is the quickest way, and quite satisfactory. The other is to lay the skin on a board, put a pin through each corner of the " pope's nose," spread the tail, and thrust the pins into the board until the skin is dry. Finally, tie on your label, which COLLECTING SKINS OF SMALL BIRDS. should be as small as possible to contain the necessary data- locality, date, sex, number, collector's name, measurements, and remarks. Some collectors label only with numbers, cori"- sponding with recorded data in a note-book ; but it is a bad plan. Note-books often get lost, and then such specimens lose half their value. WRAPPING UP A SKTN. — There are various ways of " laying out " bird skins. The best is to wrap each skin in a very thin sheet of cotton batting or wadding, which draws witli the soft- ness of down, and yet, when pinched or twisted at the ends, it w^ • - - . - • FIG. 13.— The Bird Skin in Position. holds every feather in place. The bird skins prepared by Mr. William Palmer, one of the National Museum taxidermists, are fine examples of how skins should be made. Mr. Palmer's method of shaping and wrapping up a small skin is as follows, and the accompanying figures are from specimens prepared by him : Take the skin up between the left thumb and forefinger, at the shoulders, and pinch it together, while with the small forceps you adjust the scapulars over the point of the wings. Cross the feet, lay the skin breast downward on a thin sheet of cotton battitog of the proper dimensions, and arrange the feathers of the back, the wings, etc. (Fig. 13). Then lift the outer edg^e of the sheet of cotton, bring it forward over the skin toward the operator, so that it will cover the back (Fig. 14). i">4 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. Next, lift the inner edge of the cotton sheet, draw it with gen- tle pressure to make the skin of the right size, and lap it well over the other. The two edges of the cotton sheet will stick together very well by simply overlapping them. The head can be adjusted by pulling on the cotton at that < 'lid, and pinching the end together beyond the- head. The bill must be set at the proper angle, and held by catching the point in the cotton. Do not let the bill point straight out, for it will stretch the skin of the throat too much ; neither should it point up "at a right angle to the body, for the tip will be catching in everything that comes near it. The best way with most short- P&^Sy^a ;fM-j/ ;•):.••. :."•" .--:.' . a -, v.;; '•• FIG. 14.— The Skin Half Wrapped. billed birds is to let the bill point at an angle of about forty- five degrees to the axis of the body. Beaks that are very long require special arrangement, as shown in Figs. 17 and 18. Now lift the wrapped-up skin, lay it with the tail toward you, breast uppermost, and with both hands tear the cotton open in a straight line up to the base of the tail (Fig. 15). You can now spread the tail by overlapping the feathers, or leave it closed if you prefer. See that your label is on, adjust the toes and legs carefully, then fold over the edges of the cotton and overlap them, and the skin is done (Fig. 16). Always spread the toes of all swimming-birds. Another plan is to dispose of each skin in a little cylinder of paper, made to fit, of course. This is the best. plan when you are far from tho conveniences of home, and in a hurry. The COLLECTING SKINS OF SMALL BIRDS. effect of this, however, is to produce a cylindrical skin, which is not a prize shape. Still another way is to make a small coruu- FIG. 15.— Spreading the Tail. copia'of stiff paper, and slip the skin into it, head first, after which the large end is closed by bending in the edges. The old-fashioned, corrugated drying-board is ail excellent resource when you are in a great hurry with a number of specimens. • •' is that it is stronger than is really necessary. I have preserved barrels of alcoholic specimens in a solution composed of two parts of proof spirits and one part water, and have never lost n speci- men except through leakage. This solution is strong enough to stand considerable deterioration without the loss of its contents. I have never attempted to collect quantities of alcoholics without an alcoholometer in constant use. This little instru- ment costs but a trifle, and affords the only reliable means for testing the strength of alcohol. Its use enables the collector to exercise economy in the use of his spirits, and get the maxi- mum benefit from it. Therefore I say, buy an alcoholometer at all hazards, and carry it and a suitable test-glass with your out- fit. Test the spirits on your specimens frequently, and you will then run no risks of loss. Keep a receptacle to use as a receiving and curing tank, into which all fresh specimens are placed, with abundant room for each to undergo the curing process. Every animal contains in its body a heavy percentage of water, which must be, in great measure, replaced by the spirits before the flesh can be pre- served from decay. Into the first bath a great quantity of blood and abdominal fluids will be soaked out from the specimen, and it is bound to lose strength rapidly, and also become foul. As long as it remains clean enough to use, keep up its strength by the addition of pure spirits, and in it immerse all specimens until they are thoroughly cured. Give them plenty of room at first, and keep them from settling down to the bottom by put- ting there a bunch of excelsior, tow, or cloth. While the spirits in a can may be strong enough on top to preserve a specimen, at the bottom, where the animal impurities settle, it may be so weak that anything1 lying in it would soon spoil. Often the tail of a fish which hangs upright in a jar will spoil while the remainder will be preserved. After specimens have rem;iiii";l in the receiving- tank for from two to four days, according to size, put them in another re- ceptacle in clean, fresh spirits, still allowing them plenty of room. Finally, when ready to pack up and make a shipment home, wrap each fish separately in a piece of thin, white cotton cloth, just large enough to cover it well, dip it in clean spirits, and without any tying or pinning of the cloths, lay the fishes in 76 TAXIDEllMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. your barrel like sardines in a box, as closely as they will lie without being squeezed. Fill the receptacle full of fishes, head it up, and then pour into it all the clean spirits it will hold. In order to proceed with the second and third methods of preserving1 fish specimens, it now becomes necessary to describe a process. How TO SKIN A FISH. — Of course, no one aspiring1 to become a collector of fishes will remain in ignorance of the names of the different fins. And, more than that, before he can prepare even the rough skeleton of a fish he must know what its bony structure is like. On the whole, there is a good deal to be learned about methods in collecting fishes, and as a beginning we must learn how to skin a scale fish. The methods with car- tilaginous fishes will be considered later. The principles with all scale fishes are precisely the same, the only difference being in the greater amount of cold steel and energy required for such great, hulking brutes as the jew- fish, and the magnificent tarpon. For convenience we will take a specimen about a foot in length ; for example, a striped bass, a pike, or a red snapper. As is the case with quadrupeds, the left side of a mounted fish is always expected to be " the show side." Lay the speci- men upon its left side, start at the vent with a stout pair of sharp -pointed scissors, and divide the skin in a perfectly straight line along the median line of the belly toward tho head, stopping the cut when you approach close to the narrow, tongue-like point which terminates between the lower angles of the gill openings. Now reverse the fish, begin again at the vent, and divide the skin with a clean cut through the scales, in a line parallel with the base of the anal fin, and about half an inch from where the scales meet the fin rays. This is really a cut along the side of the fish, as low down as possible, made necessary by reason of the anal fin. Continue this cut straight back to the tail, as shown in the dotted line g-h in Plate IV. You will find that the ventral fins are joined together in the flesh by a strong bony arch, called the pubis, and this must be divided through the middle so as to entirely separate the fins. The anal fin -rays must now be cut loose from the interior rays (called interhaemal spines), which are really their bony founda- K EH E- COLLECTING FISHES. 77 tion. The ventral fins must also be cut loose from the pubic bones at the point where they are articulated. Now take the cut edge of the fish skin between the left thumb and forefinger, and with the cartilage-knife carefully cut the skin free from the flesh. Be careful not to disturb the white layer of color pig- ment which is spread like a silver lining of feeble tin-foil over the inside of the skin. This is what gives the fish its silvery color, and if skinned off or scraped away the skin will look like colorless parchment. Whatever you do, do not disturb that color lininy. Proceed with the skinning until the skin has been de- tached from the entire upper side of the fish. This brings you to where the dorsal and caudal fins are inserted.* Now turn the fish over, and proceed as before, as far as you can go. You presently reach the caudal fin, which must be cut loose from the end of the vertebral column as far back in the skin as possible. When this has been done, the skin and the fleshy body still hang together by the attachment of the rays of the dorsal fin to the interhaemal spines. Cut these apart with the scissors, from back to front, close up to the skin, which brings you to where the vertebral column joins the skull. You will make very short work of that, which frees the fleshy body from the skull. Now scrape away the surplus flesh from the inside of the skin, wash it thoroughly, remove the gills (if they are not to be studied), and lay the skin flat upon its side in your tank of alcohol. By thus preserving the skins of fishes, instead of whole speci- mens, a great number of really large specimens can be pre- served in a small quantity of alcohol, for at the last they can be packed together, heads and tails, precisely like sardines. SKINNING CARTILAGINOUS FISHES. — Sharks, Rays, etc. — The skin- ning of a shark or saw-fish calls for no special instructions in addition to the foregoing, except that the long, narrow, pointed tail requires to be slit open along the right side of its upper lobe for a considerable distance. Remember the principle that wherever there is flesh, a way must be made so that it can be removed, or at least reached from the inside by the preserva- tive. Of the skull, nothing is to be left attached to the skin *Some operators open a fish in a straight line along the middle of one side, but 1 have never beeu able to see any reason for this preference. 78 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. except the jaws. The skeleton is wholly of cartilage instead of bone, and is easily cut through. The extremely flat, circular-bodied ray, also with a cartilagi- nous skeleton, must be opened on the underside by two cross cuts at right angles to each other, one extending from mouth to tail, and the other from side to side. The fin rays are very long stems of cartilage, set so closely together as to form a solid sheet of cartilage extending from the thoracic skeleton out to the extremities of the fins, which taper out to nothing. The thoracic skeleton gives shape to the body of the ray, particu- larly the back, and it must be left in place, with the skin of the back attached to it. Cut through the fin rays where they join the body, and this will enable you to skin down each side of the fish until you get so near the outer edge there is no longer any flesh. Stop at that point, cut the flesh away from the fin rays, and cut away as much of the fin rays themselves as you please. Clear out all the flesh and preserve the skin in a very strong solution of salt and water (what is known to chemists as a " sat- urated solution " ), or in alcohol if you have it to spare. PREPARING ROUGH SKELETONS. — In about seven cases out of ten, it is a far easier and more simple matter to rough out, clean, and mount the complete skeleton of a fish than the uninitiated would naturally suppose. A few fishes, such as the shad, have more bones than the law allows, and the preparation of a com- plete skeleton thus becomes a practical impossibility. Fortu- nately, however, most fishes are more reasonable in the matter of bones, and to these wTe direct our efforts. First and foremost, study the bony structure of a typical scale fish, learn what its principal parts are, and how they are artic- ulated. Learn how the ribs lie, and how a row of slender, rib- like bones called appendices, or epipleural spines, are attached to the true ribs, and at their outer extremities touch the inside <>f fJie skin along the lateral line of the fish. If you will take a good-sized perch as your first subject, you will not be troubled with any osteological extras, and the process will be as follows : Lay the perch upon its side, and with a sharp scalpel cut away the skin from the whole of the exposed side. Remove all the viscera. By careful examination, ascertain the exact lo- cation of the ribs, and particularly the row of epipleural spines COLLECTING FISHES. 79 attached at the upper ends of the former. With a broad, flat bone-scraper, or your knife-blade if you have nothing- better, beg-in at the lateral line of the fish, and work toward the top of the back, taking- the flesh away in chunks as you go. In a very short time the vertebrae and the interhtemal spines are ex- posed, and with a narrower bone-scraper the flesh is easily re- moved from them. Now turn the fish around, and with great care cut and scrape the flesh away from the ribs and the epipleural spines. Do not on any account detach the latter from the former, but at this stage leave them attached to each other by a thin strip of flesh for their better protection. Do not separate the ventral fins by cutting through the pubic arch, but with your small, curve-ended bone-scraper remove the flesh from the angular recesses of these bones, and leave the an- te vior end of the pubic arch attached to the coracoid. Next, pick out the flesh from around the base of the pectoral fin, re- move the eye from its socket, and whatever flesh the skull con- tains. Thus does the bony structure of one entire side stand revealed. The gills are of course to remain in place, as the skeleton would not be complete without them. There is but one thing- more to add. In treating- the other side of the fish in a precisely similar manner, care must be taken to not disturb the attachment of the intemeural and in- terhaemal spines which join the dorsal and anal fin rays to the processes of the vertebral column. Having thus denuded the fish of its flesh, lay the skeleton in a pan of water, and with a moderately soft tooth-brush, or nail- brush, brush it carefully to wash away all blood and mucus. If the bones are full of blood (which is very rarely the case), the skeleton must be soaked in clear water for an hour or two, or longer if necessary, to soak out the blood, so that it will not dry in the bones and permanently disfigure them. Hough skeletons of fishes may be preserved in alcohol, but for many reasons it is much the best to dry them. Poison them with dry arsenic ; do not put upon them either salt, arsenical so"/'. or alum, hang- each one up by the head, and see that it dries in good shape. The pectoral fins should lie well down upon the ribs for mutual protection. CHAPTER X. COLLECTING MARINE INVERTEBRATES. SPONGES. — A live sponge is simply a vast colony of protozoan animals, each member of which lives an independent existence, but all are at the same time mutually dependent upon each other. The sponge of commerce, and the " cleaned " sponge of the museum collection is, like a branch of coral, merely the skeleton of the living aggregation. A live sponge is a dark- colored, heavy, tough gelatinous mass, cold and clammy to handle, quickly offensive if left in the open air, and utterly use- less until " cleaned," or rid of its mass of animal matter. The skeleton of a sponge may be horny, like that of the useful sponges of commerce ; siUcious, like the marvellously beautiful framework of the famous glass spongo of the Philippine Islands (EuplecteUa) ; or calcareous, like the curious little Gran- tia, which looks like a miniature bouquet-holder, with a frill of spines around its open end. Owing to the extreme scarcity of sponge collections, very few persons know how great a variety of forms, and what really re- markable forms, exist no farther from home than the waters that wash the coast of our own beloved Florida. I once had the pleasure of collecting no fewer than sixteen distinct species on the beach between Biscayne Bay and New River Inlet, some of them of remarkable form, and all of them nicely cleaned for me by old Ocean. Of course, I searched for sponges, and found many a fine spe- cimen buried almost out of sight in the sand, — but what glori- ous fun it was, to be sure ! There I obtained the large, coarse "basket sponge" (Hircina campana}, a hollow, inverted cone, often capable of holding a pailful of water; the remarkable finger sponge (Tuba vaginalis), which forms clusters of upright, COLLECTING MARINE INVERTEBRATES. 81 hollow cylinders ; a large cylindrical sponge of a rich brown color, and beautiful wiry texture, called Verongiajistularis ; and sponges that were like trees, like interlocked deer antlers, and what not. Professor H. A. Ward's last catalogue of invertebrates enu- merated forty-three species of sponges that were on hand when the list went to press. Of these, the largest specimen was a huge Neptune's cup (Paterion neptuni), four feet in height, and shaped like a gigantic goblet, which came from the neighbor- hood of Singapore. Therefore, I say, when on the sea-shore, be on the lookout for sponges. If you can find them on the beach ready cleaned and dried for you, so much the better ; but if you get them alive, the soft animal matter must be macerated and washed away, just as you would macerate the flesh from a large skeleton. Soak them in fresh water for a short time to macerate the soft mat- ter, then wash it out in salt water, and keep this up until the sponge is at last clean. CORALS. — The bleached white coral cluster of the cabinet is, like the sponge, only the skeleton of its former self. "When it was forcibly torn from its foothold at the bottom of the sea it was covered with living coral polyps, which gave it the color which is peculiarly its own. Some species, notably Madrepores, when first taken from the water look like colored glass. The main branches are of a yellowish-brown tint, shading toward the tips to the most delicate and beautiful bluish purple. There is no way to preserve these colors, because they are due entirely to the presence of the living polyps. When those delicate or- ganisms die, as die they must, the color vanishes, and if not cleaned and bleached, the coral assumes a dead, smoky brown appearance, suggestive of dust and dirt. Therefore it is best to clean and bleach your corals at once. This requires a little time, but the process is " so simple a child can use it." Small specimens can be cleaned quickly by wash- ing them in dilute muriatic acid, and afterward in clear water to keep the acid from going too far, and then placing them out in the sun to bleach. Large specimens cannot always be treat- ed in this way, and the best plan for wholesale operations is to place the coral on the ground, in a sunny situation, and dash 6 82 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. water upon it daily until the soft animal matter has been washed away, and the wind and sun combined have bleached the specimens to snowy whiteness. As a general thing, the natives who live within reach of coral groves are in the habit of gathering it in quantity, cleaning it very successfully, and offering it for sale at prices that defy competition on the part of any scientific collector whose time is worth more than fifty cents a day. The best thing the collector can do is to get acquainted with the native fishermen and boat- men, treat them well and pay fairly, and then, if there is any- thing in the sea that his collectorship wants, it will soon be forthcoming. Thus, instead of the growth of the collection de- pending upon one or two men, there will be from ten to twenty local experts directly interested in it. I once came to a com- plete deadlock with my interpreter and three boatmen on the translation of the word " coral." They were Singhalese and Tam- ils, and coral was worse than Sanskrit to them. Finally, as a last despairing effort, I took a pencil and began to make a sketch of a madrepore. The crowd watched its progress in breathless silence until very soon one appreciative auditor shouted trium- phantly, " Kold kalli ! " The crowd joyfully echoed it, the mys- tery was solved, and in five minutes more we were afloat and on our way to seek " The treasures of the sea, In the mystic groves of coral Whore her spirit wanders free." The packing and shipping of branching corals is a serious matter. I have tried every way I could think of, and have seen others do the same, and am firmly convinced that no mat- ter how the large branching clusters are packed, they are bound to get somewhat broken anyway ! Of course, if you care to travel with them and see to their handling at every transfer, that is another thing, but who can do that ? The trouble is that the individual branches are so very heavy for the diameter of the stems next the base, a sudden jar causes them to snap in two by their own weight. But then corals are very beautiful, very interesting, and no matter though they are troublesome, we must have them. In packing brain coral, and other compact forms without COLLECTING MARINE INVERTEBRATES. 83 branches, the principal thing is to wrap them in sufficient soft materials that their surfaces cannot get rubbed, for that would ruin them. X>o not -pack a large chunk of brain coral without putting a partition across the box to hold it firmly in its own place, no matter how the box is turned. In Ceylon I once took the trouble to divide a large box into twelve separate compart- ments for the reception of that number of coral specimens. In packing branching coral, a good quantity of soft, elastic, fibrous material like coir, cotton, tow, oakum, or something similar, is necessary. From first to last, take whatever precau- tions are necessary to keep your corals from getting filled with, dirt and litter. Each cluster must lie on a thick pad of your fibrous material. In order to get downward pressure upon it, to hold it in place without breaking the branches, take some soft paper or cotton cloth, roll up a long, cylindrical pad of cotton or something else, and thrust it far down into the larg- est opening between the branches, with one end projecting above the top of the cluster to receive and transmit pressure from above. This principle, if properly carried out, will enable the collector to so firmly fix even the most fragile cluster that it is fitted to withstand pretty rough treatment in transit with- out serious damage. STAE-FISHES. — When star-fishes are first taken from the water their arms are pliant, but after a bath in alcohol they become perfectly rigid. If left to themselves when first put into spir- its, the smaller and more spider-like species will almost tie their arms into double bow-knots, and insist on keeping them so forever after. Since the way to cure a star-fish is to soak it in alcohol for from six to twenty-four hours, according to size, and then dry it flat and in good shape, it becomes necessary to pin the small ones firmly in shape upon thin boards before im- mersing them, and then they will " stn.v put." See to it that while in the spirits all your star-fishes, large and small, cure in proper shape, flat, and with each arm flat and extended in the right direction. After removal from the spirits, pin out all those not already fastened upon boards, and then let them dry. I have never found it necessary to poison the spirits, for the reason that dermestes and other insects seem to respect a dried star-fish for his own sake. 84 TAXIDERMY ATSTD ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. ECHINI. — In all tropic seas the collector is liable to find echinoderms, " sea-urchins," " sea-eggs," or " sea-porcupines." These creatures are usually spherical in shape, with the niouth underneath, and the internal structure of the animal is covered with a stout, calcareous shell of uniform thickness, which is set all over on the outside with a mass of protecting spines, usu- ally fine and very sharp -pointed, but sometimes thick and blunt. In life the spines are movable, and by means of them the creat- ure walks, or clings to its native rocks most tenaciously. The best time to seek echini is at low tide, and the best places are those where the shore line is composed of rough rocks, scooped out here and there into shallow pools. Take with you a large basket, a large screw-driver, if you have one, or failing that, a knife with a long, stout blade. Wear old clothes, unless you can afford to spoil new ones. When the tide is low you can wade around in the now peaceful pools, and find the echini in the sheltered crevices, clinging to the bottom, or the perpendicular sides of the rocks, but always under water. To dislodge them, the knife-point or the edge of the screw- driver must be neatly and skilfully worked under the victim far enough to enable you, with the exertion of some force and a steady pull, to pry him loose from the rock, whereupon he be- comes your lawful prey. Next comes the cleaning process. With a small knife, detach the skin of the mouth parts from the edge of the round hole underneath, in the middle of which the mouth is situated, and remove all fluid and fleshy matter from the interior of the shell. That done, wash it out thor- oughly. The bony jaws, or " Aristotle's lantern," may also be drawn out through the hole and thrown away — unless you hap- pen to be collecting for some one who is studying the anatomy of echini, in which case he must speak for himself. Having cleaned your sea-urchin, put it in clean alcohol (same strength as for fishes) and let it soak for about twenty- four hours. This will prevent the spines from gently dropping off, like leaves in autumn, when you proceed to dry the speci- men. After soaking in spirits, put the specimens out in n shady place to dry. It is a curious fact that all the echini of Ceylon and Malayana lose their spines unless soaked in spirits before drying, whereas those of the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, COLLECTING MARINE INVERTEBRATES. 85 and the West Indies can be dried without soaking-, and the spines will not fall off. SHELLS. " Living " and " Dead " Specimens. — The first thing that the amateur needs to learn about a shell is that it may be living1 or dead. As a general thing1, what is technically called a " dead " shell is worthless in a cabinet. A live shell is one which has been collected with a living- mollusc in it, and then duly cleaned, preserving- all its beautiful colors. A dead shell is one in which the occupant died a natural death, has lain and bleached in the sunshine until its colors are entirely gone, and its form also ruined by the weather. Therefore I say, leave dead shells alone, unless it be that you are making an exhaust- ive collection of the species in a given locality, when a dead shell which is identifiable is as good a record as a living- one. Where a shell is actually devoid of color, a dead shell is as g-ood as a living one, provided it is collected before its edges or its angles have been rounded by exposure to the sun and rain. Many a living- shell has an epidermis, the same as an animal, while a dead shell has none. When shells are obtainable, who can resist the impulse to g-ather them ? The man, woman, or child who is proof against the seductive powers of the beautiful and many-colored shells of the seashore "is fit for treason, stratagems, and spoils." Next to the pleasure of collecting shells one's self is that of witnessing the keen delight of children and ladies in gathering these beautiful treasures of the sea. If you have never yet had an opportunity to stroll along the smooth sands of an ocean beach at low tide, and gather your basketful of beautiful shells, curious sponges, bits of coral and coralline, while your soul is soothed by the rhythmic music of the surf, then I pity you. You have indeed yet something left to live for. Hooker has divided the shell-bearing mollusca into three great groups — land, fresh -water, and marine — and the shell col- lector will do well to study each one separately. Land Shells. — These are most abundant in the tropics, less so in the subtropical regions, and are rare elsewhere. They are seldom found where moisture is not abundant. In the tropics they are to be collected all the year round, but in the temper.-itr zone it is best to collect them in the autumn, when they are 86 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. fully grown. It is impossible, without devoting too much space to this subject, to give more than a general idea of the situations in which land shells are found. Some species are to be looked for on trees and bushes ; others on rocks and stone walls; others again on the ground, and others again on the blades or in the roots of grass. In the tropics it is particularly desirable to watch for the beautiful land snails, which are almost strictly arboreal in their habits. They are to be found on the trunks and leaves of palms, the banana, myrtle, orange, and scores of other trees and shrubs. Fresh- Water Shells which inhabit clear and shallow water are easily gathered with a stout hand-net. Where the water is murky, or so deep that the bottom cannot be seen, it is neces- sary to have an instrument like an iron-toothed rake, with the teeth set closely together, to be used as a sort of clam-dredge, raking the bottom and gathering up the mussels. In our own country the amateur collector will doubtless be surprised at the number of species of Unio which will repay the labors of a diligent collector. Marine Shells. — If you would have one of the jolliest picnics in the world, don a suit of old clothes, equip yourself with a stout basket, a screw-driver with a long handle, and a case-knife with a thin blade, " Hang up thy lute and Me thee to the sea." Go before the tide is at its lowest ebb, and search in the vicinity of the largest bowlders, under ledges of rock, under loose stones, in shallow pools, in bunches of sea-weed, in fact everywhere along the shore. In these various places you will find cowries, oriners (Haliotis), chitons, limpets, and more others than I could name in an hour. When wading in shallow water it is well to look out for the pestiferous sting-ray, and not step on one unawares, lest you find its caudal spine driven through your foot like a poisoned arrow. But, fortunately, they seldom trouble the collector. With the limpets, chitons, and other small shell -fish, you must work the point of your case-knife under them, and with it grad- ually detach them from the rock. Where such prey is plenti- ful, the collecting of it is grand fun, I assure you. COLLECTING MARINE INVERTEBRATES. 87 There are many bivalves which burrow or bury in the mud or sand, which must be dug out with a stick or trowel, while other species, still more enterprising, bore into wooden piles, and even into rocks ! These, of course, can be collected only with the aid of a hatchet, or chisel, or stone-haminer, as the case may be. If you are on the Florida coast you will do well to search over the coral reefs and the mud flats at low tide. On the latter you will find conch-shells, piimas, and numerous other species. I once made a very successful search for pinnas by wading around barefooted on a sandy flat on which the receding tide had left the water but little over a foot in depth. These shells were always found standing up in the sand, at bay. with their sharp edge up. By going barefooted as I did, you find the shells by stepping on them and cutting your feet, which is to be accom- plished, however, without hurting the thin edge of the shell. A cut foot will heal up, but a broken shell never will. CLEANING SHELLS.*-— In gathering shells, particularly the ma- rine species, many of them will be found covered with a thick, leathery, and persistent epidermis, and many others will be so buried under rough, limy accretions that their own fathers would scarcely recognize them. However beautiful such shells may be when cleaned, it is no child's play to clean them andgeb them ready for the cabinet. To any one willing to learn, the processes are really very simple ; and what manual labor under the sun could be more interesting to a lover of natural history ? Removing the Animal. — With a large shell, such as a conch, the first step is to remove the living animal. In some cases I have accomplished this by hooking a fish-hook into the head of the animal and hanging it up so that the weight of the shell constantly pulling down on the animal would cause it to gradu- ally relax and draw out. An excellent plan is to place the shell for a few days in fresh water and macerate the animal sufficiently that it may be drawn out. Fortunately the great majority of molluscs are very small, and it is possible to prepare them for * For the best part of the information given under this heading I am indebted to 31 r. I. Greegor, the well-known dealer in sea-shells and Florida " curios," at (>1 Laura Street, Jacksonville, Fla., who is an acknowledged expert in the treatment of shells, not only in cleaning, but in cutting sections, polishing, etc. I obtained the facts from him while he occupied a very high position in the Smithsonian Institution — in the north tower, at least fifty feet from the ground. 88 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. tlie cabinet without the necessity of removing- the animal. Mr. Greegor s plan is to soak the shell in alcohol for a few days, to completely preserve the animal, and then dry it thoroughly to cxpol all the water from it. "When that is done, the final step is to pour into the shell, through a rubber tube, a little thick var- nish, or hot beeswax mixed with a little vaseline to make it ilow readily, and thus cover the dried-up remains of the animal with an impervious coating which does away with all odors which might otherwise arise from it. This part of the process, be it understood, is to be attended to after the cleaning and pol- ishing has been done. Removing the Epidermis. — The epidermis is so tough and hor- ny, and sticks so tightly to the shell that tools cannot remove it successfully and it must be done chemically. Make a strong solution of chloride of lime and water, by putting into a jar one-fourth its bulk of chloride of lime, two-fourths water, and . leaving the remaining fourth part of the space for the froth that will rise. Soak shells in this pasty solution for a short time, and it will eat the epidermis off. Removing Limy Accretions. — The bulk of all these thick, ir- regular coatings must be removed with steel tools — file, scraper, knife, sand-paper, or hammer — to suit each individual case. The tool that Mr. Greegor most relies upon is a small and very light hammer, made especially for him, which is shaped somewhat like a square-headed tack-hammer, with the pointed end drawn out to a blunt cutting edge, like the edge of a cold chisel. With this cutting edge a skilful hand can peck the lime or coral in- crustations off a shell very neatly, and without injury to the sur- face of the specimen. Acid will not remove the thick, limy de- posits, and they must be cleaned off by mechanical means. After the bulk of the limy deposits have been removed by means of tools, the shell usually has a dull, lustreless appearance, and appears to require something that will remove the remain- ing particles of lime, impart to it a permanent gloss, and bring out its beautiful colors. Fortunately there is a way to do this to perfection, which consists in dipping the shell in a weak so- lution of muriatic acid and water, boiling hot. The strength of this solution must vary according to the nature of the specimen. For thick and strong shells, which by their solid character you COLLECTING MARINE INVERTEBRATES. 89 are assured cannot be damaged by a maximum of acid, put 3 parts of muriatic acid in 10 parts water. For thin and delicate specimens, use 1 part acid to 10 of water, varying- the amount of acid from 1 part to 3, as your experience will soon teach you is most desirable. Put this solution in a porcelain kettle, bring it to a boil, and then with a pair of wooden tongs or forceps dip each shell into it and hold it there for a second or more, as may be necessary. On removing it, wash it in clear water and dry it, and if its appearance is not satisfactory clip it again. For very delicate shells, having a thin surface color, such as the Cypreas and Olivias, or such shells as have very delicate sculpture, the weaker solution is best. When it is desired to cut more on one part of a shell than another, the acid may be applied with a brush, finishing with a quick dip. Never allow any of the acid solution to remain on the shell, or it will eat into it and dull the lustre. For fine work, dry each specimen with a towel. Shells which have on their exterior a great deal of horny or organic matter, such as Haliotis, Ostrea, Lingula, and a few others, work badly in acid, and require to be brushed constantly while cutting, to remove the organic matter, for the reason .that the acid acts only on the lime of the shell. Chloride of lime and muriatic acid are both very volatile, and when not in use should be kept in tightly closed vessels. CHAPTEK XL COLLECTING BIEDS' EGGS AND NESTS. IDENTIFICATION. — Positive and unmistakable identification of the builder and occupant of a nest is quite as imperative on the collector as the gathering1 of the nest and eggs themselves. There must be no guess-work on this point, for eggs without a pedigree are often valueless. If an oological expert is within reach — one who can tell to a certainty the species of doubtful eggs, or if the eggs themselves are so characteristic and unique in their shape, size, and markings as to render their certain identification an easy matter, then is it safe to take home a " find " without finding the owner. It is only the fledgling oologist who needs to be told that in all cases of doubt regarding the identity (i.e., the exact species) of a nest-builder, the only proper course is to collect the bird as well as the nest and eggs. This may often involve long watch- ing, but it relieves the result from all uncertainty. No collector should think of going afield in quest of nests and eggs without taking his gun along. In South America, the only way in which I could get possession of the wonderful pensile nest of the crested cacique was by cutting off the limb to which it hung, with a rifle bullet. In all timbered regions the collector must have a pair of good climbing-irons, such as telegraph linemen use, to enable him to climb with ease the nest-bearing trees that would otherwise defy him. It was before the days of climbing-irons that aspir- ing Sir Walter Raleigh wrote for the fair eyes of Queen Eliz- abeth, " Fain would I cliinb, but that I fear to fall," to which his august mistress promptly responded with a piece of wisdom which every young oologist will do well to paste in his hat : " If thy mind fail thee, do not cliinb at all ! " COLLECTING BIRDS' EGGS AND NESTS. 91 Very good and serviceable climbing-irons can be obtained of Mr. Frank B. Webster, 409 Washing-ton Street, Boston, for $3.50 per pair. Mr. Webster also keeps, at his very complete naturalist's supply depot, nearly every requisite that an oologist or taxidermist requires, except one thing that is in- dispensable in hunting and lofty tree-climbing, — nerve. Ev- ery collector or taxidermist should send Mr. Webster ten cents for a copy of his illustrated catalogue, which of itself is probably the finest of its kind ever issued, and in which all naturalist's and oologist's supplies are pictured, described, and priced. The following are the principal articles needed to make up a proper outfit for an egg collector, and Mr. Web- ster's prices thereon : Collecting-box, 75 cents. Egg drills, six sizes, 15 cents to 81.50. Calipers, for use in measuring, CO cents. Embryo hooks, 25 cents. Embryo scissors, 25 cents to $1.50. Egg measures, 75 cents to $1.00. Pasteboard trays, for eggs, per dozen, 12 cents. Pocket-case (leather), complete, with drills, blower, hooks, scissors, and forceps, $5.00. Climbing-irons, per pair, $3.50. COLLECTING NESTS. — Our boys pay too much attention to col- lecting eggs, and not half enough to nests. To the average observer who takes an interest in perusing the pages of Nat- ure's story-book, a fine collection of bird's nests is a joy forever. It is ever ready to unfold chapter after chapter of bird lore, tales of wonderful intelligence and divine ingenuity in adapting means to ends, and stories galore of difficulties surmounted by the cunningest little architects in the world. Notice, if you please, the bewildering variety of materials employed in the construction of these bird-dwellings, great and small. Why, even the human architects of our own time are completely sur- passed by the Baltimore oriole, the marsh wren, and the hum- ming-bird. There is food for thought and cause for admiration in a really good collection of bird's nests. To me there is much more of interest in any nest than in the eggs it contains. The latter is a plain and simple product of nature, to wrhich the bird is merely an interested party to circumstances beyond its own con- trol. The former is an exhibit of the instinct, intelligence, rea- soning powers, industry, and mechanical and artistic skill of a 92 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. living creature of a high order. The nest is what the bird makes it, and it often tells quite a story. Boys, let us give eggs and skins a rest, and make a fine collection of nests, in situ, as the rockologists say. We can do this after the nest- FIG. 21.— Bird Nest, in situ. lings have flown, if you like, without stealing any eggs or shed- ding any innocent blood. After the young have tumbled out, the nest is a back number, and becomes your lawful prey. Take it, and enjoy it, without remorse over blood that you haven't shed. The most interesting and valuable nests are those that are collected in situ, or, in other words, in the particular crotch, or bunch of grass, or bush in which the bird placed it. Anything that will show just where a nest was placed by its builder adds immensely to its interest, and increases its scientific value. The accompanying illustration of such a nest in Captain Ben- dire's collection (Fig. 21), may be taken as an example of how nests of a certain class can be collected and displayed. The section of the sapling was sawn squarely off a few inches below the nest, and screwed (from below) upon a highly polished ebonized pedestal. In drawing this specimen the label was removed in order that no portion of the principal object should be concealed, but Captain Bendire's system of labelling is fully shown in another figure. COLLECTING BIliDS' EGGS AND NESTS. 93 The possibilities in collecting- and displaying nests in *itn are almost endless. Indeed, so far as I have observed, this is a new and very attractive field for the collector, for although I have visited a great many large museums, and in both the New and the Old World have seen many ornithological collections, I have never yet seen a collection of birds' nests which repre- sented a tithe of the possibilities in that direction. Every oologist should have in his library a copy of Rev. J. G. Wood's charming book, " Homes without Hands," which portrays many of the wonders of bird architecture. In collecting nests one must go prepared to saw off branches, to cut sections of grassy earth, to gather up big tufts of grass, and transport all these to some safe destination. Very often it will be necessary to protect a nest by filling its cavity with some soft material, and then with fine thread or wire to wrap it securely to the limb on which it is placed. Or again, it may be necessary to remove a nest temporarily from its resting- place, wrap it thoroughly, and transport it separately to the museum, to be put in its place later on. Most naked nests, i.e., those that have been plucked from their resting-place, require to be wrapped to keep them from gradually falling to pieces. . This may be done with fine thread of the same color as the outside materials of the nest, or, what Captain Bendire uses and rec- ommends as being better, the finest kind of wire which, in large cities, can be bought, neatly made up on spools, at five to ten cents a spool. The wire or thread is wound on quite as one would wind thread on a ball, except that the wire must never be allowed to cross the cavity of the nest, which would at once make it conspic- uous. Put oi) only enough winding to hold the nest well to- gether, and distribute it so that the wire will not be noticed when the nest is placed on exhibition. FIG. 22.— Wire Standard for Nests. 94 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. For the display of naked nests, Captain Bendire uses a very simple but ingenious little standard made of four wires twisted together so as to form an upright stem, a horizontal platform of the right size, with four perpendicular standards to receive and hold the nest. These standards are easily bent to conform to the shape of the nest, and if the upper ends project above the nest they are snipped off with a pair of cutting pliers. The illustration on page 93 (Fig. 22) shows the exact character of the wire standard, and Fig. 23 shows it in use, supporting a naked FIG. 23.— Nest on Wire Standard, with Labels. nest. Captain Bendire's method of labelling his nests is also shown in full. It is to be noted that the locality of the speci- men exhibited, and the name of the collector, appears in full upon the label — two features which should never be omitted on a specimen that is of sufficient value to occupy a place in a mu- seum. Nevertheless, by less careful curators both these state- ments are frequently omitted from labels. COLLECTING EGGS. — In connection with a collection of nests, each nest holding its own lawful and original contents, a good collection of birds' eggs possesses much interest and beauty. COLLECTING BIRDS' EGGS AND NESTS. 95 In collecting- and preserving egg's, the most difficult feature of all is to remove the embryos successfully. In the days when I diligently collected eggs in many lands, it seemed to me that out of every dozen eggs I gathered, about thirteen contained from one to two embryos each ! But there are ways in which this difficulty can be successfully overcome. The full set of eggs laid by a bird for one brood is called a "clutch," and in collecting it is of scientific importance that whole sets should be collected and always kept sepa- rate, and the number of eggs in each set taken should be re- corded. Eggs are always blown through a small, round hole in the middle of one side, preferably in each instance on the poorest side of the egg, if it has one. Of course, the smaller the egg, the smaller the drill must be, and the greater the care in hand- ling. It is often a good plan to pierce the shell with a needle in order to furnish the drill a point of attack. If an egg is cracked, or happens to be of such value that it must be saved at all hazards, reinforce it by pasting narrow strips of gold- beater's skin or court-plaster across the line of fracture. Having drilled the hole, insert the end of a small wire, having a small portion of the end bent at a right angle, and if the embryo has not begim to develop, or happens to be quite small and soft, twirl the wire rapidly between your thumb and finger, to thoroughly break up the contents of the egg. Having ac- complished this, insert the tip of your blow-pipe (the best in the world consists of a tube of glass bent at a right angle and terminating in a fine point, with the large end set in the end of a rubber bulb, which saves the mouth and lungs all trouble) and with gentle and gradual pressure blow in air. Hold the egg with the hole downward, of course, so that the contents will run out freely. Go slowly and carefully, even coaxingly, for too great pressure will burst any ordinary egg in two parts very neatly. If the embryo is small and disposed to be accommodat- ing, help it out by inserting the point of your smallest scissors, snipping it to pieces, and then drawing out the parts, one by one, with your smallest forceps. Having emptied the egg of its contents, introduce some clear water by way of the blow-pipe, wash out the inside thoroughly, 96 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. and in case the egg- is in a clean, healthy condition, it can now be laid away on cotton or corn-meal, with the hole downward, to drain and get dry. Observe this point, however. The thin, membranous lining1 of an egg1, which the point of the drill pierces but cannot cut away, often closes together inside the hole so closely as to retain, for some time, whatever water might chance to remain. For this reason it was my custom to cut away this membrane around the edges of the hole. Captain Bendire remarks that "eggs that have been thoroughly cleaned will retain their original color much better, and insects or mice are not so apt to trouble them." BEHOVING LARGE EMBRYOS. — It often happens that eggs are taken quite near the hatching point, containing embryos so lusty in size, and so " very fillin' " that their successful ejectment seems impossible. Nil detperandum. The way out of the diffi- culty is through a very small hole. On this point I appealed to the highest authority, Captain Bendire, and he kindly gave me, in general substance, the following directions : ![n the first place, make up your mind to go slow, and take plenty of time. If the egg is valuable and the embryo is large, reinforce the egg all over with strips of gold-beater's skin or court-plaster. Having drilled a fairly large hole, then insert the head of a needle in a small stick for a handle, and with the point pierce the embryo in twenty or thirty places. The egg sac, which is always present, should be taken out, if possible with the forceps, to give room for water. Having cleared out the egg as far as possible, fill it up with water to assist in the decomposition of the embryo. Cover the bottom of a box with a layer of cornmeal or saw-dust ; lay the egg on this, with the hole upward (still full of water), cover the box, and place it under a stove or in any other place warm enough to hasten the process of decomposition. Work at the egg a little about every alternate day, but without hurrying matters, and keep this process in operation until the embryo softens, falls to pieces, and is ready to be drawn out piecemeal. In removing a large embryo, try to get hold of the tip of the mandible with the small forceps, so that it can be drawn out, point foremost, without splitting the shell. Eggs that emit an offensive odor after they have been blown COLLECTING BIRDS' EGGS AND NESTS. 97 need to be rinsed out with carbolic acid and water, or some equally good disinfectant. It is, of course, to be understood that eggs must be clean on the outside before they are fit for the cabinet. Usually soap and warm water is sufficient to remove dirt and stains, but oc- casionally a particularly hard case calls for the addition of a little washing soda in the water. The last washing, however, should always be in clear water. Inasmuch as a label cannot be attached to an egg, the data necessary to give the egg a respectable position in the oological world must be written on the under side of the egg itself, either in lead pencil or India ink, which is capable of being erased at will. The following are the data that should be recorded on every egg collected and kept : 1. Name of species, or number in A. O. U. check list, if North American. 2. Collector's number, which belongs to every egg of a given set, and refers to his catalogue and field notes. 3. Number of eggs in the set, or " clutch." 4. Date in full. In packing eggs for shipment, a great many small boxes of wood or tin are absolutely essential, and in these the eggs must be carefully packed in cotton, each one separated from the rest of the world by a layer of cotton. It is an excellent plan to wrap every large egg separately in cotton, as oranges are wrapped in papers. Captain Bendire recommends the making of divisions, one for each egg, with strips of pasteboard, like the crates in which egg producers pack eggs for shipment to market. This gives each egg a compartment by itself, with a bit of soft cotton cloth at top and bottom. If produce dealers can afford to take such care of eggs worth only thirty cents per dozen, surely oologists can do the same when they are within the pale of civilization, and can get the materials. At the National Museum the duplicate eggs are stored in small, rectangular, shallow pasteboard trays, or half boxes, each of which has its bottom covered very neatly and exactly with a section of cotton wadding, which gives a soft, springy cushion for the eggs to lie on without the undesirable fluffy looseness of ordinary cotton batting. 7 PART IL— TAXIDERMY. Keeping ererlaxtingly at it brings success. CHAPTER XII. THE LABORATORY AND ITS APPOINTMENTS. IT would be impossible for me to dwell too strongly upon the importance, nay, even the vital necessity to the taxidermist, of a commodious and suitable workroom, and a good supply of proper tools and materials. Anj^one setting up a store of any kind meets the expenditures for fixtures and furniture as a matter of course ; but the average taxidermist would consider it a killing thing to invest from $100 to $200 in good tools and materials. First-class tools, and a good assortment of them, are indispen- sable allies in the production of the finest kind of work in the shortest possible time. In taxidermy let us have no making of bricks without straw. As well might an artist attempt to paint a grand picture witli ;i sash tool as a taxidermist attempt to mount fine specimens with a dull knife, an old file, and a pair of rusty pliers. Let us suppose we are fitting up a taxidermic laboratory in which to mount all kinds of vertebrate animals, great and small. To begin with, we must have a good room, if possible 15X25 feet, or even larger, with good light, a high ceiling, and an abundant supply of water. There must be somewhere a store- room for bulky materials, and a drying-room for freshly mounted specimens. There must be provided somewhere, for the wet mammal skins, a big, box-like tank lined with sheet lead, for very large objects, and some alcohol barrels for smaller ones. 100 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. These must be provided with tig-lit covers, or the salt-and-alura bath will evaporate with great rapidity. After the above, our laboratory will require the following- FURNITURE AND FIXTURES. — A heavy work-table, 8 feet long-, 4 feet wide, and 2 feet 6 inches high ; top 1| inch thick. A tool case and chest of drawers. A stove, a chopping-block, a heavy bench vise. A grindstone, a blacksmith's anvil, and portable forge. A water-tight platform on castors, on which to stand large mammals that are wet and dripping. TOOLS. 2 killing-knives. 2 cartilage-knives. 1 pair shears, and 1 pair fine scissors. 1 draw-shave, adjustable handles. 2 skin-scrapers, of sizes. 3 gouges, of sizes. 3 chisels, of sizes. 1 screw-driver. 1 2-foot rule. 1 tape-measure, 12 feet. 1 thread- cutter, for iron. 1 thread-cutter, for brass. 0 pair pliers, of sizes. 3 pair cutting nippers. 4 pair forceps, of sizes. 1 hand vise. 1 hand drill. 2 monkey wrenches, of sizes. 1 ratchet brace, with bits and drills. 4 gimlet bits, of sizes. 1 hand-saw. 1 key-hole saw. 1 claw hammer. 1 tack hammer. 1 machinist's hammer. 1 hatchet, to lend. 1 sharp hatchet, to use. 1 cold chisel. 1 set stone-cutter's chisels. 1 punch. 1 tap wrench. 1 pair calipers. 1 set of hack saws, for iron and brass. 1 set iron fillers, of sizes. 1 set wooden fillers, of sizes. 1 set modelling tools. 1 set of files. 1 set of paint brushes. 1 set of brushes for hair and teeth. 1 glue-pot. 1 set of awls. 1 set of glover's needles, 3 sizes. Best linen sewing twine, or "gilling thread,'' of two or three sizes. 1 iron thimble. 1 spirit-lamp, or gas-stove. Pails, kettles, cups, bowls, etc. 12 spools of Barbour's linen thread. MATERIALS. — Excelsior ; hemp tow of two qualities, coarse and fine, both of long fibre ; flax tow, such as upholsterers use ; cot- ton batting ; oat straw ; potter's clay ; good glue ; plaster Paris ; arsenical soap ; spirits of turpentine ; benzine ; salt by the bar- rel ; ground alum by the hundredweight ; pine and hemlock lumber, one to two inches thick ; 2 X 4 pine scantling ; an assort- ment of annealed wire ; rods of Norway iron, from T3F inch to 1 inch ; nails, tacks, wrought-irou staples, screws, nuts, bolts, THE LABORATORY AND ITS APPOINTMENTS. 101 wrapping1 twine ; rosettes for iron standards ; washers, all sizes ; alcohol, shellac, white hard oil finish (varnish) ; muriatic acid, sheet wax, sperm oil ; glass eyes, all sizes, kinds and colors : unlimited pluck, patience, and perseverance. If the worker intends to mount only birds and small mam- mals, he will need but a very small portion of the tools and materials enumerated above. But fie ! Where is the taxider- mist worthy of the name who will admit that his resources ;nv limited, or that he is not able and ready to " set up " any ani- mal 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 IX MOUNTING MAMMALS. RELAXING DKY 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 thor- ough expert in softening1 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, bo 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 im- pression 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, in- elastic coating which, when once gotten rid of by shaving Gi- st-raping, leaves the skin underneath measurably soft and elas- tic, 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-scraper (see Fig. 24). In this there must be no half-way measures, no modesty, no shirking. Bear on hard, dig away at the same spot with all your energy, first in one di- rection, then crosswise, then diagonally. Scrape as if you were scraping on a wager, and presently the skin will become so PRELIMINARY WORK IN MOUNTING MAMMALS. 103 thinned down it will become quite soft, and even elastic. This is hard work, it starts the perspiration and keeps it going1, but it will conquer the hardest skin that ever was made. To make a skin sufficiently elastic to mount, it must be turned wrong1 side out and scraped all over thoroughly with a skin-scraper, 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, horniest, and most refractory ;in> those of the capybara, all of the Sin'd- corners or lips, and holes in the face where the skin is very thin and there is little hair, or none at all : three-cornered glover's needles, Nos. 00, 1, 2, 3 ; and three sizes of strong linen sewing twine. In the beginning of your work acquire the habit of being particular about the size of the needle and thr-.'ad you use upon a skin, and never let them be larger than necessary. When special strength is needed, double the thread and wax it with beeswax to prevent its rotting. Always sew with the ball stitch, <:i- low and, flat, and let the end of the iron rod come out in the cen- tre of the palm. This method gives a hand that is beyond criti- cism. For hand and foot studies of apes and monkeys, see " The Standard Natural History," vol. v., page 512. FIG. 29.— Artificial Skeleton for Hand of an Orang Utan. The following animals, when of adult size, require leg supports of the following sizes: Large foxes, No. 8 wire; olive baboon. No. 5 or 6 ; small kangaroo, No. 4 to 6 ; wolverine, No. G ; coyote, i inch rod ; setter dog, £ inch ; peccary, £ inch ; great ant-eater. } inch ; gray wolf, ^ inch ; giant kangaroo, {f inch for hind legs : harp seal, f inch. Having made the legs complete, lay the skin upon its back, with the legs spread out, make the irons or wires cross each other as shown in the accompanying figure (Plate VI.), and then h< -w out a piece of tough wood of the general shape and pro- portion as that shown in the cut. Let this be as small as prac- ticable to avoid splitting when the irons are stapled down upon it. Round off the corners and the ends, so that you can easily 132 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. work all around this wooden backbone, when filling- the animal, Now lay this piece of wood in the skin, upon the crossed leg irons, mark the points at which the irons need to pass through it, and bore holes accordingly, slanting each hole through the stick, for good reasons. The next step is to pass the irons through these holes (by bending them a little, and straighten- ing them afterward) and when all are through, adjust the legs so that there is plenty of loose skin in the body, both in length and breadth. Remember that the stick is to be in the centre of the body, not the top. When the adjustment is complete, bend the end of each iron sharply down upon the stick, and staple it down with the utmost firmness. Next pass one of your neck irons through the skull from back to front, boring a hole at the back for the purpose, so as to make the end of the iron pass out at the nasal cavity. Replace the missing flesh of the skull with tow or excelsior, bound down with thread, cover all with clay, poison the inside of the head and neck skin with arsenical soap, insert the skull in the head, and fasten the lower end of each neck iron firmly upon the centre stick. The tail must now be made, but it is wise to fasten the tail iron so that it can be made to slip out or in, until it is known precisely how long it shall be-, and then the end may be fas- tened securely with staples. Now bend up the legs into posi- tion, and give the animal its attitude. Procure your pedestal, or limb of a tree, and place the animal in attitude upon it ; mark where the iron supports are to pass through, bore the necessary holes, and see if the animal will stand just as you wish it to. If not, work at its legs, and bore new holes until it does ; then take it off, poison the inside of the skin liberally with strong arsenical soap, and proceed to stuff it with straw, or chopped tow, or excelsior if you prefer that, but I never do. For my own use I prefer soft straw, chopped fine. Fill the neck first, using your wooden filler, then the body. If the body threatens to be too small, fill that first. Before going far, fill out the hind-quarters properly. Work on the body all over at the same time, and do not finish one-half of the animal before you have touched the other half, for this course would get you into endless trouble. MOUNTING LATCGE MAMMALS. 133 Having filled the body full, and shaped it the best you can, and sewn it up at all points save two, — a hole between the forelegs and one under the tail, — now piit it in final position on its pedestal, and fasten it there. Having done this and surveyed the scene, you wrill ob- serve that the form of the animal is very faulty, and the skin not nearly full enough. Something more must be done. Unless the specimen is a seal, or some- thing else with short, close hair, part the hair carefully and make a long, per- pendicular slit in the skin behind each foreleg and in each flank, as shown in Plate HI., I-I, and K-K. Through these openings you can introduce your metal filling tools, and also filling ma- terials ad libitum, and give the interior a complete overhauling. You can easily push your iron filler through the straw, and raise the line of the back, shoulders, or hind-quarters, and lower the line of the breast and abdomen until both are right. Then, fill with more straw, or tow, if you like now. Through those holes you command the entire body of the animal at every point, and now you must work out your own salvation. When all is finished and the body is quite full and solid, sew up the openings care- fully, and unite the hair over them so that they will be hidden. If you are careless in filling, and pull out a lot of hair around each of the openings, so much the worse for you. For full instructions in regard to work on heads, see a special chapter. 4 1-s "8 o 3 • +1 GO IN O & 13 •« "s o a 3 g « x S °^i 11! «&§ s * . •§l5 3 - o x -3 Sls 134 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. Cutting out Pieces of Skin. — It not infrequently happens that in mounting' an old skin it will be found to have been unduly stretched in drying1, and in spite of one's best efforts there will be too much skin in a flank, or behind a shoulder, or that the body itself will be entirely too large. In such cases, when the animal is clothed with hair which can be made to hide the seams, it is necessary and permissible to cut a long slit in the skin where the looseness occurs, and cut out a strip so that when the edges are brought tog-ether the wrinkle no longer ex- ists. Usually such cuts are made in the shape of a triangle running1 out to a very fine point, so that when the incision is sewn up the entire adjacent surface will be quite smooth. When a taxidermist has a fresh skin, or ono which has been but recently prepared dry, it is very seldom that any skin-cut- ting1 is necessary. With a good elastic skin, there are ways of working1 away from any part a superabundance of skin, or forc- ing the skin on parts adjacent to the wrinkles to contract suffi- ciently to cause their disappearance. On close-haired animals, wrinkles must be worked away, which can in a majority of cases be accomplished by hard, persevering work with the filler. With long-haired animals which have no stripes or spots, and on which the hair can be made to hide all seams, it is best to cut out triangular strips of skin. In the lat- ter case it saves much time and hard labor. It certainly gives a better specimen, and if such tricks leave 110 visible trace upon the animal, where is the harm ? I care not if a skin be slit in twenty places so long1 as the cuts are tightly sewn up, and are invisible to the eye of the observer. Bird skins must never be cut in this way, for to the ornitholo- gist who diligently studies every specimen, the presence of every feather and every bare spot naturally belonging to the bird is of importance. Do not forget this caution, unless you wish to call down upon your head the just wrath of the ornitho- logist. Neither is it possible to do any skin-cutting upon rep- tiles, for there is no natural covering to hide seams, and to cut out any scales is to mutilate a specimen. MOUNTING LAKGE MAMMALS. 135 SECTION II. MOUNTING LONG-HAIRED MAMMALS OF LARGE SIZK, FOR WHICH THE MANIKIN is UNNECESSARY. — Examples : Musk ox, bears (except large fwlars and grizzlies}, yak, Hadrian camel in winter coat, llamas and their allies ; also old, dry skins yenerally, which require forcible stretching. WHILE the manikin process is the one par excellence for the great majority of largo quadrupeds, it is also, until you get per- fectly familiar with it, the longest. There are various large animals whose long, thick, and matted hair so completely hides the surface of the wearer that a shorter method of mounting can be followed with Tory satisfactory results. This is simply stuf- fing with straw in the same manner as described in detail in the previous section, with but one exception — the manner of at- taching the leg irons to the central beam of the body. The leg irons are cut and fitted to the leg bones precisely as shown in Plate TIL But the legs are made with the skin at- tached at the foot, the skin is drawn over, fitted and sewn up, and each leg is completely finished while the skin lies in a heap upon the table. For a large animal this takes some time, and as fast as the legs are finished each must be carefully wrapped up in ice blankets that have been wot in salt-and-alum water, and kept soft until all are done. Oil the threads on the rods, to keep them from rusting. The next step is to procure the centre board, which should be about one-third as wide from top to bottom as the depth of the animal's body. In the illustration showing the manikin of a tiger (Plate TIL) the body board is wider than is desirable for the same animal were the body to be filled with straw. If the board is too wide, it is impossible to get around it with the fillers, and work through tho specimen from one side to the other. To put the members of the body together, lay the skin upon the floor on its back, in the same general shape as shown in Plate TI. Put the body board in place and mark the points where the ends of tlu> leg irons strike it. Xow for the iron squares. The old and antiquated way to fasten leg irons to a centre 136 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. board consisted in leaving- a long4 end projecting1, bending1 it like the letter U, and stapling1 it to the board. That was always a poor way, and in the light of a perfect arrangement it now seems poorer than ever. When Mr. John Martens came over from Hamburg1 to work as a mammal taxidermist in Professor H. A. Ward's great Natural Science Establishment, at Kochester, N. Y., the most valuable luggage he broug-ht with him was the idea of the iron square for attaching1 leg1 irons to a centre board. For that particular purpose it would be hard to devise a more perfect arrangement, and I shall be at some pains to describe it. It requires four irons to fasten the legs to the centre board, one for each leg, and to make a set for an animal the size of a large mountain sheep ram, proceed as follows : Procure four pieces of flat bar iron, £ of an inch thick, l£ or 1| inch wide, and 9 inches long. At a point 3| inches from one end, bend each iron at a perfect right angle, which, of course, can only be done by heating it. Now heat the short arm red hot, clamp the end of it in a vise, and make a twist of exactly a quarter of a turn in the short arm, as close up to the angle as you can. This will make the end of the short arm stand out in a horizontal plane against the side of the body board. At the end of the short arm, with its centre exactly 3 inches from the inner face of the long arm, drill or punch a hole of the right size to receive the threaded end of the leg iron, but no larger. (For our Ovis montana ram it should be half an inch in diameter.) File off the sharp corners of this end. At a point about lj inch from the inner angle of the square, and in the long arm, drill a hole about T\ or | an inch in dia- meter, for a stout bolt to pass through. Between that and the end of the long arm, drill (or punch) two screw-holes, and countersink them. That is all there is to the making of the square, and the accompanying FIG. 31. — An Iron Square. ._. cut (Fig. 31) accurately repre- sents it. Each pair of squares is put on with a single square- headed bolt, the length of which varies according to the thick- MOUNTING LARGE MAMMALS. 137 ness of the body board. For our mountain ram, the bolts should be § of an inch in diameter, and about 2| inches long1. It is useless and unnecessary for me to attempt to describe the different sizes of squares necessary for animals of various sizes, for circumstances must be the instructor in that. I will remark, however, that for a large bison or moose, where the finished specimen wrill weigh perhaps GOO or 700 pounds, and the strain on the irons is very considerable, I have found it nec- essary to make squares of flat iron f or ^ of an inch thick by If inch wide. Caution. — Do not make the short, or outer arm, too long. If too long1, and the hole once drilled, you will hardly be able to make it shorter ; but if too short, it can easily be made longer by putting a piece of board between the long1 arm of the square and the body board. The length of the outer arm of the square for the hind legs is gauged by the width of the pelvis. Tho measurement to be taken is the distance between the centres of the two femora when both are in their natural positions in the skeleton, and with this distance once ascertained it is easy t< > deduct the thickness of the centre board, and calculate how long- each outer arm shall be. The distance between the heads of the two humeri is practically the same as the distance between the femora. In making the hind leg, the iron should be no longer at the upper end than the end of the femur, and once this is deter- mined the upper end of the femur must be cut off with a saw, to give room for the squares and two nuts. The end of the iron for the front leg may project three inches or so above the head of the humerus, and be bent slightly backward; to point upward in the same direction as the scapula. liemember that at first the squares of the two pairs are set on exactly opposite each other, by means of the single bolt for each pair. Insert the upper end of each leg iron, screw the upper nut down firmly, then lift the half-made animal and stand it on its legs. Being free to move, the legs are very shaky, and you proceed at once to put them in position. You now adjust the legs according to your original design, bore holes in the rough pedestal for the lower ends of the rods to pass through, and shift and change the different members, now 138 TAXIDERMY AXD ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. liere, now there, until you are satisfied that the legs are in pre- cisely the right attitudes. If the leg that is stepping- out in front is too short, run up the two nuts at the square, and thus make the leg an inch or two longer. Those that are too long are easily shortened by shifting their nuts lower down. You have such absolute control over the legs that you can shift and change them just as much as you please, and that very easily. If the whole animal is coupled too short or too long, it is but five minutes' Avork to take out a bolt, bore another hole, and shift the forelegs farther forward or back. When everything is perfectly to your liking, tighten up every nut to its very tightest, and insert screws through the screw-holes that have been provided in the long arm of each square. Each leg is now a fixture. The great beauty of this method, which appears to its great- est perfection in the construction of a manikin, lies in the fact that you have, from first to last, the most perfect control over the different parts of the entire animal. When you discover as you proceed that something is wrong, it is an easy matter to change it, provided the skin has not been put on the manikin. In putting together an animal with the legs in the skin, you are necessarily troubled somewhat by the skin of the body, which hinders the turning of your wrench, etc. ; but all such difficulties exist only to be overcome. Put the neck irons through the skull, and fasten the inner end of each to the body board, as shown in the tiger manikin, or in any other solid way you prefer. As to the tail, ditto, and when the attitude is perfect, and all parts fastened together, then, and not until then, anoint the inside of the skin with arsenical soap, all that it will hold, and give it time to be ab- sorbed. Put the head in position by bending the neck irons, place the feet in position, and tighten the nuts under the ped- estal. Now turn -the animal upside down, put a rope under each end of the pedestal, and hang the whole affair up to the ceiling, or to a beam, by moans of the ropes, so that it will swing clear of the floor. Next sew up the skin of the abdomen and breast, and proceed to fill the neck, shoulders, and hind-quarters with soft straw. Oat straw is the best, if you can get it. If you can procure no MOUNTING LAIKJE MAMMALS. 139 soft straw, then have a boy take your wheat straw, Imnrh by bunch, and with a mallet pound it upon a block to crush it and make it soft. In filling1 the animal, the first thing to do is to fill it out at all points, loosely at first, to get the general pro- portions. The skin should not touch your iron squares or the body board at any point, for if it does, something is wrong. At first you will work with your large wooden fillers, but as tin- straw gets packed, and the wooden tool will not go through it, take your iron fillers. No matter how hard straw may be packed, with a burrowing, twisting motion you can force that wedge-pointed instrument through the straw so as to reach any point that needs more filling1 out. Be careful about the line of the back, and keep it exactly in place, along the centre of the body, and always at the highest point. Do not let the back line of a feline animal, especially a tiger or a leopard, get down upon one side, as will be sure to happen if you are not watchful. When the outline of the back is fixed, then fill out the breast and abdomen, and g-et the lower line of the body just as it should be. As you proceed with all this, keep sewing up the skin from time to time until only two holes remain, one at the breast and one between the hind legs well back. Now take the animal down, stand it upon the floor, cut slits in the sides, as directed in the previous section, and through them finish the filling and shaping1 of the body. All this takes work, hard work, intelligent work, and a great deal of it. Make the body hard and firm, and as smooth on the outside as Nature does. To secure smoothness, and to lower the unnatural knobs that are sure to appear, beat the animal from time to time with a. flat club. When all is done, fill in the last bit of straw at the various holes, sew them up strongly but neatly with stout linen twine, or " gilliug thread," well waxed, and dress the fur. This will be treated elsewhere in a separate section, as also will the treatment of the head. CHAPTEK XVII. MOUNTING LAEGE MAMMALS : THE CONSTEUCTION OF MANIKINS. SECTION III. SHORT-HAIRED OR HAIRLESS MAMMALS, AND OTHERS or GREAT SIZE. — Examples : Lion, tiger, zebra, horse, giraffe, bison and buffalo, camel, all deer and antelopes ; elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, tapir, etc. OF tlie numerous processes described in this work there are two which I must mention as being- distinctively and particu- larly my own. One is the general use of clay as a filling1 material, and the other is the evolution and development of the clay- covered manikin, on the principles now to be described and il- lustrated. Already this method of mounting quadrupeds has been quite generally adopted by the new school of American taxidermists, and I think it is destined to fill our museums with more perfect mounted mammals than the rest of the world can show. I have always willingly taught the advantages of the clay-covered manikin, and the various processes involved in its construction, to every enterprising taxidermist who desired to learn it, and it was my intention to have published a full de- scription of it years ago. Now it comes as a sort of "farewell performance," and " positively the last appearance." Among taxidermists, the term manikin is applied to the made- up figure of an animal over which a skin is to be adjusted, and made to counterfeit the actual form and size of a living animal. While it is well adapted to the successful treatment of mammals, reptiles, and fishes in general, it is impossible to employ it in mounting bird skins unless they are very badly torn, and re- quire to be put together a piece at a time, or else are of the very largest size. The worst torn and mutilated bird skin can be THE CONSTRUCTION OF MANIKINS. 141 put together on a manikin with perfect success, provided the skin is all present. Speaking1 from my own experience, I must say that my clay- covered manikin process seems to possess important and undis- puted advantages over all other methods I have ever seen em- ployed or described for the mounting of not only the most diffi- cult mammalian subjects, but also reptiles of many kinds, and fishes. By it the most perfect results attainable by the taxi- dermic art are not only possible, but may be achieved without even a risk of failure save through lack of anatomical knowledge. Nearly all the mechanical difficulties which beset the other methods are eliminated, and the result becomes chiefly a ques- tion of knowledge and artistic sense. By this method, I have successfully mounted such mammals as the following : Ele- phant,* American bison, polar bear, zebra, tiger, puma, elephant seal, hairless Mexican dog, etc. The last-named specimen was in competition against the elephant in a competitive exhibition, and I learned afterward from the judges that it came near wresting the grand prize from its lordly competitor. This fact is mentioned to show that the process was equally successful in the treatment of a thick-hided elephant and a small dog with a skin as thin as writing-paper, and utterly destitute of hair. A plaster cast of the unskiimed body of the dog was exhibited with the mounted specimen, to enable the observer to judge of the success of the process. The unchallenged superiority of the clay-covered manikin process is due to the following reasons : 1. The absolute control the operator is able to exercise over the form of his subject from first to last, without prejudice to the safety of the skin to be mounted. 2. The possibility of working out anatomical details which it is useless to attempt by other methods. 3. The absolute permanency of the form produced. 4. The ability of the operator to place his subjects in atti- tudes so difficult that by ordinary methods they would be un- attainable. * This specimen received the silver specialty medal awarded " for the best piece in entire Exhibition," at the New York Exhibition of the Society of American Taxider- mists, in 1883. 142 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. 5. The most perfect preservation of the skin and its covering from damage by excessive handling-, beating, and wetting. 6. The absolute perfection of form and attitude which is at- tainable by this method only. Until you have fully learned the principles of manikin mak- ing, do not attempt to mount by this process a skin that has come to you with no measurements nor leg bones. Choose for your first attempt a good-sized dog or sheep, or some quadruped of similar size which you have in the flesh, and from which you can take a full series of outlines, measurements, casts, etc. I can probably teach you as well as any living man how to pro- ceed when you have no measurements whatever, and will give you a few hints presently ; but now I say, you must have your first subject in the flesh. It is then within your power to secure to yourself all possible advantages in what you are about to do. It is desirable to take the usual measurements before the skin is removed, but by all means make another series of the skinned body and limbs. In skinning, disjoint the leg bones at the carpal joint,* which leaves only the bones of the foot at- tached to the skin. When the skin is put on for the last time, this joint must be re-articulated with two wires. When the skin is out of the way, you can take the length of the body from the back part of the thigh to the point of the shoulder ; the distance between elbow and knee, from the elbow to the top of the shoul- der ; the circumference and diameter of the body, neck, and limbs, at various points ; the depth of the body, etc. You can also measure from the highest point of the head of the femur to a similar point on the humerus, and when the hind legs have been cut off, you can easily determine the proper length for your iron squares by measuring between the two hip sockets (os ino- minata). Observe, now, if you never did before, that the front edges of the tibia and the ulna have no flesh whatever upon them, nor has the angle of the elbow, the knee-cap, nor the front of the metacarpal bones. Save the bones of each leg complete, and without any farther disjointing ; but, of course, the flesh must be carefully trimmed and scraped away. Save the skull, of course, and it will be a great help if you will hastily " rough out " the bones of the en- * At the hoof in the case of all hoofed animals. THE CONSTIirCTIOX OF MANIKIN'S. 143 tire body and save them for reference: until the manikin is com- plete. The pelvis and the thorax will help yon greatly by and by. We will now assume that we are ready to proceed with the manikin, which we will follow out by successive steps. 1. The first thing- to do is to cut a deep groove in the bones of the heel, close alongside the base of the calcaneum, also in the bones of the foot at the joints, and in the head of the humerus from the back, so that the iron can fit in snugly, and not create a great, awkward, rounded hump at each of those joints. In a hoofed animal, the centre of the hoof must bo cut out so that the iron can pass through it quite out of sight where it enters the pedestal. The lower joints of the foreleg must be chan- nelled out in the same way. Study the shape of each joint and you will then see precisely what is needed. In cutting out these grooves, I use a saw for certain bones, and gouges and stone-mason's chisels for others, according to circumstances. Kemember that between the tendon of Achilles and the lower end of the tibia there is always a deep hollow, where the skin of the two sides actually comes together. Keep your leg iron out of that hollow at all hazards, — and this can be done only by sinking the iron into the tibia. 2. If you have an outline of the animal's body, lay it upon the floor, and draw a straight line to represent the top of your pedestal. If you have no sketches, then you must draw an out- line in chalk upon the floor, choosing a certain crack as the line of the pedestal. Now lay down the skeleton of each leg in its own place, in the position the leg is to have in the finished ani- mal. Measure the height of the missing bones of the foot, and leave a space accordingly above the top of your assumed pedes- tal. It is highly important these leg bones should each have the right attitude. 3. Take four straight No. G wires, and with the first leg laid out carefully in position, bend the wire to fit the back of the leg bones very exactly, cut it off the right length, and so make an exact pattern for the leg rod. Remember to allow for its going through a good thick pedestal, and having about two inches to spare underneath for a nut and washer. The rod for the foreleg may project above the upper end of the humerus one-third to one-half the length of that bone, but the rod for 144 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. the hind leg must not be the least bit longer than the upper end of the femur. Ilemember also to bury the iron well in the centre of the lowest joint of the leg- and the foot, so that it will not be seen when the animal is finished. In order to show the bends that are necessary in the leg irons of a ruminant, I have taken the trouble to photograph and reproduce herewith (Fig. 32) the identical leg irons which now support the huge bull FIG. 32.— Leg Irons of an American Bison. buffalo in the National Museum group, the manikin of which is also shown in this chapter. Before bending, the irons for the forelegs were each 4 feet \ inch in length, and those for the hind legs were 4 feet 6| inches ; diameter, f inch. 4. Having made your four patterns exact in length and bend, cut four leg irons to match, from round rods of Norway iron, or best American, if Norway cannot be procured. I can give you no fixed rule by which to determine the size that leg irons should be, but I can at least mention the sizes I use in certain animals : THE CONSTRUCTION OF MANIKINS. 145 Adult moose, male or female, and giraffe, £ inch. Bull bison, cow bison, horse, £ inch. ^lale caribou, black-tail deer, and large mountain sheep, | inch. Male Virginia deer, antelope, tiger, T\ inch. All these sizes, except the two largest, can be bent cold in a strong vise. 5. Having bent the irons to match the patterns, and to fit the bones also, cut a long thread on each end of each rod, and fit two large hexagonal nuts on each end so that they turn readily, but not loosely. 6. With soft but strong twine, or annealed wire, bind each leg iron firmly to the leg bones from top to bottom. You may now take a saw and cut off the upper third of the femur. 7. During the course of the foregoing work, you have had a blacksmith at work making your four iron squares (see previous chapter) according to a hoop-iron pattern furnished by you, and now they are ready to use in attaching the leg irons. 8. Now comes the question of a centre board for the body. If the animal is a dog, a small deer or antelope, a tiger, or any- f/iing so small that you can reach around its body icith your arms, make the body board as narrow as you please, or as wide as the entire depth of the animal's body, if you choose. I think it better to make it similar in proportions to that shown in the accompanying illustration (Plato VII.) of the first stage of a tiger manikin, in order that with a long "needle one can sew through the body from side to side. It is well, for the same reason, to cut a hole in the board, as shown, at a point opposite the iliac region. I mounted this tiger with a decided curve in the middle of his body, which obliged me to cut the centreboard in two, and uuito the two parts again at an angle by means of two bent pieces of iron screwed on either side. In most ani- mals, however, this is unnecessary. The centre board need not be over 1 of an inch in thickness in any save very large animals, when it is best to have it 1| inch, or nearly that. It is best to use dry white pine, because it is light and works easily. 1). Lay the body board on your chalk outline, lay the iron legs in position, put the squares down and mark the place where the bolt for each pair should pass through. Bore the holes, bolt on 10 146 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. the squares quite firmly (but leave the screws out as yet), then insert the leg rods, and tighten the nuts. Set the legs on as nearly right as possible while the skeleton form lies on the floor, then stand it up, put it on a rough pedestal, and sec how it looks. Now comes the crucial test of your knowledge and artistic sense. A number of things are wrong, and the shaky skeleton of the manikin " don't look right." What is the matter ? Is one of the front legs bent forward at the carpal joint ? Then straighten it. Is the animal coupled too short ? Then move one pair of legs a trifle on the centre board, to increase the length of the body. Do not the legs walk naturally ? Then make them. Are the forelegs, and hind legs also, too close together ? Then your squares are too short, and they must be lengthened by placing a bit of board under each one, as seen under the hind-leg square of the tiger manikin. You will probably iioed to shift the feet on the pedestal also, by boring new holes. You can make any leg longer or shorter, make the stride shorter or longer, and, in fact, make any change that your eye, or your picture or cast tells you is neces- sary. The vital necessity is that your eye must be so trained and educated that it detects a fault instantly, no matter how slight, and sees wrhat is required to remedy it. The eye of a successful taxidermist must be educated just as thoroughly as the hand of a pianist. For a large animal, it is, for me, several hours' work to attach the legs to the body board, and make the changes necessary to bring everything into perfect position. The last thing is to take the cleaned skin out of the bath, throw it over the skeleton manikin, and see how it fits. If, when it is adjusted, the feet do not touch the pedestal, you know that the manikin is too high, and you must either cut down the top of the centre board with a draw-shave, or else lower it by attaching the squares nearer the top. In this trial the feet should stand loosely upon the floor. Having got everything finally adjusted,' put the screws in the squares, tighten up all nuts, and put a washer under each nut that strikes the pedestal, both above and below, and make all secure. There must be no looseness, or the manikin will lean over immediately. The centre board should stand exactly per- pendicular. Test it with a plumb-line, and see if it does so. Is THE CONSTRUCTION OF MANIKINS. 147 the manikin now so secure that yon can sit upon it without racking1 it ? If not, it should be. To test the manikin for my big- buffalo, shown in this chapter, I climbed upon it, and stood with my full weight, first on the outer end of one iron square, then on another, and to test the strength of the neck irons I put a large anvil on the top of the skull without making the slightest permanent impression on the irons. 10. It is unnecessary to speak further of the irons for the head and tail, and their attachment. See figures. 11. Next comes the making of the legs. The lower joints, where there is scarcely any flesh, had best be made of clean, long-fibre tow. Where the thick muscles lie, bunch up some tow, put it where the muscle was, and bind on with thread or twine. Continue this process until this muscle has been built up to its proper size, and wrapped at all points until it is smooth, firm, and properly shaped. Higher up, where the mus- cles are thicker and lie in larger masses, use excelsior in pre- cisely the same way. Little by little, but with much exce^ior and twine, the muscles are gradually built up. Leave the bones bare at the points where nature does. The hind leg must have its tendon of Achilles before it can be finished. To make this, drill a hole through the end of the calcaneum, or heel bone ; pass a long wire through for half its length, twist the two halves tightly together until they will reach half-way up the thigh, then wrap tow around the twisted wrire from the heel bone up, making the tendon larger as you proceed. Presently you are ready to merge it into the flesh of the leg so that its upper end disappears. To give form to a leg, and bring out the prominent muscles, take a very long needle and a very long piece of twine, and sew through and through the leg on certain lines, putting on press- ure to produce certain depressions that exist between the larger muscles. To give detailed directions on this point would oblige me to go into the subject of rnusculation at great ;n id tiresome length, and since this is not a work on anatomy, I will not attempt a dissertation on the form of each genera of the mammalia. The illustrations of the tiger and bison mani- kins show the form of the external muscles of Fclis tigrls and Bison americanus, and what is possible in a manikin. MAKING THE BODY or A MANIKIN. — The centre board of a large 148 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. mammal, like the bison, moose, and all such animals, should ac- curately represent a section through the centre of the body from top to bottom. In the absence of measurements and liv- ing- models, the closest approximation to the desired form is ob- tained by laying the skin upon the floor, hair inside, and folding it loosely upon itself so as to get what looks like the general shape of the animal, and then taking the outline thus obtained. A very large manikin may be made hollow in the manner represented in the accompanying plate (Plate IX.), which is self-explanatory. This is often desirable to avoid making the figure too heavy, as would be the case were the entire bulk to be made a solid mass of excelsior. For the smaller buffaloes, I made the bodies of excelsior alone. Each side was built up separately by driving a row of nails along the top of the centre board, and another along the bottom to carry the twine over in binding 011 the layers of excelsior. At the last, these nails were driven home. During all this process the skin has been tried on the mani- kin from time to time, to make sure that the structure is of the right size in every respect. Beginners nearly always make a manikin too large, especially in circumference. It is the commonest trick in the world for legs and necks to be made so large they have to be reduced. If a skin does not fit when it is tried on, the manikin is generally to blame, though sometimes the skin is badly shrunken, and requires to be further thinned down to make it more elastic. It is easy enough to make a manikin larger or higher, especially on the hind quarters, even while the skin is being put on for the last time ; but woe to him whose manikin is too large at the last mo- ment. That means serious delay. When the manikin is finished at every point, shear it all over with a large pair of shears to clip off the ends of the wisps of ex- celsior, and then poison the skin, thoroughly on the inside with arsenical soap, and on the outside with arsenic water,' if the hair be long. While the poison is being absorbed, mix up enough clay to cover the entire animal with a coat an eighth or a quarter of an inch thick, and smear it on with the hand. Have it soft and pasty, so that it will rub into the excelsior, and catch hold of it. If the clay is too stiff, it will neither spread nor stick. $ H EH 3 PH § c £ THE CONSTRUCTION OF MANIKINS. 149 When the manikin has been fully covered with clay from end of nose to tip of tail, not a single inch of surface having been missed, you then have a complete clay statue of the animal, ex- cept the feet. Now put the skin over and adjust it carefully. Leave no air-bubbles under it. Catch it together between 'the fore legs, hind legs, under the belly, the throat and neck, and around the legs, and make it fit everywhere. Then begin at the feet and sew it up with short, strong stitches in the manner already described, shaping and filling out wherever necessary, as you go. On a large mammal it is very desirable for two persons to work at the same time, to keep the skin from drying up prematurely. Of course, the skin must be kept wrapped up in wet cloths until finished. Finish all the legs first, and then the body. You can actually model the skin down upon the body, and it will not only take the exact form of the manikin— every depression and every elevation — but it will also keep it. If there is too much skin on one side of the animal, work it to- gether with your hand, and coax it to shrink until the superflu- ous skin is distributed over the animal, and finally disappears. Once, when mounting the skin of a Burchell's zebra in a pecul- iar attitude (at bay), I found that, owing to its elasticity, there was a superabundance of about ten inches of skin in front of the left hind leg, which was placed very far forward, under the body. But for the saving grace of a clay-covered manikin I should have been in a fix. As it was, I started in half-way up the neck, to work together and stow away the siirplus skin from that point backward, and by the time I reached the seat of the difficulty (at the flank) the surplus skin was all taken up, and the side of the animal was as smooth and immaculate as if nothing had happened. There is supreme pleasure in crowning a well-made manikin with a' handsome skin, and seeing a specimen take on perfect form and permanent beauty as if by magic. If is then that you begin to be proud of your work ; and finally you revel in it. You say to yourself, "This is art!"— and so it is, — but let your work speak for itself. The head is the last thing to be finished, and this feature of the work will be treated in detail in another chapter. CHAPTEK XVin. FINISHING MOUNTED MAMMALS. DRYING AND SHRINKING. — After the actual mounting1 of a mam- mal is finished, the specimen should be put aside in a separate room, away from the dust, and allowed to stand for from three or four weeks to three or four months, according to its size. It must have time to dry thoroughly, and shrink as much as it will. Every specimen is bound to shrink in drying, and it is better for this to occur before it leaves the workroom, and be- fore the finishing touches are put on, rather than after it goes on exhibition, and is practically beyond your reach. In shrinking, all the seams open, more or less ; the eyelids draw away a trifle from the glass eye; usually the lips open somewhat ; and in ruminants the inner skin of the ear often draws straight across the inside. CLEANING UP A SPECIMEN. — In finishing a specimen, the first thing is to dig the clay and tow out of all open seams, cracks, and small holes, preparatory to filling them with papier-mache. With the sharp point of a pointed bone-scraper, dig out the clayy or whatever filling material is in sight, very thoroughly, so as to give the papier-mache a chance to enter deeply and catch firmly underneath the edges of the skin. With a stiff brush, brush out the seams and openings, so that no clay-dust remains, for there is nothing so good as clay-dust to prevent papier-mache from sticking to a skin. It is often well to use a bellows in getting dirt out of holes and seams. Beat the dust out of the hair, or blow it out with the hand bellows, or brush it out, or wash it out if necessary, any way to get it out. If the hair has been poisoned with arsenic water, do as little to it as possible in getting out the accumulated dust, for too vigorous treatment will bring out the arsenic with the dust, and send it into your lungs. FINISHING MOUNTED MAMMALS. l."Jl If, however, the hair has not yet been poisoned, as soon as the cleaning1 is finished lay the animal upon its buck, or on its side, and pour into the hair, so that it will run immediately down to the roots, a solution of alcohol, water, and corrosive sublimate made as follows : If you wish to make four gallons of the solution, take two gallons of ninetj^-nve per cent, alcohol, dissolve in it all tli3 corrosive sublimate it will take up, mak- ing what chemists call a " saturated solution." In this there will always be a little of the sublimate left on the bottom of the jar. This is, of course, too strong to use thus, under any circumstances. Carefully pour off the clear liquid so as to leave the sediment remaining in the jar, and then dilute the former with an equal qaantity of water, which thus yields the desired four gallons. It is most effectually applied by pouring it from a small watering-pot, with the sprinkler off the spout, into the hair, so that it will fill it and, cover the skin without being wasted. The corrosive sublimate is deposited at the roots of the hair, and also on the hair, in quantity sufficient to prevent the ravages of insects, but not to be injurious to the health of the taxidermist. Strong- arsenic water may be used for this pupose, instead of the other solution, if preferred. In case the solution used should leave a gray deposit on the hair, it should be sponged off with a little warm water. PAPIEII-MACHE.— How to Make and Use If. — Every taxidermist must know how to make g-ood papier-mache before his educa- tion can be considered complete. This material is absolutely indispensable in taxidermic work, and its composition should be thoroughly understood. It is used in filling up holes, seams, and cracks, in modeling the mouth parts of specimens that have been mounted with the mouth open, in restoring miss- ing parts of various specimens, in modeling bones to go in " restored " skeletons, etc. It is also of great value in model- ing- groundwork to be made in imitation of rock or wood. There is really no good substitute for this material. AYhen properly made it sticks tightly to its place, is easily modeled, can be crowded into the smallest crack, dries quickly when ex- posed to the air, is hard and smooth when dry, takes paint readily, and yet when kept wrapped in a wet cloth under an inverted bowl can be kept soft for several days. 152 TAXIDKRMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. There are several ways of making papier-mache, according to the use to which it is to be put. I have taken pains to prepare an exact formula for making the finest and best quality, and from that the worker will undoubtedly be able to work out vari- ations in quality, according to his needs. The most important ingredient is the paper pulp. The iinsst pulp for papier-mache is that made by the ton in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, from muti- lated paper currency, but not from tobacco stamps, which is coarse and not fit for fine work. A hundred pounds of this pulp would cost, in Washington, about $1.50, and could be made into sheets of small bulk, and dried for use as needed. It is a great advantage to have it in this form. When needed for use, take a dry sheet or ball of the right size, dissolve and beat it up into a thin mush in a bowl of water, until the parti- cles are all well separated, then pour it on a sieve to run the water out without losing the pulp. The water is then squeezed out of it by gentle pressure with the hand, but it should not, by any means, be squeezed as dry as possible, for the water is an important factor. Pulp prepared thus can be stirred up with glue into a perfectly homogeneous paste, free from all lumps, and so fine it can be pressed into the smallest crack. If you have no manufactured pulp, then you must make it yourself. Procure a lot of old newspapers, of as soft paper as possible, tear them to bits, put the pieces in a kettle of boiling water and beat the mass in any way you please, boiling it meanwhile, until it becomes paper pulp. It should be free from lumps and small pieces of paper, or it will not work well. The following are the ingredients necessary to make a lump of papier-mache a little larger than an ordinary base-ball, and weighing 17 ounces. PINE PAPIER-MACHE. Wet paper pulp, j dry Pa?er' l ounce \ 4 ounces (avoirdupois). ( water, 3 ounces ' Dry plaster Paris, .... 8 ounces Hot glue, . . . . % gill, or 4>^ tablespoonf uls. While the paper pulp is being prepared, melt some best Irish glue in the glue-pot, and make it of the same thickness and general consistency as that used by cabinet-makers. Meas- ' ', k ' '' ., 2 - f- a o GO 3 - 2 a - g X g 7 FINISHING MOUNTED MAMMALS. 153 ure the different ingredients to be used, until the result teaches you what good papier-mache is like, and after that you can be guided by your judgment as you proceed. On taking the paper pulp from the water, give it a gentle squeeze, but by no means squeeze it as dry as you can. Now put it in a bowl, put over it about three tablespoonfuls of your hot glue, and stir the mass up into a soft and very sticky paste. Next add your plaster Paris, and mix it thoroughly. By the time you have used about three ounces of the plaster, the mass is so dry and thick you can hardly work it. Now add the remainder of your glue, work it up again until it becomes sticky once more, then add the remainder of your plaster. Squeeze it vigorously through your fingers to thoroughly mix the mass, and work it until it is free from lumps, is finely kneaded, and is sticky enough to stick fast to the surface of a planed board when you rub a bit on it by firm pressure of the finger. If it is too dry to stick fast, add a few drops of either glue or water, it makes lit- tle difference which, and work it up again. "When the paper pulp is poor, and the mache is inclined to be lumpy, lay the mass upon a smooth board, take a hammer and pound it hard to grind it up fine. If the papier-mache is not sticky enough to stick fast to what- ever a bit of it is rubbed upon, it is a failure, and requires more glue. In using it the mass should be kept in a lump, and used as soon as possible after it is made. Keep the surface of the lump moist by means of a wet cloth laid over it, for if you do not, the surface will dry rapidly. If you wish to keep it over night, or longer, wrap it up in several thicknesses of wet cotton cloth, and put it under an inverted bowl. If it should by accident or delay become a trifle too stiff to work well, add a few drops of water to the mass, pound it with the hammer, and work it over again. If you wish to keep a lump for a week, to use daily, add a few drops of glycerine when you make it, so that it will dry more slowly. The papier-mache made when the above formula was prepared had the following qualities : "When tested by rubbing between the thumb and finger, it was sticky and covered the thuml > witli a thin coating. (Had it left the thuml) clean, it would have been because it contained too much water.) "NVhen rubbed upon 154 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. a pane of glass, it stuck tightly and dried hard in three hours, without cracking, and could only be removed with a knife. When spread in a layer, as thin as writing-paper, it dried in half an hour. A mass actually used dried hard enough to coat with wax in eighteen hours, and, without cracking, became as hard as wood; yet a similar quantity wrapped in a wet cloth and placed under an inverted bowl kept soft and fit for use for au entire week. Such are the qualities of first-class papier-mache, and the manner of producing them all. I have dwelt at great length on this material because it is such an important and indispensable factor in general taxidermic work. It will pay any taxidermist to become an expert in making it and using it, and a little later, when we get to modeling intricate mouth parts, and making all sorts of restorations and repairs, we shall see what a valuable servant is papier-mache. "MACHEING" MOUNTED MAMMALS. — Surely it is unnecessary for me to devote much space to directing how to fill up with papier-mache the holes, seams, and cracks in a mounted mam- mal. Of course all cavities opened by shrinkage or accident must be filled up. Use a sharp-pointed knife, press the fine and soft mache deeply into every opening, make it catch underneath the skin, so that when dry it cannot flake off, or be knocked off; and smooth it on the outside to the level of the skin. Use the mache liberally, and it will be more certain always to remain as you leave it. Fill up rough seams until they are smooth, so that the hair can be glued on if necessary. Wherever dry clay shows, dig it out and replace with the other more durable ma- terial, which can be painted, whereas dry clay can not. PUTTY. — In the days of my youth I was taught by my Euro- pean teachers to use putty for all such work as that described above ; but I very soon became disgusted with it, and years ago ceased to use it for any purpose whatever. It is greasy, inert, and yet purely temporary stuff. It never gets really hard un- less used in a great mass, and when used in small quantities for fine work it is utterly worthless. Do not use it unless you are so situated that you are positively unable to make papier-mache— and I cannot imagine any such situation as being possible with- in the pale of civilization. FINISHING MOUNTED MAMMALS. 155 PAINTING ON PAPIEK-MACHE. — Of course this material dries white, and must be painted. If paint is put directly upon it, the oil and color is absorbed at once, and it takes many coats to properly fill it up. To save time and give the best results, first give your papier-mache work two coats of shellac, which dries in a few minutes and fills up all the pores, so that your paint will stay as you put it on. Use oil colors, but put them on with turpentine to avoid the unnatural gloss that oil will give. In another chapter (XXVI.) will be found detailed hints in regard to painting mounted specimens. GLUING HAIR UPON MAMMALS. — It is very seldom that a dry skin is mounted without there being upon it some spot or spots destitute of hair, which must be repaired. Sometimes it is only a small spot, sometimes it is nearly the entire head, or an entire leg from which the epidermis has come loose, carrying the hair with it, and leaving an unsightly bare spot. It re- quires a good deal of ingenuity, much skill, and tireless pa- tience to glue hair upon an animal so that it will so closely resemble the natural growth that no one will notice the differ- ence. But in every case, except some of the seals and sea-lions, this can be accomplished, if it be necessary, although very often it requires good judgment and the hand of an artist to do it. Each mammal has its own peculiarities in regard to the quality, thickness, length, and general set of its hair, all of which must be carefully studied. When the hair grows long and thickly, the task is much easier than if it be thin or short. 1st. Procure a pair of very small curve-pointed forceps, so fine they will hold a single hair if necessary. (Price, 75 cents.) 2d. Procure a pair of small and sharp scissors, with sharp points. 3d. Procure a bottle of common fish-glue, or royal glue. 4th. If possible, procure a piece of useless skin, from which to cut the hair necessary to use in making the repairs. Very often it is impossible to procure any pieces of skin with hair suitable for the purpose, and then the only way is to cut hair from the specimen which is to be repaired, picking out with the forceps a tiny bunch here and there in such a way that the bunches cut out will not show. This can nearly always be done in making slight repairs upon thick-haired animals, such 150 TAXIDEUMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. as bears, wolves, monkeys, etc. But with such short-haired animals as the tiger, zebra, and giraffe, the hair must be pro- cured elsewhere. Use the hair of any animal to repair the coat of another, so long as it will answer perfectly, no matter what the genus or species may be. Use tow, or jute, painted or dyed the proper color, if it is sufficiently like the hair which will surround it. In order to treat this subject intelligibly, we will undertake to separate all terrestrial mammals into three classes, as fol- lows : 1st. Animals luith very close, short hair ; as the tiger, zebra, horse, and giraffe. Upon such animals as the above, the hair lies almost flat upon the skin, completely covering it with a very smooth, glossy coat. To repair hair upon such animals, procure pieces of skin having hair of the requisite quality, and soak them in clear water until decomposition sets in, and the hair easily comes out by the roots. The hair must not be cut off, or it will not answer. Be sure that your fish-glue is good and strong, and about as thick as castor-oil. Clean the bare surface of the skin by scraping it with a knife to remove all dirt, and give the glue a chance to take hold. With your small forceps, pull from the pieces of half-macerated skin a small bunch of hair of the proper tint, and with a small camel's-hair brush apply a drop of glue to the roots of the hair. Begin at the side of the bare spot where the hair grows directly away from it, and lay down your little bunch of hairs so that their tips shall fairly cover the roots of those nearest the edge. Then press down the bunch of hair thus placed in position, work the hairs slightly apart, and make them lie quite flat upon the skin. Follow up this process with untiring patience, and the result will be en- tirely satisfactory. I have seen large patches of hair glued upon a tiger so successfully that when finished the sharpest eye could not detect the repaired spots. But it was very slow work, requiring an hour's steady work to cover a spot of not quite two square inches. 2d. Animals witli thick, long hair; as most monkeys, bears, wolves, all the ruminants of cold climates, etc. In repairing the coats of such as the above, the necessary w A 64 i o O o w K ta s o fc. g 5 FINISHING MOUNTED MAMMALS. 157 hair may be cut off in bunches, either from the animal itself, or from old pieces of skin, so long" as the hair is of the proper length. Notice carefully the set of the hair, and imitate it very exactly. The glue may be applied quite plentifully to the roots of each bunch of hairs while you hold it in your forceps, and usually quite a large bunch may be set on at a time, and afterward spread out a little. In repairing the mountain sheep (Ovis montana) and prong-horn antelope (Antilocapra mi}, the point of vital importance is to get every hair to set in precisely the right direction, so that the surface will be smooth. If the hair is put on carelessly, and without due observance1 »».' the above caution, upon the repaired spot it will stick stilily out like the bristles of 'a shoe-brush, and the imperfection of the coat will be painfully apparent. 3d. Animals with lony /«>/r growing very thinly ; as upon certain. /•nrlions of orang utans, chimpanzees, and all members of the /<» insure absolute smoothness. 8. Put a proper quantity of clay on each side of the skull to form the animal's cheeks, and enough upon the back of the skull, forehead, and muzzle to replace the flesh and skin that has been cut away. On no account attempt to stuff a fresh head with tow, or any fibrous material, for it is a practical im- possibility to keep it from becoming too large. Instead of clay you might possibly use papier-mache, putty, or plaster Paris, if you prefer either ; but clay has many and great advantages over all other materials. Plaster Paris acts too quickly to be of much real use, putty is greasy and inert, and papier-mache dries too slowly when underneath a skin. 9. Before putting the skin in place, sew up whatever rents there may be in it, and replace the cartilage of the ear with thin sheet lead, or sheet tin, cut the proper shape and trimmed down thin at the edges. Ptub a little clay on the metal to en- able the skin to stick to it. Sheet lead can be purchased at about 10 cents per pound at almost any large plumbing estab- lishment. The finest material, however, and which I have used for years, is pure sheet tin, which the National Museum procures of The John J. Cooke Co., Mulberry Street, New York, at 26 cents per pound. It is thin, easily cut and shaped, and just stiff enough to work perfectly in imitating the shape of an ear cartilage. Good, firm, card-board can be used for the ears instead of lead, when you can not get either of the sheet metals. 10. Anoint the skin copiously with arsenical soap, give it time to absorb the poison, then put it in place on the skull and neck, and adjust it carefully. Fasten the lips together at the end of the muzzle by taking a stitch in each and tying the thread. See that the eyes come exactly over the orbits, and then put two or three tacks through the skin of the forehead, into the skull, to hold it in place. Sew the skin tightly together around the base of the antlers, and sew up both arms of the Y. 11. Sometimes the skin of the neck is so much stretched that to fill it out would make the neck, when finished, entirely too l.-n'ge. In such cases, with a clay-covered manikin, it is possible to make a fresh skin contract mechanically by crowding it to- 168 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. gether in minute wrinkles in order to make an undue fulness disappear. 12. Before sewing up the skin along1 the back of the neck, (which must be done with very strong limn " gilling thread," well waxed to keep it from rotting) put enough clay at the base of each ear and on the back of the skull to properly form those parts. Observe that in a live deer the base of the ear is quite close up to the burr of the antler, and it also has a peculiar shape, which should be studied and faithfully reproduced, but can hardly be described. 13. If the manikin is of the right size and shape, you are now ready to sew up the skin ; nail it fast with small brads around the lower edge of the neck-board, and trim the surplus oft* neatly and evenly. Screw the head upon a rough shield or piece of board, so that it will stand alone on your table while you are working at the face. 14. Unless you have carefully studied a deer's head in the flesh, or have a cast to work by, you can not reasonably expect to be able to make the head precisely as it should be. Fifteen minutes of close and studious examination and note-taking of a head in the flesh will do for you what my poor pen could not hope to accomplish with ten pages of written matter. 15. There yet remains that part of the work which requires the most artistic treatment. In finishing the face, the first thing is to shape the cheeks, which is quickly done provided they are filled with precisely the proper quantity of clay. By trial you will find whether more clay must be put in, or some taken out. After the cheeks, form the eyebrow, fill the orbit with clay, and with a small wire nail fasten the skin down in that deep pit which is found in front of the anterior corner of the eye. Press the skin down upon the muzzle, fill in the lips with clay, and fold them as they were before skinning. Before bringing the lips together, fill out the nose, the chin, and corners of the mouth — but not, too full, however. That done satisfactorily, bring the lips together ao they were in life. No wiring or sew- ing is necessary, nor even pinning. It is to be supposed that you have kept the skin of the lower jaw pulled well forward into place, and if so, the lips will go together easily and stay there for all time to come. In modeling the end of the nose and the PLATE XI. OP PHONG-HORN ANTELOPE. MOUNTED BY THE AUTHOU. MOUNTING .MAMMAL HEADS. 169 nostrils, give the latter good depth. Make the opening- so deep that no one can ever see the bottom of it. No little fault dis- gusts me more than to see the nostrils of a deer, buffalo, or elk all plastered up with putty, as if the animal had never drawn a breath. Make your animal look as if it were brat filing, rather than standing- up with rods in its legs, and its hide full of rub- bish. 16. The eyes come next. Arrange the lids carefully over the clay, which nearly nils the orbit, then insert the glass eye, (which in every ruminant should have an elongated pupil and white corners), and work it into its exact position. Do not have too much clay behind it, or it will have a bulging, overfed, or choked-to-death expression. Do not let it protrude until it could be knocked off the head with a bean-pole, or lassoed with a grape-vine. Keep the eye well down in the orbit, and the front corner \vell sunken. An animal's expression depends upon the eye more than any other one thing, and the expression of the eye is dependent upon the disposition of the eyelid and the line of sight. A good glass eye has just as much power of va- ried expression as has a living, naked eyeball — which is //" jxnoer whatever — unless it be the eyeball of an angry cat. 17. See that both eyes look at the same point, in front, about eight feet distant ; that precisely the same amount of iris shows in each, in short, that both are exactly alike in every re- spect. A deer should have a mild, but wide-awake — not star- ing— expression, and the attitude should not be unpleasantly strained, either in the curve of the neck or the carriage of the head. Avoid the common error of making a deer's head too " proud." No goose-necks or goitre on your deer, if you please. Having finished the eyes and fashioned the nostrils, cut sonic pieces of pasteboard, bend them to the right shape, and either sew or pin them upon the ears to hold them in precisely the right attitude until they dry. If the ears have lead in them they will support themselves. Lastly, wash the head thoroughly t<> get all the dirt and clay out of the hair, and comb it until it lays naturally. Now hang the head up in a dry room and leave it for a month, if possible, two weeks at all hazards. AYhon quite dry and shrunken, Ifrush it well, and rub around the mouth, nose, eyes, and ears with a tooth-brush to remove the 170 TAXIDERMY A1STD ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. last remaining- suggestions of clay. (See chapter on " Finishing- Mounted Mammals.")- Paint the end of the nose and edges of the eyelids with Vandyke brown and black, using oil colors. The hairless parts of the lips are entirely concealed, consequently there is no painting to be done around the mouth unless the shrinkage has slightly parted the lips. If this has occurred put some black paint in the crack. By all means mount a handsome head upon a rich and hand- some shield. Tastes differ widely, but for my part I dislike a thin, light shield, and one not nicely finished is also an eyesore. The wood should be of a color that will harmonize best with the color of the head upon it. The finest shields are made of cherry ebonized, or red- wood, black walnut, oak, mahogany, or maple, and highly polished. The best shape for a shield is such as that seen behind the caribou head in Plate XVI. CHAPTER XX. FACIAL EXPKESSION AND MOUTH MODELING. WE have now reached one of the most interesting- features of all taxiderinic work. There is no royal road to success in this direction, nor aught else that leads thither save hard study, hard work, and an artistic sense of the eternal fitness of things. The large Felidfv (tiger, lion, leopard, etc.) are the finest sub- jects for the taxidermist that the whole animal kingdom can produce. They offer the finest opportunities for the develop- ment of muscular anatomy, and the expression of the various higher passions. The best that I can do with the space at my disposal for this subject is to offer the reader a few hints on how to produce certain expressions, illustrated by an accurate drawing from one of my mounted specimens. In the first place, strive to catch the spirit of your subject. It frequently happens that the attitude desired for a feline or other carnivorous animal is one expressive of anger, rage, or de- fiance. For a single specimen, the most striking attitude pos- sible is that of a beast at bay. Unless a carnivorous animal is to be represented in the act of seizing something, the mouth should not be opened very wide. It is a common fault with taxidermists to open the jaws of such an animal too widely, so that the effect striven for is lost, and the animal seems to be yawning prodigiously, instead of snarling. Open the jaws a moderate distance, indicating a readiness to open wider without an instant's warning. The thick, fleshy part of the upper lip is lifted up to clear the teeth for action, and the mustached portion is bunched up until it shows two or three curving wrinkles, with the middle of the curve upward. This crowds the nostril opening together, and changes its shape very materially. In most carnivora, but most strikingly so in bears, 172 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. the end of the lower lip falls away slightly from the lower incisors. In old lions and tigers the face wrinkles pretty much all over, especially across the nose and under the eyes. In all the Felicia1 the opening of the eye changes most strikingly. When angry, the eye of a ruminant animal opens its widest, and shows por- tions of the eyeball that are never seen otherwise. In the car- nivora, the reverse is the case. As if to protect the eye from being clawed or bitten, the upper eyelid is drawn well down over the ball, as seen in Plate I. (Frontispiece), and the eyebrows are bunched up and drawn near together until the scowl be- comes frightful. The decks are further cleared for action in the disposition of the ears. Instead of leaving them up ready to be bitten off, they are " unshipped," and laid back as far as possible, close down upon the neck, and out of harm's way. The tongue also pulls itself together, contracts in the middle, curves up at the edges, and makes ready to retire farther back between the jaws at the instant of seizure. All this time the body is not by any means standing idly and peacefully at ease. The attitude must match the expression of the face, or the tragedy becomes a farce. The body must stand firmly on its legs, alert, ready either to attack or defend, head turned, body slightly bent, or slightly crouching, and, unless the animal is walking, with the tail switching nervously from side to side. If the animal is walking forward, the tail should be held still and in the same vertical plane as the body. The finest attitude for a large carnivor is one which represents it at bay, and awaiting attack. A cat is an animal of a thousand at- titudes. Very many of them, if reproduced exactly in a mount- ed specimen, would look very uncouth and devoid of beauty ; therefore, choose those which are at once characteristic and pleasing to the eye. MODELING AN OPEN MOUTH. — In mounting a feline animal with mouth open and teeth showing, beware what you do, or you will make the animal laughing instead of snarling. This is often done ! In fact, in my younger days I did it once myself —but without any extra charge. In modeling an open mouth, first fill the inside of the lips with clay, and also back them up underneath with clay until the FACIAL EXPRESSION AND MOUTH MODELING. 173 lips, when fixed in position, have the expression desired. The inner edg-e of the hairless portion of the lower lip should fit up close against the jaw bone, and perhaps be tacked down upon it temporarily. Very often it is necessary to hold the lips in po- sition, while drying, by sewing- through the edges- and passing the thread across the jaws from side to side. The skin of the nose must be fully backed up with clay, so that no hollows are left into which the skin can shrink away in drying. It is often desirable to hold the end of the lower lip up to its place, while drying1, by driving1 a small wire nail through it into the bone. Do not fill the mouth full of clay, for it must be borne in mind that the final modeling of the soft parts of the mouth must be Modeling Tools of Wood. done in papier-mache. It is no small task to dig out of a mouth a quantity of clay and tow after it has become hard ; therefore, leave a place for the tongue. A head must be thoroughly dry and shrunken before the mouth can be finished and made permanent. In drying, the lips draw away from the gums somewhat, which is just as it should be. The first step is to clear away the dry clay from around the teeth and lips, and get everything clean and ready for the maehe. Then make some fine papier-mache, as describ- ed elsewhere, that is sticky enough to adhere firmly to smooth bone, and of such consistency that it works well in modeling. With this, and your modeling spatulas and other tools of steel, zinc, or hard wood (see Figs. 39-44), cover the jaw bones to re- place the fleshy gums, and fill up to the edges of the lips so that they seem to be attached to the g-ums as in life. Coat the roof of the mouth, and model its surface into the same peculiar 174 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. corrugations that you saw in the mouth immediately after death. This is slow work. It requires a good eye, a skilful, artistic touch, and unlimited patience. If you are an artist, prove it now by the fidelity with which you copy nature in this really diffi- cult work. In modeling the surface of papier-mache, you must have a clean, well-polished mod- eling-tool, like Fig. 42, and by wetting it now and then so that it will slip over the surface, your work can be made very smooth. Next comes the tongue. The only per- fect tongue for a feline animal is a natural tongue, skinned, and stuffed with clay. The papillae on the tongue of a lion, tiger, leopard, or puma simply defy imitation, and after many experiments with many 1 different animals I found that with the real tongue, and with that only, one can reproduce nature itself and defy criticism. Of course, this is possible only when you have the animal in the flesh, and can cut out the tongue and preserve it in alcohol until you are ready to mount it. To prepare a tiger's tongue, for exam- ple, first preserve the whole tongue in al- cohol, for safe keeping. When ready to proceed, slit it open lengthwise under- neath, and skin it carefully. Take a piece of sheet lead, cut it and hammer it into the right size and shape, and fit it in the Modeling Tools of steel. mouth as nearly as possible in the shape the finished tongue is to have. By judic- ious hammering with the round end of a machinist's hammer you can give it any shape you desire. When it is just right, cover it with clay to replace the flesh of the tongue, treat the skin with arsenical soap, put it over, and sew it up. Now fit the tongue FACIAL EXPRESSION AND MOUTH MODELING. 17.-) FIG. 45. — Side View t>! Timor's Tongue. into the mouth, and by pressure with the fingers change its shape wherever necessary in order to make it fit exactly as you wish to have it. When finished, lay it ,,..^>"-^^~.^. J ,/».<"'• •;'„. '•'-.". ' fjivF?** • -| , -i mi ' ****'*£'****&/* f '?*• •?*"- * . . aside to dry. Ihe ac- companying figures were drawn from the finished tongue of the tiger represented in Plate I., where it is seen in place.- Wheii the tongue is dry it must be painted with oil colors, using a little turpentine so that the surface shall not be too glossy, nor have a varnished look. Vermilion and white are the best colors to use, and above all do not make the tongue or lips look like pink candy, or red flannel, or red sealing-wax. Call up the household cat at an early stage of the proceedings, and use her mouth as a model, whether she will or no. A patient old tabby is an invaluable ally in the mounting of feline animals of all sorts, and Towser will also help you out with your Canidce. When modeling the mouth or muscles of a gorilla or orang utan, catch the first amateur taxidermist you can lay your hands on— the wilder and greener the better — and use him as your model. Study him, for he is fearfully and wonderfully made. The way some of my good- natured colleagues used to pose for me as (partly) nude mod- els at Ward's, when I once had a ten- months' siege with orangs, gorillas, and chimpanzees, was a constant source of wonder and delight to the ribald crew of osteologists who knew nothing of high art. Fortunately the tongues of most large mammals are smooth, FIO. 4G.-EBd view. '• ' ^=^ •as&ssS •' -••••' - ••'•• FIG. 4T.— Tiger's Tongue, Top View. 176 TAXIDERMY AXD ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. and are easily reproduced by using the same leaden core as de- scribed above, and covering it first with papier-mache, drying- it, and coating1 with tinted wax, laid on hot with a small flat paint-brush called a "fitch." With small specimens it is not necessary to make the tongue as a separate piece, or put a leaden core in it. Fill into the mouth a sufficient quantity of papier-mache, pack it down, and then proceed to model the surface of it into a tongue, shaped to suit the subject. Such a tongue is, of course, a fixture in the mouth. Cleaning Teeth. — Before finishing a mouth with wax, the teeth must be washed clean with a stiff brush. If they will not come out white enough to suit you, wash them with a solution of two parts muriatic acid and one part water, applied with a tooth- brush if possible. Let it stay on the teeth about a quarter of a minute, when it must be washed off with an abundance of clear water. If the acid stays on too long, it will destroy the entire outer surface (enamel) of the teeth. Waxing a Mouth. — Of course it will answer, and sometimes quite well enough, perhaps, when a mouth has been hand- somely and smoothly modeled in fine papier-mache, to sand- paper it and paint it over when dry with two or three coats of oil color. You can hardly do otherwise, in fact, when you are not prepared to work with wax. But the really fine way, how- ever, is to coat your dry papier-mache with tinted wax as fol- lows : Procure from the nearest dealer in artists' materials some cakes of white wax. You must also have a small oil or gas stove, or a spirit-lamp, and rig above it a wire frame on which you can set your wax cup. The wax cups should be small, and made of pressed tin, so that they contain no soldered joints. The wax is to be applied hot, or at least quite warm, for bear in mind that if you heat your wax too hot it changes its color quite perceptibly, and makes it dark and yellow. Wax should aliuays be clear and transparent, and when the excess of heat turns it yellow, throw it away. 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 FACIAL EXPRESSION AND MOUTH MODELING. 177 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 using1 it, it is necessary to keep the wax well stirred with the brush, or the color will settle to the bot- tom. 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, dex- trous touch, sweeping it on broadly to keep it from piling up and making- the surface rough. This wax business requires genuine skill, and, after beginning1, one must not be discour- aged because it does not " go right " at first, but try, try again. After your hand has acquired the trick, the beauty of the re- sults 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 doos not suit you, scrape it all off, and "to 't again." To treat the roof of the mouth, the speci- men 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 mot- tled 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-mache, and also in trim- ming up the wax after it has been applied. (~'/<'tnii)i.ff Glass Eyes. — Always have the glass eyes of a fin- ished 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. Soni'.* of the old-fashioned taxidermists have the habit 12 178 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. of smearing* a lot of nasty lamp-black in the eyes of every mounted mammal, for what purpose no one knows — but possi- bly in imitation of actresses, some of whom have the same un- accountable 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. CHAPTEE XXI. EELAXING DRY SKINS OF BIRDS. As usual with most processes in taxidermy, there are several ways in which a dry bird skin may be softened, and made ready to mount or make over. I will first describe the one I consider the best in all respects. TREATMENT OF SMALL SKINS. — Open the skin and remove the filling1 from the body, neck, and head. Tear some old cotton cloth into strips from one to two inches wide, wet them in warm water and wrap one around each leg and foot until it is com- pletely covered with several thicknesses of the wet cloth. Lift up the wing1 and put two or three thicknesses of wet cloth, or else thoroughly wet cotton batting1, around the carpal joints, and also between the wing1 and the body. Put some more wet cot- ton, or rags, inside the skin, in the body and neck, wrap the whole specimen completely in several thicknesses of wet cloth, so as to exclude the air, and lay it aside. If the skin is no larger than a robin, in about twelve to fourteen hours it will be soft enough to mount. The scraping- and cleaning1 will be considered later. TREATMENT OF LARGE SKINS. — Under this heading- it is neces- sary to place nearly all birds above the size of a robin, for the reason that the legs and feet, being large and thick in com- parison with the skin of the body, require special treatment in advance. The legs and wings of some birds require several days' soaking, and were the thin skin of the body to be relaxed for the same length of time, it would macerate, and the feathers would fall off. The legs and wings of large birds must, there- fore, be started first in the relaxing process. Let us take, for example, the skin of a ruffed grouse ( Htmu^i. If the skin is an old one, rover the toe-nai^ and 180 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. beak with hot wax, or else by much soaking the horny sheaths will flake off. Wrap the feet and leg's with wet cloths, as de- scribed above, and let the skin lie without any other wrapping for one day. By the end of that time the joints can be bent somewhat, and they should be manipulated until they bend easily. When they will do this, put wet cloths around the joints of the wings, under the wings, inside of the body and the neck, and wrap the whole skin in a wet cloth of the proper size. By the end of the second day the entire skin will be soft and pliable, and smelling like an African shanty — damp and musty. Of course the larger the skin the longer it will take to com- pletely relax. Sometimes the wings of very large birds require soaking half as long as the legs, but care must be exercised not to soak any feathered parts too long, or the feathers are liable to fall out and cause trouble. By this process skins may be softened and made ready to mount, according to their size, as follows : Wren to robin, in twelve to fourteen hours ; ruffed grouse, two days ; great blue heron, three days ; bald eagle, four days ; condor, five days ; ostrich, six to seven days. Skins which are less than one year old soften in about half the time they would require if five years old, and if properly made in the first place, will make as handsome mounted specimens as would fresh skins. WET SAND. — Some taxidermists soften dry bird skins by bury- ing them in wet sand after the legs and wings have been relaxed in the way already described. I have tried it occasionally with small skins, and found that the results were quite satisfactory. A GOOD " SwEAT-Box." — Professor L. L. Dyche, of the Uni- versity of Kansas, described to me a sweat-box which he has used, and which is certainly a good one for the creation of a damp atmosphere for the softening of skins, and also to keep half-finished birds in over night, to prevent them from drying up. What a deal of trouble the bird taxidermists of my ac- quaintance might have saved themselves during the last ten years had they known of, or devised, this simple but perfect con- trivance. It is made by selecting a wooden box, of the right size to suit, providing a hinged cover, and coating the entire inside with plaster Paris an inch or so in thickness. To make use of it, it is filled with water and allowed to stand until the RELAXING DRY SKINS OF BIRDS. 181 plaster lining- has soaked full, when the rest of the water is emptied out. If a layer of wet sand is spread over the bottom, the saturation of the air inside the box, when closed, will be still more complete. A HEROIC METHOD OF RELAXATION. — Mr. William Brewster thus describes " A New Wrinkle in Taxidermy," in Messrs. Southwick & Jencks' " Random Notes," vol. ii., No. 1 : "Wishing1 to turn a mounted bird into a skin, and having but a limited time to devote to the task, I tried an experiment. Taking- a funnel, and inserting- the pointed end in the stuffing between the edges of the skin on the abdomen, I poured in a quantity of hot water (nearly boiling- hot) taking- care to regu- late the injection so that it should be rather slowly absorbed by the stuffing, and holding- the bird at various angles, that every portion of the anterior might become soaked. The effect was magical ; the skin quickly relaxed, and within fifteen minutes I could bend the neck and make other required changes without any risk of a break. " My first experiment was with a gull ; afterward I tried other birds, both large and small, with equal success. I found also that the plan worked equally well with skins which had been overstuffed, or otherwise badly made. In a very few minutes they would become nearly as tractable as when freshly taken from the birds, and much more so than I have ever succeeded in making them by the use of a damping-box. The only difficulty experienced was that the water, especially if turned in too fast. would escape through shot-holes and other rents in the skin, thus wetting the plumage in places. Of course, after the re- quired improvements or changes have been made, the stuffing is so thoroughly saturated that the skin must be placed in a very warm place to dry. I dried mine most successfully by placing them on a furnace register, and leaving them exposed to the full blast of heat for several days." SCRAPING AND CLEANING RELAXED SKINS.— After a dry bird skin has been softened, it then remains to scrape it clean and manipulate it all over to get it into thoroughly elastic working order, as soft and pliable (if possible) as when first taken off. Small skins should be scraped with the round end of a small bone-scraper, which has a sharp chisel edge, but the large on< ^ 182 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. must be scraped with a small -toothed skin scraper such as is used on small mammals. Of the many thousand species of recent birds, only the ostriches, penguins, and a few others have the feathers distrib- uted evenly over the whole body. In all the EuornifTies they are arranged in regular patches or groups, called pterylos, between which lie the naked or downy spaces, called apteria. In thin- skinned birds it is the pterylce that need to be attacked with the scraper, and so scraped and stretched and pulled apart that the skin widens, and each feather is free, as in life, to move on its own root independently, and take whatever position it should have on the mounted bird. Turn the skin completely wrong side out, scrape it all over, and get every part fully relaxed, and into thorough working order. Large birds, or birds with thick, fat skins, require plenty of work to get out all the grease, and get the wings, legs, and head into a thorough state of collapse. In large, long-legged birds, the tendons must be removed from the leg, the same as if the specimen were a fresh one, for other- wise the wire may split the skin of the tarsus wide open, and make a very bad and unsightly turn at the heel besides. It is a difficult task to remove the tendon from the leg of an old, dry heron or crane, but it must be done. DAMAGED SKINS. — It not infrequently happens that in clean- ing and scraping a rare and valuable old skin it proves to be " burnt " with grease, and goes to pieces like so much brown paper. "Now is the winter of our discontent." If the skin is not torn too badly it may be lined with thin cot- ton or linen cloth, which must be cut and fitted within, and sewed fast to the skin all over. This plan, though rather tedious to work out, develops admirably when determinedly and care- fully pursued. If the skin goes all to pieces, a manikin must be made, and the pieces glued upon it, one by one, beginning at the tail,— a process which is so simple it is unnecessary to describe it in detail. In Fig. 50 is seen a manikin all ready to receive its feathers, wings, and head. PH w B< O I CHAPTER XXII. MOUNTING SMALL BIRDS. WE will suppose that the skin of a small bird — a robin, black- bird, or thrush — now lies on the table before us all ready for mounting1. Perhaps it is a dry skin which has been thoroughly relaxed, scraped, and worked into pliant shape ; but, for the sake of the beginner, we will assume that it is a fresh skin which has just been taken off, poisoned, and turned right side out again, in accordance with the directions for skinning small birds which have been given in Chapter VI. The body of the bird lies be- fore you, and instead of making- up the subject as a dry skin, we will mount it. In mounting- small birds the following- tools are absolutely necessary to the production of good results : A pair of flat-nosed pliers six inches long, for bending- and clinching wrires, price sixty cents ; a pair of six-inch cutting pliers, for cutting wire, eighty-five cents ; a pair of bird-stuffer's forceps, four to six inch, price twenty to seventy -five cents ; a nine-inch flat file, twenty-two cents. Make for yourself a stuffing-rod, by taking a piece of stiff" brass or iron wire, a little larger and longer than a knitting-needle, hammering one end flat, with a slight upward curve, and inserting the other in an awl-handle. Of materials you will need some excelsior ; some clean, fine tow; a little putty or potter's clay; a spool of cotton thread, No. 40, and some suitable glass eyes. With our tools and materials ready at hand, and the skin of our bird lying before us right side out, we are ready to begin a new operation, — mounting. For a bird the size of a robin or cat-bird, cut two pieces of No. 18 soft or " annealed " iron wire (hard wire heated red hot and allowed to cool slowly), each three times the length of the bird's legs, from foot to end of long leg-bone, or tarsus. File 184 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. one end of each wire to a slender and very sharp point, and rub a little oil or grease on each so that it will easily slip when in- side the leg. Now take one of the bird's legs between the thumb and finger of the left hand, holding- it at the foot with the back part up- permost, and with the other hand enter the point of one of the sharpened wires at the centre of foot, push the wire up the back of the leg- and over the heel until the point reaches to where the leg has been skinned. Be sure that you do not run the wire up the side of the leg, either at foot or knee, for if you do it will show badly when the bird is dry. Also be careful not to run the sharpened wire out through the skin just above the heel. To avoid this, grasp the leg at the heel between the thumb and middle finger of left hand, and by strong upward press- ure of the first finger under the end of the leg-bone, and of the fourth finger under the foot, both joints of the leg can be held ex- actly in line until the wire passes the heel safely and enters the open skin above (Fig. 48). Then FIG. 48,-Wirmg a Bird's Leg. We tum back tlie skin °f the le-- till we see the point of the wire, after which we push the wire on up until the point passes the end of the leg bone. We now cut off the thick upper end of this bone, (the tibia), and wrap a little fine tow smoothly around the bone and the wire, to replace the flesh cut away. The other leg must, of course, be similarly treated. We are now ready to make the body. We have kept the body of our specimen for reference, and now we measure the length of both body and neck, cut another wire not quite twice their length and file it sharp at both ends. This will be the neck-wire. Now take a handful of excelsior (tow or oakum will also serve), compress it into an egg-shaped ball- smaller and more pointed at one end than the other, and wrap a very little fine tow loosely around it, to make it smooth on the outside when finished. Now wind stout linen thread around it, shaping it all the time by pressing it between your left thumb MOUNTING SMALL BIRDS. 18H BACK F i G. 49.— Cross Secf!. i i of Body. and forefinger, until at last you have a firm body, smoothly wound, of the same general shape and size as the natural one. When the body is half made you may run the neck-wire through it lengthwise, letting it come out above the centre of the larger end, because the neck is but a continuation of the backbone, Avhich lies at the top of the body. AVheii the wire is inserted, the upper side of the body — the back — must be pinched to- gether and made more narrow than the breast, which is round and full. Be sure that the body is not too large. Better have it too small and too short than too largo or long, for the former can be remedied later on by filling out. 'When, the body is finished, bend up the end of the neck wire for an inch and a half at the lower end of the body, enter the point in the lower part of the body and force it down and backward until the end is firmly clinched and will forever remain so, no matter what is done with the other end. Make the neck by wrapping fine, soft tow sntoofJibj and evenly around the neck wire from the body upward for the proper distance. Make the false neck a trifle larger than the real one, but no longer. The lx>