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TAXIDERMY
BY
LEON L. PRAY
_Illustrated_
[Illustration: OUTING HANDBOOKS]
Number 47
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY
MCMXVI
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COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY
OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY
All rights reserved
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. TOOLS AND MATERIALS 9
II. PREPARING AND MOUNTING A BIRD 19
III. SKINNING, PREPARING, AND MOUNTING A SMALL MAMMAL 45
IV. PREPARING AND MOUNTING GAME FISHES AND SMALL REPTILES 65
V. PREPARING AND MOUNTING A VIRGINIA DEER HEAD 87
VI. PREPARING AND MOUNTING A COYOTE 107
TOOLS AND MATERIALS
TAXIDERMY
CHAPTER I
TOOLS AND MATERIALS
The art of taxidermy, with its many methods of application, has
furnished subject-matter for numerous books, most of these treating the
subject in exhaustive style, being written primarily for students who
desire to take up the work as a profession. It is the present author's
purpose to set forth herein a series of practical methods suited to the
needs of the sportsman-amateur who desires personally to preserve
trophies and specimens taken on days spent afield with gun or rod.
The lover of field and gun may spend many fascinating hours at his
bench, preparing, setting up, and finishing specimens of his own taking.
Besides, the pursuit of this art will afford an amount of remuneration
to the amateur who takes it up in a commercial way, doing work for
others who have neither the time nor inclination for preparing their
own specimens.
The chief requisites for the beginner in taxidermy are joy in working
out detail and a moderate amount of patience.
As suitable tools are the primary consideration in contemplating any
work in taxidermy, a simple list follows. In this list no heavier work
than the mounting of a Virginia deer head is dealt with. This outfit
will be found practical for general light use:
A pocket-knife, one or two small scalpels, a kitchen paring-knife, an
oil stone and can of oil, a hand drill, a fine fur-comb, one bone
scraper, one small skin-scraper, one pair tinners' shears, one pair five
and one-half inch diagonal wire cutters, one pair (same length) Bernard
combination wire cutter and pliers, one pair small scissors, two or
three assorted flat files, one hollow handle tool holder with tools and
little saw, one good hand-saw, one hack-saw, one upholsterer's
regulator, one pair fine tweezers (such as jewelers use), one claw
hammer, an assortment of round and furriers' needles, one or two darning
needles, a sack needle, and an assortment of artists' small bristle and
sable brushes (both round and flat).
Make your own stuffing rods, out of any size iron wire, by hammering
flat one end of a suitable length, filing teeth into the flat face thus
made, and then bending a loop handle on the other end. This type of rod
is easily curved or straightened to suit every need.
Those not wishing to buy at once the complete outfit named above will
find that they can do good small work to start on with the aid of a
pocket-knife, a pair of scissors, a pair of Bernard combination wire
cutter and pliers, needles and thread, cord, a pair of tweezers, a
hammer and saw, and small drill set.
Suitable materials follow the tools in order.
Arsenic is needed for the preservation of all specimens against moths.
This is most effective when used in solution, which is made as follows:
First dampen the arsenic powder with alcohol to saturate it quickly,
when water is added. Place the arsenic in a large metal pail and to
one-half pound of the powder add two gallons of water. Boil hard and
steady over a good fire until the arsenic is completely dissolved. Place
the solution thus made in an earthenware jar with closed cover, plainly
marked "Poison," and keep out of reach of children. Allow solution to
cool before applying to skins. Do not use the pail that the solution was
made in for anything else.
When using arsenic-water grease your hands with a little tallow, rubbing
well under and around finger-nails and wiping the hands partially dry so
that none of the grease will soil fur or feathers. This precaution will
keep the arsenic from entering your skin.
Wash the hands with soap powder and a nail brush after work.
Apply arsenic-water with a brush, or a cotton-and-wire swab, to all
inner surfaces of specimen skins.
Carbolic acid (best to procure U. S. P. pure crystals if possible) is
needed for use in dilute form for relaxing dried skins. This prevents
decay and does not injure the specimen skin. A few drops of the
dissolved crystal to a quart of water is sufficient. Keep carefully
labeled and in a safe place.
Following is a list of the materials needed for general light work:
A quantity of fine excelsior, fine tow and cotton batting, a quantity of
various sizes of galvanized soft steel wire, an assortment of colored,
enameled artificial eyes (procure a taxidermist's supply-house catalog
and from this order your special tools and sizes and colors of eyes
needed), a jar of liquid cement, dry glue (for melting up for
papier-mache), dry paper pulp, plaster of paris, Venetian turpentine,
boiled linseed oil, boracic acid, some refined beeswax, a little
balsam-fir, white varnish, turpentine, alcohol, benzine and a student's
palette of tube oil colors (such as vermilion, rose madder, burnt
sienna, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow middle, zinc white, cobalt blue,
French ultramarine Blue, and Viridian).
Plastic compositions of papier-mache are essential, especially in mammal
and game-head work, for properly finishing the details of ears, face,
and feet of specimens after the body has been filled. These are applied
partly as a last detail before mounting and partly after the figure is
set up.
Compo. No. I is practical for all-around use. Take one-third hot melted
glue and two-thirds flour paste (thick and thoroughly cooked). To this
add a little boracic acid, a little arsenic powder, a very little of
Venetian turpentine, a quantity of gray building-paper pulp (soak paper
and squeeze and beat up even and then squeeze water out). To furnish a
body to this mass, stir in dry white lead until middling thick. Beat the
whole well together.
When carried so far this compo. is a powerful adhesive medium and may be
employed to stick tanned deer scalps to mannikins, and ear skin of same
to the lead cartilages.
Compo. No. II is No. I with fine plaster of paris added until of the
consistency of modeling clay or a trifle stiffer. This makes it ready
for filling ear butts, eye sockets, noses, and feet for modeling into
permanent shape. Sets by drying.
Compo. No. III is for monkey faces, vulture heads, lizards, turtles,
etc. This composition dries very slowly and must be touched up now and
then while drying, to preserve the details without warping. When dry it
is like stone and holds the skin firmly. Take gray paper-pulp, hot
melted glue (quantity according to amount of compo. needed), a little
boracic acid (to prevent decay of glue), boiled linseed oil (fifty per
cent. less than glue), a little arsenic powder (to prevent dermestes
from eating into work), and to this mass add whiting until desired
stiffness for modeling under skin is obtained. Beat and rub to an even
smoothness and stop adding whiting at point where compo. is thick but
still very sticky. Rub some of the compo. into inner surface of skin to
be finished with it or skin will not take hold of mannikin or compo. to
stay.
After modeling is finished under the skin apply linseed oil on outside
and repeat this application several times during the period of drying.
Watch and remodel details if any distortion attends the drying process.
Fine fleshy wrinkles and skin details can be worked out with this compo.
It will hold a thin raw skin where it is put, but is not practical under
fur or feathers.
Compo. No. IV may be used with wire netting or rough board as a base for
making earth bases, imitation rock stands, etc. Take one-third hot
melted glue, two-thirds flour paste, a quantity of paper pulp, a small
amount of boiled linseed oil, a very little of Venetian turpentine,
boracic acid, and arsenic. Thicken to modeling consistency with plaster
of paris, coloring by adding some dry raw umber or lamp black and burnt
umber.
Surface the bases made of this compo. by pressing sand, gravel, or
forest mold into the face and when dry shake off the loose material.
Touch up with tube colors, as desired, and when this is dry apply a very
thin varnish and turpentine finish to bring out a natural damp look.
A foreword as to care of mountable specimens in the field may save a
great amount of cleaning of mussed skins in the shop.
All shot or bullet holes should be immediately plugged with cotton when
specimens are taken. Take a little cotton along in your hunting coat for
this purpose.
In birds plug also the mouth, nostrils, and vent to prevent escape of
juices into plumage. A small sharpened twig will serve to place the
plugs. Slip the bird head first into a paper cone for carrying.
Mussed or blood-stained specimens should not necessarily be discarded.
Look them over first. Many such specimens may be cleaned very easily and
come out in the finish as nearly perfect as others that appeared much
better at the start.
[Illustration]
PREPARING AND MOUNTING A BIRD