SKINNING, PREPARING, AND MOUNTING A SMALL MAMMAL
We will choose a gray squirrel as our subject in this chapter, as this
little rodent has a tough skin that is easily manipulated. A cottontail
rabbit might be more easy to procure, but is not so satisfactory for the
purpose of initiative steps in this work, as his skin is extremely
delicate and requires especially careful handling in preparation and
mounting.
Now, in beginning work upon the small mammal specimen, make outline
studies of it in same way the bird specimen was handled, _i. e._, both
before and after skinning. When the preliminary surface sketches are
completed, replace the wrapping paper used for the purpose, with
newspaper, cornmeal at hand, and proceed with the skinning.
Have scalpel or skinning-knife well sharpened. Lay head of specimen
toward right. Part fur over center of breast bone, insert point of knife
just under skin, forcing backward, and with as near one clean stroke as
possible open the skin neatly along center of abdomen. Do not cut the
abdominal wall. Carry belly incision to close to the vent. In male
specimen run the incision to one side of the testes.
Next insert point of knife in fore center of pad or feet and paws and
with a gentle push carry these incisions upon back of wrists and inside
of ankles to where swell of large muscles is felt. In mammals the size
of woodchuck or raccoon, split toes on under side.
If a mammal skin is to be kept for some time, dried or in brine, split
the tail full length along under side. If tail skin slips easily and the
specimen is to be mounted at once, pull the tail out, splitting only the
very tip to allow arsenic solution to be run through. In many species
the tail must be split and peeled out with a knife because of tough
binding. (For general diagram of incisions, see Fig. 12.)
[Illustration: Fig. 12.]
The next step in handily skinning a mammal is to peel out the feet
through their incisions, severing toes at base and leaving them complete
in the skin. Peel the leg skins back over ankles and wrists (see Fig.
13).
[Illustration: Fig. 13.]
If tail was split, peel it down next, beginning at tip. Now return to
the abdominal incision and neatly peel the skin from the body, in many
instances using only the thumb nail for loosening it.
When the thighs are encountered, bend hind legs back and sever hip
joints from pelvis (see Fig. 13), cutting carefully through the large
muscles so that the skin on opposite side of them may not be punctured.
When the hind legs are cut free, peel around back of pelvis, loosening
skin to base of tail. Set the specimen upon its head end and, with thumb
and finger nails of left hand, grasp skin about the base of tail while
with right hand strip tail out with force.
Next peel the body down to shoulders. Hang large specimen up by cord
tied about loins, the more handily to finish the skinning.
Sever the forelegs at shoulder joint (see Fig. 14), using care not to
cut through skin.
[Illustration: Fig. 14.]
Peel skin down over neck to ears. Cut ears free from head, working with
knife close to skull. Peel to eyes. In cutting the eyelids free, work
close to eyeballs so that lids are not injured. Peel to mouth and cut
close to jaw bones in severing lips and nose from skull (see Fig. 15).
With the skin removed from the body, next peel out the legs.
Split inside of lips free with sharp knife, very carefully, so as not to
break edge of them.
[Illustration: Fig. 15.]
With scissors shear out all mouth and nose meat, being careful not to
cut off the whisker pockets, which are usually very prominent when the
side nose muscles are partly sheared off.
Skin out the backs of the ears clear to edges by pressing a finger tip
inside the ear and peeling over this with finger nail or other dull
instrument. With scissors shear off meat of butt of ear and whatever
meat and fat adheres to rest of skin.
In sketches of skinned body mark points of shoulder joint and hip joint
and note width of pelvis at hip joints.
Remove the skull from the carcass and clean it by cutting and scraping
away all meat, pulling out the eyeballs, and scooping out the brain.
For the purpose of mounting, the base of the skull may be cut off to
facilitate cleaning, but for study (cabinet) skins the skull must be
kept intact and always accompany by number the skin it was removed from.
Trim all meat from the leg bones and poison these and the skull when
finishing preparation of the skin.
Add a few drops of carbolic acid, well stirred in to the arsenic water
used upon skins of small mammals for mounting. This aids in preventing
decay and slipping of the epidermis.
Apply the poison solution thoroughly with a brush, to all inner surfaces
of the skin and to the toes. If tail was split only at the tip, run a
few drops of arsenic water through it.
Turn the poisoned skin right side out, lay it flat, side pressed to
side, roll up, place in paper, and cover with a damp cloth. Lay in this
way over one night, giving the arsenic solution a chance to penetrate
through to roots of hair before mounting. If a specimen is bloody or
mussed the blood may be cleaned off before skinning by wetting the spots
with alcohol and rubbing the blood and juices out with cornmeal.
The first step in mounting is properly to wire the skull and leg bones.
(For details of this see Fig. 16.)
[Illustration: Fig. 16.]
For the body-wire select a size larger than for the legs, cutting it
twice as long as head, neck, and body. For legs choose a size wire that
will firmly support the specimen in position without wobbling. If the
mammal is to sit erect, the hind leg-wires must be considerably larger
than otherwise and foreleg-wires may be much lighter. (Making the pelvis
loop may be easily followed in diagram in Fig. 17.)
[Illustration: Fig. 17.]
The first body-wire loop is bent to set into the brain cavity. Then the
foreleg loop is made some little distance back of actual shoulder point
(in fox-squirrel about an inch and a half or two inches). Get distance
from skull to hip joint from body sketch and follow this sketch for
dimensions in bending wire pelvis into shape. The tail loop is last to
be made.
As Fig. 16 shows, the leg-wires are wrapped tightly upon the back of the
bones with thread or light cord, leaving shorter end of wire passing
from sole of foot. At shoulder joint turn wire back sharply and at hip
ball turn wire in at right angles. In palms and soles of feet turn wire
down at right angles.
When the bone wiring is completed take up again the body sketches. Bring
out a quantity of fine excelsior for replacing the leg muscles and skull
meat and for filling the body after assembling the wired parts within
the skin.
In wrapping on the artificial leg muscles begin at the feet. Follow the
outline sketches and with thread and small cord wrap small, properly
proportioned masses, squeezed firm in the hand or finger tips, upon the
bones, copying Nature's outline and form accurately.
Wrap the foreleg to the shoulders. Complete the hind leg to the knee and
above this point wrap on only the muscles on top of the thigh bone,
leaving back of thigh to be filled with loose material when the skin is
adjusted.
The tail may be made of cotton, wrapped tightly and smoothly upon the
wire, wisp by wisp. Begin at tip and work down, spinning the wire with
right hand to produce uniformity of shape. If mammal is larger than a
squirrel the tail may be made of tow, pulled smooth, laid lengthwise of
the wire, and wrapped smoothly down with thread. For size, length, and
shape of tail, refer to the sketches.
The head muscles may be replaced in much the same manner as leg muscles.
(See Fig. 18 for wrapping complete.) The specimen is now ready to
assemble.
[Illustration: Fig. 18.]
To accomplish this in systematic order, insert the head into place and
next the forelegs. Consult sketch and bend a right angle in
foreleg-wire back of shoulder at such a point that shoulder will set in
proper relation to head. One at a time, using the pliers, twist these
foreleg-wire ends, after setting them through shoulder loop, tightly
back along the body-wire. Next insert the hind legs into the skin. Slip
their wires through hip loops, carry them forward, and tightly twist
them around body-wire as in forelegs.
If the tail skin was unopened except at tip the wrapped tail should be
put in when the head is placed in the skin. If tail skin was opened full
length, the artificial tail may be placed after all the legs are
adjusted. Run tail-wire base forward through its pelvis-wire loop and
twist it around body-wire. (For general assembling of specimen see Fig.
19.)
[Illustration: Fig. 19.]
Before filling the body, sew up the tail, using short stitches and a
round needle, if it is possible to push it through skin easily. Begin
sewing at tip and work toward body. Finish all sewing with a simple knot
drawn tight under tip of finger.
Next, with a stuffing rod of appropriate size, place the neck filling,
stuffing against palm of left hand hollowed outside the skin at point of
filling so that the forming may be felt accurately.
Then comes the filling for shoulder blades over forelegs and with it the
chest filling. In handling the excelsior, pull out wisps of it from the
mass and rub them between the palms so that the fiber is broken up and
softened. Fine excelsior ("wood wool") is the material par excellence
for stuffing the bodies of small mammals from size of small chipmunks
up. Mice require a softer material, and short chopped, fine tow answers
requirements in them. The leg bones of mice may be wrapped with long
fiber cotton batting or fine tow.
When the shoulders and chest have been filled firm full, but not to the
point of looking stuffed, turn to the hind legs and pelvis. Fill in the
back thigh muscles neatly; then cover top of wire pelvis, pushing
material well down to base of tail. Fill rump sufficiently to overcome
a pinched or too high set look. The position must be considered in
properly filling the back, sides, and abdomen. If a bunched up position
is to be worked out, bend the wire back bone into semipose and place the
legs in approximately their final position. After this, fill the body to
suit the position, always forming with the stuffing rod working against
the left hand. See that all filling is firm but not packed in to the
point of distorting the skin. Consult sketches and aim to preserve the
little animal's natural form. (For general filling details see Fig. 20)
[Illustration: Fig. 20.]
When the filling is all placed, sew the abdominal incision neatly up,
beginning at rear end always and going forward. Wax the thread. In a
hunched together position, middling long stitches may be used. In a
straighter pose shorter stitches should be used.
Now, when the body is sewn up cover the specimen with paper and a damp
cloth to prevent drying while a small batch of compo. No. II is prepared
for finishing feet and head. Returning to the specimen with this,
slightly moisten the wrapping on the bones of the feet and apply a bit
of the compo. at front and in the sole of each foot. This cements the
toes to the foot and fills the pads.
After this is done sew each foot up neatly, beginning at toes and
working toward body. If toes were large and required splitting and
removing of toe cords, replace the cords with bits of small rope or soft
twine and sew toes up neatly with short stitches. It is best to use a
round needle and black thread, well waxed for this work.
The specimen is now ready to place upon its base, perch, or stand. With
the approximate position shaped, mark the perch for wire holes by
holding specimen over it and indicating places where wires come, by
scratch or pencil mark. When holes are drilled and the specimen wired
into place, take a strong fur needle set into a handle and by working
and compressing with the fingers and jab-lifting with the needle,
finish shaping and positioning.
Hold in hollow of flanks by sewing through here with long needle and
strong cord, heavily knotted for the first hold. Finish this sewing with
a knot drawn down into the fur under the thumb. Arrange the fur over all
stitches by picking it free with tweezers.
With the body finished, take up filling and finishing the head with the
compo. First work compo. into the ears and pinch them out thin and into
their natural shape, then cover the entire face under the skin with
compo. Fill eye sockets and set eyes as second step. Lastly fill the
nose and lips and model them firmly upon the jaws. In all mammals cover
the teeth well with the lips. Even in a muskrat the teeth do not
ordinarily show at all. Also avoid getting the lips, nose, and whisker
base too full. Set the tail into easy normal position, pin toes to grasp
the perch or set well upon the ground and inspect the body to see that
no hollow or bumps remain in the filling where there should be perfect
smoothness. Remove such of these as persist with the handle-held fur
needle and then set the specimen in a well ventilated place to dry.
The principal point in preparing thin or stretchy small mammal skins
for mounting is to leave the membrane of skin-muscles on the body skin.
This holds a flabby skin in shape and lends strength to a frail one. In
spite of this the legs of most wild rabbits must be handled very
gingerly, as they have no lining membrane like the body. For finishing
mouth, nose, and eyelids of mounted mammals, melt a little refined
beeswax in a metal vessel. While the wax is hot (don't allow it to
smoke), stir in a little tube oil color (black or brown for most
mammals; color to nature for birds with highly tinted eyelids). Mix the
wax and color thoroughly with a flat bristle brush. Afterward the brush
may be easily cleaned of the wax by breaking it up with alcohol, when it
has cooled.
Next draw some wisps of fine, long-fiber cotton through the melted wax
and lay them quickly flat upon oiled paper to cool. For lips of mammals
cut narrow strips of the wax. Heat an upholstering spindle and with it
repeatedly heated, melt the wax and cotton into crease of closed lips.
Melt thin, flat pieces of the wax into depth of nostrils and very narrow
strips in eyelids.
When all the wax is placed, model it into shape with a smooth,
wedge-ended bit of pine wood. To clean out wax that ran into the hair
by melting, apply alcohol with a bit of cloth, scratch the waxy hair
loose with finger nail and rub the crumbled wax out with the bit of
alcohol dampened cloth. This leaves lips, eyelids, and nostrils neatly
finished. Apply thin varnish to nose, edge of eyelids, and bare parts of
lips that show. For mounting a mammal with open mouth, follow same note
given in making a whole head for rug.
To make a small mammal cabinet skin, remove the skin as for mounting
except that legs are severed at elbow and knee and soles of feet are
split only to allow of poisoning.
Poison with dry arsenic. Wire tail same as in mounting. Wrap leg bones
with cotton, tow, or excelsior according to size of specimen. Turn the
skin back over a core of one of these materials, wrapped upon a splinter
or stick, to size of natural body, but somewhat flatter. Sew up
abdominal incision neatly. Catch the lips together with two or three
stitches. Lay specimen, belly down, upon a soft-wood board. Pin fore
paws alongside of the face and hind feet alongside of tail.
When this is done press specimen until it is slightly flattened and set
aside to dry. With each specimen preserve the perfect skull when
possible, date on which taken, locality, any note of interest observed
at the time (and add collector's name).
In using dry arsenic, apply with a small brush, using no grease on the
hands.
PREPARING AND MOUNTING GAME FISHES AND SMALL REPTILES