PREPARING AND MOUNTING GAME FISHES AND SMALL REPTILES
For the purpose of mounting, fishes and reptiles must be fresh, and the
fresher the better. In beginning this chapter it may be well to state a
simple way to keep fish for a short period before skinning and mounting,
as sportsmen afield will not always be able immediately to prepare
specimens taken.
First, while the fish is perfectly fresh, remove the viscera. If the
fish is to be mounted upon a panel for wall decoration, make the
incision along middle of poorest looking side, full length from gill to
tail fin.
If the specimen is to stand upon a pedestal of polished wood, with
supporting rods from the belly, make the incision along center of belly
full length. To prevent decay, stir three or four drops of forty per
cent solution of formalin into a quart of water.
Squeeze a cloth from this, leaving it pretty moist, and wrap the fish in
it, giving the wet cloth close contact with the skin. Do not apply
formalin inside any skin to be used for mounting. Never eat the flesh of
a fish thus kept.
Before skinning the fish, make careful outlines over him, both side and
top views. When skin is removed make outlines of skinned carcass.
Handle a fish very carefully when skinning and cleaning, moving the
specimen about or bending as little as possible during the entire
operation. Lay the head to your left. Open the skin with scissors and
make one long clean cut.
Lift edges of the skin and peel from flesh with a sharp knife or
scalpel. Cut off base of fins, when encountered, with scissors or bone
snips. Trim out most of skull with knife and bone snips, removing eyes
from inside. Be sure to scrape all flesh from cheek inside of gill
cover.
Remove flesh and fat from inside of skin with scraper, working from tail
toward head. Scrape out with point of small knife blade the flesh that
runs out thin over tail-fin bones.
This completes the skinning operation. The cleaned skin may be poisoned
to advantage with either dry or solution arsenic, brushed in well.
If the specimen is opened on the side for panel mounting and we wish to
follow a very simple method in mounting, one that is quite as practical
as it is simple, we must take a different step than outline sketches
before skinning. This is to make a complete body and head cast of the
best side in plaster of paris. This does not include the fins. To make
the cast neatly, lay the fish, best side up, in a slight hollow in a box
of clean, damp sand. Pack the sand up under the fish body smoothly so
that more than half of him rises in cameo style from the smooth surface.
Make up enough plaster to do the cast at once. To mix plaster properly,
sprinkle it into the dish of water until a little will begin to stand
out dry above the surface. Then with a spoon sunk deep in it, gently
stir to evenness. It is then ready to pour. Before doing this, jar the
pan upon the table a time or two to cause any possible bubbles to rise.
Pour evenly over the fish, or better still, dip it on with the spoon.
The plaster should be thick enough to barely flow for making a proper
cast.
The pectoral fins are simply laid flat to the side in making the cast.
Allow the cast to set hard before lifting it and removing the fish.
Trim off the overlapping edge so that no undercut remains.
The cleaned and poisoned skin should lay in damp cloth over one night
and is then laid in accurate place back in the cast. Pour it nearly full
of medium thick plaster of paris, carefully mixed free of bubbles.
Settle a board, cut to approximate body outline but much smaller, into
the unset plaster and press the flap edges of the skin back together
over the board, molding edge of back and belly to round back away from
trimmed edge of mold. This must be all done with accuracy before the
plaster sets, but you will find it gives enough time. Do not work in a
strung-up, nervous way.
When the plaster is set hard, remove fish from mold, hold it upon palm
of left hand and tack edges of skin to back-board. (For general details
of this method see Fig. 21).
[Illustration: Fig. 21.]
Screw the specimen to a piece of board and adjust fins, carding them
over little blocks and holding the cards with sharp toilet pins until
drying is completed.
See that the jaws set right. They should have gone into the mold in
proper relation to each other. Dig out the plaster in eye socket on show
side and set eye in a little fresh plaster.
A simple method of making a modelled mannikin for fish follows:
Have the freshly skinned body or sketches of same at hand. Cut a
soft-wood board core, making it some smaller than outline of carcass.
[Illustration: Fig. 22.]
Anchor into this two rigid supporting wires or rods as shown in Fig. 22.
Upon this board core wrap strongly and smoothly with thread or small
cord a quantity of manila fiber to same shape of body but one-half to
three-quarters inch smaller than the body. Over this apply plaster of
paris and manila fiber (dipping the fiber and laying it on) to
approximate size of natural body. When this is set hard, pare it
smoothly into outlines of natural shape and gouge out slight grooves for
fin bases to set into. (See Fig. 23.).
[Illustration: Fig. 23.]
Mannikins of this type should be dried out as quickly as possible and
shellaced before applying the skin. Apply the fish skin with a paste of
compo. No. I. Card the fins as in Fig. 24.
Fill the face through mouth and eyes with plaster of paris with a
little chopped manila fiber worked into it. Use a slight amount of glue
in the water to prevent rapid setting of the plaster. Hold face in place
until set, with light wrapping of soft cord, using care that it does not
crease soft parts.
[Illustration: Fig. 24.]
Special fish eyes may be procured at any dealers in taxidermists'
supplies. As the last detail of mounting, set the eyes. In all kinds of
specimens use a size of eyes that pass through the lids easily without
the need of stretching to admit them. A panel-fish needs but one eye as
a rule.
When the specimen is dry apply a coat of thin shellac as a filler to
the surface to paint upon. This filler should be very thin and leave
only a suggestion of gloss.
Use oil colors and apply as little pigment as may be used for the
effect. Kerosene oil is an ideal thinning medium for tube oil colors.
Have very little paint upon the brush when applying the tints to a fish
or reptile skin.
A suggestion of natural hues and markings will be found more
satisfactory than painting them on heavily. In a day or two when the
paint is dry apply a very thin coat of alcohol-cut picture varnish.
Turps-cut varnish is liable to loosen the paint, thus necessitating
entire re-finishing. Fasten a panel fish to the setting that is to frame
him, with two screws at least, countersinking their heads in the panel
back.
The fish piece may be hung as a picture, with screw eyes and cord or it
may be hung with one or two sheet metal slots countersunk into the panel
back. This will allow the piece to be applied flat to any wall that will
hold screws.
Large fishes mounted with rods for pedestal setting should have rods
threaded at both ends for nuts. Upper ends that support core board
should be bent as shown in Fig. 25. This figure also shows complete
method of setting both rod and wire supports in body core and permanent
stand.
[Illustration: Fig. 25.]
PREPARING AND MOUNTING A SMALL HARD SHELLED TURTLE
For the purpose of skinning a hard shelled turtle (soft shelled species
are best unattempted) the belly plate is sawed open as shown in Fig. 26.
A piece of hacksaw blade may be shaped and set into a firm handle with
cross pegs of metal, for this purpose, or the small saw found in a
hollow handle tool kit may serve. Four corner holes must be bored by
which to start the sawing, which, for ease in accomplishing, may be thus
done upon straight lines.
[Illustration: Fig. 26.]
Through the sawed opening remove the viscera. With scissors and bone
snips, free the legs at their joints with the back shell, cut the neck
and tail vertebrae free and pull all these members inside out through
the opened shell. Skin the head to well down behind the eye sockets,
uncovering most of the jaw muscles and stopping where the skin and skull
are joined directly on the crown.
Cut the neck off. Clean out jaw meat, tongue, and brain. Turn head right
side out and with a stiff wire hook pull out the eyeballs.
Skin legs clear to toes and remove flesh cleanly from bones.
Skin tail out carefully. In many species this has to be split on under
side to remove bone. Dry the shell out with a bit of rag.
Poison well with arsenic water and let stand over one night, covered
with a damp cloth.
A simple method of mounting turtles, that will be found satisfactory for
decorative work, is clearly shown in Figs. 27 and 28.
[Illustration: Fig. 27.]
A light tow neck is wrapped upon the neck-wire, which is cut about twice
the length of the head and neck-skin, and has a small loop bent into it
near its outer end, to set into the brain cavity and a loop by front and
one by back end of belly opening to hold leg-wires. The front end is
run out through the nose. Legs are wired as in a mammal with wires bound
firmly to bones with thread or cord. Bones are then covered with a light
wrapping of tow, placed lightly and smoothly. This serves only as a core
to the filling. Tail is wrapped upon wire to natural size.
[Illustration: Fig. 28.]
Legs are now pushed back into place, wires of them and tail are passed
through loops in body-wire and twisted around it once or twice, and then
leg-wires are led to drilled holes in edge of shell and clinched in them
as shown in Fig. 27.
Now tie or pin the mouth shut. Legs and head and neck are next filled
with sawdust, tamped in with a blunt piece of rod or wire or piece of
wood shaped for the purpose. Fill in the front legs and head first and
stuff some tow behind them to hold the sawdust in place when the
specimen is reversed to fill hind legs. After these are filled, stuff
the shell full of tow.
Position the turtle and wire upon a piece of board for a temporary base.
Finish shaping with a whittled modeling tool. Stuff the skin in front of
hind legs into proper concavity with wads of tow or cotton and leave
these until the specimen is dried.
Stuff the eye sockets with chopped tow. Wipe inside the eyelids a little
liquid glue and carefully set the eyes, using care to preserve natural
fullness of the ball under lids.
In drying, the tip of the nose will shrink away. When the specimen is
dry and the nose-wire is cut off, a wax tip may be modeled on, nostrils
being punched into it with a bit of wire.
To set the wax nose, with a sharp knife trim away the shrunken tip,
place a bit of wax upon the socket, and melt it into firm contact with a
heated wire. Shape the artificial nose with a small wooden modeling
tool. Replace faded colors of turtles with thin tints of tube colors.
An ideal method of mounting turtles is to finish head, neck, legs, and
tail in compo. No. II.
Use the leg bones and wrap them thinly with tow. Wrap a small, hard, tow
neck upon the wire and a thin tow core upon the tail-wire. Cover these
cores, to natural size of muscles, with papier mache.
Cover the skull where meat was scraped from jaws. Push the neck, tail
and legs into place and wire to shell as in Fig. 27. Stuff shell with
tow to hold papier mache filling of limbs in place until dry.
Turtles mounted in this way should be positioned upon a board, modeled
with a tool into anatomical lines of neck, legs, etc., and allowed to
remain wired upon the board until the compo. begins to harden.
When this is well under way, take the turtle from the board and finish
drying, wrong side up in a well ventilated place. Remove the tow from
inside the shell to allow of quicker evaporation. Turtles mounted with
sawdust dry very quickly and usually very slowly when finished in papier
mache.
PREPARING AND MOUNTING A SMALL LIZARD
(Apply the wrapped body principle, given herewith, to mounting
small snakes, using a wire through center.)
A horned toad is a good example for us to work out in this department.
Skin the specimen as you would a small mammal, except that body incision
runs from jaw to tip of tail and skull is left attached to face-skin.
Keep the skinned carcass in alcohol for reference in making the hard
wrapped excelsior body. Mount as you would a bird specimen, except that
all leg-wires are set solid same as the two legs of the bird are.
The lizard's leg bones are wired exactly as in a bird and are wrapped
with tow or cotton to replace muscles. Wire neck and tail and put the
specimen together as shown in Fig. 29.
[Illustration: Fig. 29.]
Position the specimen and wire upon a temporary base. Set eyes same as
in turtles. When dry finish in same manner as a turtle.
In large lizards a light covering of compo. No. II may be employed over
a hard wrapped core, but is not so satisfactory as dry mounting as the
skins of lizards are water-proof and consequently do not allow of
moisture evaporating. With care in application the first mentioned
method may be employed upon nearly all lizard specimens with most
satisfactory results.
Alligators may be mounted with wrapped legs and tail and stuffed body,
like the small mammal method with the exception of the head.
Be sure to remove all the jaw meat, tongue, and eye socket fat from the
skulls of lizard specimens. Replace tongue and other tissues with
colored wax and cotton when mouth is opened.
PREPARING AND MOUNTING A SMALL CRUSTACEAN
A crawfish or "land crab" will serve as a typical medium for describing
the method of preparing specimens of this nature.
When possible, take notes of the living colors.
Crustaceans may be killed most handily with chloroform. Place the
specimen in a large mouthed bottle or other vessel that may be closed
tightly. Pour a little chloroform upon a wad of cotton and drop it into
the vessel with the specimen and close up tightly.
When beginning work, lay the specimen upon its back and with a sharp
scalpel loosen the large thorax plate around its edge and remove it
carefully with head and antennae left attached intact.
Separate tail entire from body meat. Split it along fleshy under side
and remove muscles from it with the scalpel.
The legs will come apart and must be kept in natural order. If the claws
are large and meaty, cut a round hole in under side of thick part and
scrape meat out. Apply arsenic-water to all inner surfaces.
Cut wires of suitable size for all the legs. Have them enough longer
than the legs so that a sharpened end will protrude to run through and
clinch in the body core. Push wires in full length of legs. (Fig. 30.
shows the details of making the body core of fine excelsior.) Make the
core of a size to fit a little loosely into shell of body and tail.
[Illustration: Fig. 30.]
Set legs upon core as shown in Fig. 31. When the legs are properly
anchored, cover the core with enough of compo. No. I. so it will fit
snugly into thorax and tail shells. Place these upon the core now and
press them accurately into position.
[Illustration: Fig. 31.]
Whatever compo. squeezes out may be removed with a bit of damp cloth or
sponge. Position legs and tail approximately and wire upon the base. Set
the legs in their permanent position, spread or close the tail fan as
desired, arrange the antennae, and set the specimen in a well ventilated
spot to dry. Tint with oil colors, thinned with kerosene as they are
used, laying the tints on with soft brushes.
Sanded or graveled board bases may be made for birds, turtles, etc., by
applying a coat of heavy shellac to top and sides of pieces, cut to
required sizes and shapes, and before the shellac has a chance to dry,
throwing sand or fine gravel on forcibly or laying the boards in the
sand and piling sand over the moist tops, letting them lay a few moments
before removing and shaking off the loose sand. Allow such bases to dry
thoroughly before using.
PREPARING AND MOUNTING A VIRGINIA DEER HEAD