116 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. 



Oil taking 1 our squirrel skin from the bath to mount it we 

 find its texture is firm, and it is somewhat shrunken in size, so 

 that when it is filled out it will not stretch all out of proportion. 

 If either in haste or carelessness you have left a layer of flesh 

 upon the skin, pare it off until the inside of the skin is quite 

 clean. If any holes have been cut by bullets or knives, sew 

 them up from the inside with a strong linen thread and a No. 3 

 glover's needle three-cornered. 



Now for the wires. Measure the leg bones from the sole of 

 the foot to the end of the thigh-bone, add three inches for what 

 the wire must project beyond the sole of the foot, five inches 

 more at the other end, and cut a No. 15 annealed iron wire * of 

 the length thus obtained, for each hind leg-. The length of the 

 wires for the forelegs is obtained in the same way. Thus for 

 our squirrel, the wires for the hind legs must be fourteen 

 inches long-, and for the foreleg's twelve. 



Cut another No. 15 wire twice the length from the back of the 

 head to the root of the tail, and this will be the body wire 

 eighteen inches long-. The tail wire must be smaller, No. 17, 

 long- enough to reach from the tip of the tail to the centre of 

 the body seventeen inches. Straighten all these wires care- 

 fully, lay them together on the table, and remember the pur- 

 pose of each. If they are rusty, rub them with sand-paper. File 

 one end of the tail wire to a tapering- point, for the tip of our 

 squirrel's tail is very slender. 



We are now ready to make one of the legs, and will begin 

 with one of the hind legs. Take one of the two longest wires, 

 pass one end of it through the slit in the skin at the bottom of 

 the foot, let it project three inches beyond the sole of the foot, 

 and up into the skin of the leg. Now bend the wjre until it fits 

 closely along- the under side of the leg bones as seen in the ac- 

 companying illustration.' Tie it firmly with linen thread to the 

 bones of the foot, to the tibia and the femur, as seen in the ac- 

 companying illustration. 



Now take fine, clean tow, of good long fibre, and, beginning at 

 the foot, proceed to wrap it around the leg bones, smoothly and 

 evenly, to replace the muscles which have been cut away. The 



* If you can not procure annealed wire, take hard iron wire, heat it to redness, and as 

 soon as it reaches that state remove it from the lire and allow it to cool slowly. 



