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 



