MOUNTING LAIKJE MAMMALS. 139 



soft straw, then have a boy take your wheat straw, Imnrh by 

 bunch, and with a mallet pound it upon a block to crush it and 

 make it soft. In filling 1 the animal, the first thing to do is to 

 fill it out at all points, loosely at first, to get the general pro- 

 portions. The skin should not touch your iron squares or the 

 body board at any point, for if it does, something is wrong. At 

 first you will work with your large wooden fillers, but as tin- 

 straw gets packed, and the wooden tool will not go through it, 

 take your iron fillers. No matter how hard straw may be 

 packed, with a burrowing, twisting motion you can force that 

 wedge-pointed instrument through the straw so as to reach any 

 point that needs more filling 1 out. 



Be careful about the line of the back, and keep it exactly in 

 place, along the centre of the body, and always at the highest 

 point. Do not let the back line of a feline animal, especially a 

 tiger or a leopard, get down upon one side, as will be sure to 

 happen if you are not watchful. When the outline of the back 

 is fixed, then fill out the breast and abdomen, and g-et the lower 

 line of the body just as it should be. As you proceed with all 

 this, keep sewing up the skin from time to time until only two 

 holes remain, one at the breast and one between the hind legs 

 well back. Now take the animal down, stand it upon the floor, 

 cut slits in the sides, as directed in the previous section, and 

 through them finish the filling and shaping 1 of the body. 



All this takes work, hard work, intelligent work, and a great 

 deal of it. Make the body hard and firm, and as smooth on the 

 outside as Nature does. To secure smoothness, and to lower 

 the unnatural knobs that are sure to appear, beat the animal 

 from time to time with a. flat club. When all is done, fill in the 

 last bit of straw at the various holes, sew them up strongly but 

 neatly with stout linen twine, or " gilliug thread," well waxed, 

 and dress the fur. This will be treated elsewhere in a separate 

 section, as also will the treatment of the head. 



