MOUNTING MAMMAL HEADS. ] 67 



ful of potters' clay until it forms a soft, sticky paste, and cover 

 the iieck with a coat of it about an eighth of an inch thick, t< > 

 insure absolute smoothness. 



8. Put a proper quantity of clay on each side of the skull to 

 form the animal's cheeks, and enough upon the back of the 

 skull, forehead, and muzzle to replace the flesh and skin that 

 has been cut away. On no account attempt to stuff a fresh 

 head with tow, or any fibrous material, for it is a practical im- 

 possibility to keep it from becoming too large. Instead of clay 

 you might possibly use papier-mache, putty, or plaster Paris, 

 if you prefer either ; but clay has many and great advantages 

 over all other materials. Plaster Paris acts too quickly to be of 

 much real use, putty is greasy and inert, and papier-mache 

 dries too slowly when underneath a skin. 



9. Before putting the skin in place, sew up whatever rents 

 there may be in it, and replace the cartilage of the ear with thin 

 sheet lead, or sheet tin, cut the proper shape and trimmed 

 down thin at the edges. Ptub a little clay on the metal to en- 

 able the skin to stick to it. Sheet lead can be purchased at 

 about 10 cents per pound at almost any large plumbing estab- 

 lishment. The finest material, however, and which I have 

 used for years, is pure sheet tin, which the National Museum 

 procures of The John J. Cooke Co., Mulberry Street, New York, 

 at 26 cents per pound. It is thin, easily cut and shaped, and 

 just stiff enough to work perfectly in imitating the shape of an 

 ear cartilage. Good, firm, card-board can be used for the ears 

 instead of lead, when you can not get either of the sheet metals. 



10. Anoint the skin copiously with arsenical soap, give it time 

 to absorb the poison, then put it in place on the skull and neck, 

 and adjust it carefully. Fasten the lips together at the end of 

 the muzzle by taking a stitch in each and tying the thread. See 

 that the eyes come exactly over the orbits, and then put two or 

 three tacks through the skin of the forehead, into the skull, to 

 hold it in place. Sew the skin tightly together around the base 

 of the antlers, and sew up both arms of the Y. 



11. Sometimes the skin of the neck is so much stretched that 

 to fill it out would make the neck, when finished, entirely too 

 l.-n'ge. In such cases, with a clay-covered manikin, it is possible 

 to make a fresh skin contract mechanically by crowding it to- 



