172 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. 



the end of the lower lip falls away slightly from the lower 

 incisors. 



In old lions and tigers the face wrinkles pretty much all over, 

 especially across the nose and under the eyes. In all the Felicia 1 

 the opening of the eye changes most strikingly. When angry, 

 the eye of a ruminant animal opens its widest, and shows por- 

 tions of the eyeball that are never seen otherwise. In the car- 

 nivora, the reverse is the case. As if to protect the eye from 

 being clawed or bitten, the upper eyelid is drawn well down 

 over the ball, as seen in Plate I. (Frontispiece), and the eyebrows 

 are bunched up and drawn near together until the scowl be- 

 comes frightful. The decks are further cleared for action in the 

 disposition of the ears. Instead of leaving them up ready to be 

 bitten off, they are " unshipped," and laid back as far as possible, 

 close down upon the neck, and out of harm's way. The tongue 

 also pulls itself together, contracts in the middle, curves up at 

 the edges, and makes ready to retire farther back between the 

 jaws at the instant of seizure. 



All this time the body is not by any means standing idly and 

 peacefully at ease. The attitude must match the expression of 

 the face, or the tragedy becomes a farce. The body must stand 

 firmly on its legs, alert, ready either to attack or defend, head 

 turned, body slightly bent, or slightly crouching, and, unless 

 the animal is walking, with the tail switching nervously from 

 side to side. If the animal is walking forward, the tail should 

 be held still and in the same vertical plane as the body. The 

 finest attitude for a large carnivor is one which represents it at 

 bay, and awaiting attack. A cat is an animal of a thousand at- 

 titudes. Very many of them, if reproduced exactly in a mount- 

 ed specimen, would look very uncouth and devoid of beauty ; 

 therefore, choose those which are at once characteristic and 

 pleasing to the eye. 



MODELING AN OPEN MOUTH. In mounting a feline animal 



with mouth open and teeth showing, beware what you do, or 



you will make the animal laughing instead of snarling. This is 



often done ! In fact, in my younger days I did it once myself 



but without any extra charge. 



In modeling an open mouth, first fill the inside of the lips 

 with clay, and also back them up underneath with clay until the 



