176 TAXIDERMY AXD ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. 



and are easily reproduced by using the same leaden core as de- 

 scribed above, and covering it first with papier-mache, drying- 

 it, and coating 1 with tinted wax, laid on hot with a small flat 

 paint-brush called a "fitch." With small specimens it is not 

 necessary to make the tongue as a separate piece, or put a 

 leaden core in it. Fill into the mouth a sufficient quantity of 

 papier-mache, pack it down, and then proceed to model the 

 surface of it into a tongue, shaped to suit the subject. Such a 

 tongue is, of course, a fixture in the mouth. 



Cleaning Teeth. Before finishing a mouth with wax, the teeth 

 must be washed clean with a stiff brush. If they will not come 

 out white enough to suit you, wash them with a solution of two 

 parts muriatic acid and one part water, applied with a tooth- 

 brush if possible. Let it stay on the teeth about a quarter of a 

 minute, when it must be washed off with an abundance of clear 

 water. If the acid stays on too long, it will destroy the entire 

 outer surface (enamel) of the teeth. 



Waxing a Mouth. Of course it will answer, and sometimes 

 quite well enough, perhaps, when a mouth has been hand- 

 somely and smoothly modeled in fine papier-mache, to sand- 

 paper it and paint it over when dry with two or three coats of 

 oil color. You can hardly do otherwise, in fact, when you are 

 not prepared to work with wax. But the really fine way, how- 

 ever, is to coat your dry papier-mache with tinted wax as fol- 

 lows : 



Procure from the nearest dealer in artists' materials some 

 cakes of white wax. You must also have a small oil or gas 

 stove, or a spirit-lamp, and rig above it a wire frame on which 

 you can set your wax cup. The wax cups should be small, and 

 made of pressed tin, so that they contain no soldered joints. 

 The wax is to be applied hot, or at least quite warm, for bear in 

 mind that if you heat your wax too hot it changes its color 

 quite perceptibly, and makes it dark and yellow. Wax should 

 aliuays be clear and transparent, and when the excess of heat 

 turns it yellow, throw it away. 



Regulate the heat carefully, so as to make it gentle. Melt a 

 small portion of a cake of wax in one of your clean tin cups, 

 and if it is the tongue, roof of the mouth or gums, that you 

 have to cover, color the wax a delicate flesh tint by putting into 



