2L2 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. 



must now be spread, and each one enclosed between two bits of 

 pasteboard cut to the right shape, and held firmly together by 

 sticking pins through them around the edge of the fin. Do not 

 on any account stick pins through the fins, or you will afterward 

 have the trouble of filling up the pin-holes. Force the pins 

 through the two thicknesses of pasteboard with your small 

 pliers, and whatever may be the shape, or size, or position of a 

 fin, you must so shape your pasteboard that the fin will be 

 spread, and have the same position it would on a live fish. 



6. The last thing at this stage is to mix together equal quan- 

 tities of white varnish and turpentine, sponge off the fish care- 

 fully, removing every particle of clay, tow, or dirt, and varnish 

 it all over. This prevents the scales from curling up when they 

 dry, and it also goes far toward fixing the colors of the fish. 

 The fins are to be varnished afterward when they get dry. 



7. While the fish is drying, the eyes should be prepared. 

 Every one knows that the eyes of different genera of fishes vary 

 in shape, size, and color, to as great a degree as do the eyes of 

 quadrupeds. For mounted specimens, one of two things may be 

 done ; insert a conventional silver or golden glass eye, or else 

 keep on hand a lot of uncolored fish eyes, and paint each pair 

 from nature, in oil colors of course, to suit the particular speci- 

 men it is to adorn. When the paint has had time to dry and 

 harden, cover it with two or three coats of shellac to protect the 

 colors from any changes which might be effected by the material 

 in which the eye is to be set. If the coating of paint is left un- 

 protected, it is very apt to undergo chemical changes, and the 

 eye may thereby be ruined. 



8. The eye may be set in clay or putty provided none of the 

 setting material is to be exposed. If the glass eye is smaller than 

 the opening, which is very often the case, set it in fine papier- 

 mache, which must be nicely modeled around the glass, and 

 afterward coated with shellac, and painted. 



10. The subject of painting fishes will be considered in a 

 separate chapter. 



Simple as it may appear, and really is, the above processes 

 may be applied with slight modifications to even the largest 

 scale fishes, and to the sharks and saw-fishes. Such large sub- 

 jects as the jew-fish require strong iron rods for standards, and 



