202 



TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. 



batting-, cut it up very finely with the scissors, then apply some 

 hot glue to the joint, lay a bit of clipped cotton upon it, and 

 work it into the glue so that when dry it will form a false liga- 

 ment and hold the bone firmly in its place without attracting 



any attention to the 

 fact that the liga- 

 ment has been made 

 for the occasion. 



12. Finally, trans- 

 fer each skeleton to 

 its permanent .ped- 

 estal, which we will 

 assume has been pre- 

 pared while the spec- 

 imen has been dry- 

 ing. Mr. Lucas puts 

 all his small skele- 

 tons on handsome 

 ebonized pedestals, 

 which are the thing 

 par excellence. The 

 limbs for his climb- 

 ing animals, and the 

 thin, black boards 

 for his bat skeletons 

 are also ebonized. 

 The illustration on 

 page 291 (Fig. 69) 

 shows one of his bat 

 skeletons complete, 

 as it stands in its 

 case, bearing a label 



of black letters on an olive-gray card, with no ornamentation. 

 In the final mounting the standards are put in place, and the 

 upper end of each fitted fast to the backbone. Each toe is 

 fixed firmly in its place, and held down by the bent-over end of 

 a headless pin, or by having a pin put through it, and cut off 

 close down to the bone. 



CAUTIONS AND EXCEPTIONS. It is only the tiny skeletons, such 



