Mario puts the finishing touch on a skin, wetting and sharing it a 

 second time to increase the softness and pliability of the hide. 



A cheetah skin is pulled from the cage, where it was tumbled with 

 sawdiist to completely dry and clean it after the tanning process. 



While the skins are shghtly damp, they are put into the 

 sawdust drum, located right next to the kicker, and tumbled 

 about for a couple of hours. Finally, they move to the 

 •cage — an eight-foot high, screen-enclosed wheel in which 

 the sawdust is "caged out" or the fur. These three ma- 

 •chines, the kicker, the drum and the cage, are all housed 

 in a rather small, dimly lit room that looks like the local 

 branch office of the Inquisition, replete with the latest thing 

 in torture racks. 



Fine-haired skins must be combed out and brushed when 

 they come out of the cage. The original identification tag 

 is attached to the skin and it is now ready to join thousands 

 •of others in the Museum's enormous study collection. 



If a skin is to be mounted by the taxidermist, it undergoes 

 an abbreviated procedure known as "dressing." 



Although Mario is quite modest about it, there is con- 

 siderable difference between his tasks as a tanner at the 

 Museum and those of a tanner in a furrier's shop. A fur- 

 rier's tanner usually does no work on the head and legs of 

 .an animal skin, whereas Mario must carefully remove the 



Hides are classified and stored on racks in one of the Museum's two 



"skin rooms," each about UO feet long and containing thousands of 



of skins. Tiger and leopard skins are included in this mew of one 



part of a skin room. 



the cartilage from the ears, slit the eyelids and include the 

 head and leg skin in the tanning process. If he should 

 shave the skin too closely, the animal's whiskers will drop 

 off. If he mutilates the head in any way, the scientific 

 value of the skin declines. Mario must also remove the 

 leg bones, keeping intact the claws or hoofs of the animal. 

 Also, a furrier's tanner may only work with a few different 

 kinds of pelts, for example, fox or beaver. This tanner 

 then follows very nearly the same procedure daily — the 

 shaving technique is the same, the amount of time the skin 

 is in the crocks is the same, etc. Mario works on every- 

 thing from a squirrel to a rhino and must be familiar with 

 the tanning requirements of each. 



The Museum's zoological study collection is known and 

 respected around the world, as are the habitat groups on 

 exhibit. The skill of the Villas, father and son, has con- 

 tributed significantly to the value of both. 



' Aiyappan, A. and Satyamurti, S. T., eds. Handbook of Mu- 

 seum Technique. 1960. Gov't, of Madras, p. 56. 



' Idem. 



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