46 METHODS LV THE ART OF TAXIDERMY. 



skull and neck of my first deer's head were modeled in clay, 

 and I keep it as a relic to prove that there is some truth in the 

 theory of evolution, especially in the work of " ane wha was ance a 

 'prentice han." Since then the muscles on the manikins of all my 

 large mammals have been built out of clay and the forms of all snakes, 

 turtles, alligators and other reptiles, including several twenty-inch 

 Hellbenders and many fishes have been made chiefly by the use of clay. 

 I may say the same of many of the dogs which I have mounted ; the 

 modeling of the heads and flippers of seals ; the tail and head of the 

 beaver; the heads, hands and tails of monkeys, down to the tail of the 

 muskrat, together with its hind feet. The soft, spongy feet of any of 

 the smaller mammals should always be opened and filled with clay, and 

 in skinning the heads of any of the larger mammals pocket the skin 

 of the upper lip, and when you place it on the model fill this pocket 

 with clay and press it into shape. The deep hollows, elevations and 

 wrinkles which are characteristic in the faces of some quadrupeds, and 

 their flabby lips must be wrought out by the use of clay. It cannot 

 be done satisfactorily with any springy material like tow. When a 

 skin is shrunken smaller than it should be and it is desirable to stretch 

 it to its natural size, then an elastic substance such as tow is the 

 proper thing to force its expansion. The filling in mounted fishes 

 should be of clay — around a core of wood or tow. 



There are many advantages to be gained in the use of clay in tax- 

 idermic work : one is that it will not expand or contract and will re- 

 tain any form you may give to it. Should you desire to alter any point 

 in the form of your subject the dry clay can be softened and worked 

 beneath the skin. If you are working a large mass and it happens to 

 get hard, soften it again with water. If you have your model partially 

 finished and desire to keep the clay soft, do as the sculptors do, throw 

 a wet blanket around it. To prepare clay for use, chop some tow very 

 fine with a sharp hatchet on your chopping block and mix it with the 

 clay ; this will toughen it. If you desire to make it a solid mass when 

 dry add a quantity of strong glue liquid, mix the whole thoroughly. 

 There is only one fault, if it may be called such, to be found in the use 

 of clay on manikins, it is that the mounted specimens are sometimes very 

 heavy. A carefully made manikin does not require a heavy mass of 

 clay everywhere upon it. It should lay in masses only where the 

 prominent muscles are to be developed. 



GustavStainsky, a pupil of Phillipp Leopold Martin, has, however, 

 devised a means by which the clay can be mixed and the mounted 

 specimen wdien dry will be considerably lighter. His method is sim- 



