METHODS IN THE ART OE TAXIDERMY. 



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the clay, it miifft be thinned down so as to be perfectly elastic and soft. 

 Then you can model it down to the clay and give it characteristic 

 shapes — this is particularly the case in forming the face, where there 

 are often peculiar hollows and elevations impossible to produce with a 

 thick, hard skin. 



Skins can usually be relaxed in the salt and alum bath of 12° 

 strength. If they do not yield in that, the clear water must be re- 

 sorted to. In relaxing all skins smaller than that of a deer, I use the 

 salt and alum solution at 12° strength with perfect success. A chim- 

 panzee skin which was made in 1890 I relaxed this year (1893) in this 

 manner within eighteen hours. 



Dr. Jasper has a method of thinning down the skin so thin that it 

 becomes translucent, and colors can be painted on the inner side so 

 that they will show through. In the faces of the great baboons that 

 are striped with brilliant colors the skin is pared down in this manner 

 and the colors applied both to the skin and skull. If, for example, the 

 color of the face be a red, the skull and the skin should be painted an 

 intense red; sometimes, in order to produce the proper red tint on the 

 outside, it is necessary to iise Chinese vermilion. 



Open Mouths, Tongues, etc — If a mammal is to be mounted 

 with open mouth, exposing the teeth and tongue, expressing a state of 

 rage or anger, the entire head must first be modeled in clay, as when 

 the mouth is to be closed. The nose and cheeks must be filled to their 

 natural fullness. The lips must be brought in position and held there 

 with the clay and arranged according to the facial expression desired 

 to be obtained. Sometimes it will be necessary to hold the lips in 

 place by driving double-pointed tacks rnto the jaws, or by taking 

 stitches across from one side to the other over the jaws. Now allow 

 the clay to dry before you begin to model the mouth with papier- 

 mache. Do not be alarmed if the lips have shrunken a little. If you 

 have pared them down thin enough the shrinkage will be very little, if 

 any. When the skin and clay are thoroughly dry, clean the whole 

 mouth out generally by digging out the surplus clay from between the 

 lips and the jaws and in the interior of the mouth. When this has 

 been done, mix up some fine, sticky papier-mache (see directions, page 

 22), and get out your steel modeling tools, as figured in Plate IV. 

 Model the gums with the mache up to the jaws, keeping the modeling 

 tools wet so that they will slip over the macke smoothly. Model the 

 entire inside of the mouth in the same manner, imitating as closely as 

 possible all the characteristics which you saw in the mouth of the ani- 

 mal before it was skinned. When you have done this according to 



