208 METHODS IN THE ART OF TAXIDERMY. 



your taste, set the animal away until the papier-mache is perfectly drv. 

 A tongue must now be made from the skin of the natural one or 

 constructed artificially. The best are made by using the skin of the 

 natural tongue, for it is impossible to imitate accurately the papillae, 

 which are so characteristic in the tongues of many species. To do this 

 the entire tongue must be taken out while the animal is being skinned, 

 and preserved in alcohol diluted with one-third its bulk of water. 

 This is the best means of preservation until we are ready to prepare it. 

 The tongue should be slit open on the under side almost to the tip and 

 nicely skinned. Now cut out a piece of sheet copper or lead the shape of 

 the tongue and imbed it in the skin of the tongue with clay and sew the 

 opening up. Be sure, however, to leave the copper or lead project long 

 enough from the rear of the tongue so that it can be anchored in the 

 back part of the mouth in papier-mache. Now give it the proper 

 shape, and when dry it may be painted with tube colors and turpentine 

 and inserted in the mouth. The tongue and mouth of the Bengal 

 tiger rug, in my private museum, seen in the frontispiece of this work, 

 were made in the manner above described, also that of the cougar in 

 the same plate. Another method of making a tongue is simply to cut 

 out a piece of sheet coppei the proper shape, cover it with papier- 

 mache and paint it. Be sure to study the color of the tongue before 

 applying the paint, and mix the tube colors with nothing but turpen- 

 tine. Before you proceed any further, clean the teeth with a weak 

 solution of muriatic acid ; make them as white as ivory, if possible. 

 In coloring and finishing the inside of the mouth, the lips and the 

 gums, use white wax and tube colors. It must be borne in mind that 

 this final touch is to be done over the papier-mache. Place the wax 

 in a small tin vessel and heat it until the wax has melted ; then mix 

 in the desired color from the tube paints and apply it on the modeled 

 gums and lips with a small flat bristle brush. This should be done by 

 strokes, and great care should be exercised not to allow the colored 

 wax to pile up. Should this be the case, however, heat a steel model- 

 inof tool and smooth the colored wax out over the surface. The most 

 useful vessel in which to mix the colors with wax is one made of tin 

 like a glue-pot, but of very small size. The wax, by this means, can 

 be melted, without any danger of its " burning" or changing color, as is 

 sometimes the case over fire heat. The open mouths of all mammals 

 and reptiles should be modeled in the same manner as described in this 

 section. 



Restoring Colors to Dried Specimens — Many museum speci- 

 mens lose during the drying process certain characteristic colors which 



