ne 



Guide to Taxidermy 



three-cornered straight surgical needle. Tie the 

 first stitch, then continue up until you reach the 

 junction of the leg with the body, always, on each 

 edge of the cut, pushing the needle through from 

 the skin side; this will draw the stitches down into 

 the hair so as to be invisible. You will probably 

 have to renew the thread one or more times on each 

 leg; always tie your last stitch firmly, and then tie 

 the first stitch of the new thread. The skin under 

 the shoulder and hip joints will be loose and must 

 be tucked up in under as in life and pinned there. 

 You will now start sewing at the breast and continue 

 along the cut to the tip of the tail. If your meas- 

 urements are correctly taken and followed in mak- 

 ing the manikin, the skin will fit perfectly every- 

 where. 



If your specimen were any horned animal, you 

 would have had to also make a cut down the back 

 of the neck in order to get the skin off over the 

 horns ; in the case of a moose or elk it would also be 

 necessary to continue this cut down over the back 

 side of the fore shoulder to meet the cut on the 

 breast. Thus you will see that a horned animal re- 

 quires yards more sewing to get the skin on the 

 manikin, than does the pointer that we illustrate. 



