52 Taxidermy. 



Muskrats should be stretched fur side in for a few days, 

 and left fur side in when removed from the board. The 

 tails may as well be cut off when skinning, as they are 

 worthless. 



Opossums are also best if stretched on boards fur side 

 in and left in that condition after removing the boards. 

 The tails should be cut off when skinning — they have no 

 value. 



Raccoons should be stretched open ; that is, nailed flat on 

 boards, or the inside of a building. Some dealers allow as 

 much for coons cased, from any section, while others 

 prefer only southern coon cased. 



Otters should be cased iand stretched fur side in. The 

 pelt being thick and heavy they take several days to dry- 

 properly. They should be shipped flesh side out. 



Beavers should be split, but stretched round and left in 

 the hoop or stretcher for several days. 



TAXIDERMY. 



The old method of stuffing animals is as different from 

 scientific taxidermy as the skin covering of the aborigine 

 is from the finished fur garment of the fashionable society 

 woman. The taxidermist of today carefully molds a form 

 according to accurate measurements and photographed out- 

 lines, and after he has constructed a perfect model of the 

 animal the skin is stretched over it, the result being a re- 

 production as near to nature as it is possible to secure, 

 the effect in some cases being so life-like as to be startling. 



Formerly the skins were wired or otherwise fixed on 

 an internal framework, and cotton, tow or any other 

 available material was introduced until the form was 

 stuffed to the desired shape; later a solid mass of tow 

 was shaped into something like the semblance of the 

 animal and introduced into the skin, which was then 

 molded upon this artificial body, but neither of these 

 processes produced the results obtained by the scientific 

 methods now employed. 



