TOOLS USED IN TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 21 



Other purposes explained in these pages. No. 9 is a pair of 

 long-shanked scissors, the blades of which are not merely trun- 

 cated but are extended outwards in lobes, and are extremely 

 useful where sharper points might penetrate and do some 

 damage to a tender skin or delicate organ. 



No. 10 is a generally useful and almost indispensable tool, 

 the bell-hanger's or gas-fitter's pliers or side nippers, in which 

 the end is made for grasping wire or metal ; just below is a 

 roughened concavity for laying hold of a screw head or a gas- 

 burner, then a flat plane — the " side nippers " — for cutting wire of 

 moderate thickness, and lastly, just by the figure 10 on the right- 

 hand side, a semicircular opening which, when the handles are 

 closed sharply, makes a powerful nipper quite strong enough to 

 shear through wire as large as the opening will admit. No. 1 1 

 is a pair of cutting-nippers, small and of French make, far 

 superior, unfortunately, to those made in England, by reason of 

 its fine temper, adjustable screw, and wider bows ; it is a watch- 

 maker's tool, anc^is most useful for cutting through fine wires 

 and entomological or other pins, which the larger nippers may 

 be too heavy to manage delicately. No. 1 2 is the ordinary 

 large pair of " nippers," useful, in a variety of ways, for large 

 work, and also for such a purpose as snapping through thin or 

 small pieces of rock when " developing." No. 1 3 is another 

 watchmaker's tool, very handy at times, whose cutting-edges are 

 at an oblique angle with the plane of the tool. No. 14 is a 

 most useful adjunct to the series — a pair of spatulate, round- 

 nosed feather-pliers, used for laying hold of the feathers of 

 birds and coaxing them into proper position when twisted or 

 otherwise refractory. No. 1 5 is a pair of fine, extra long-nosed 

 pliers, useful especially for getting at or twisting together wires 

 when articulating skeletons of small animals. 



No. 1 6 is a " stuffer " or '' crowder " made out of a piece of 

 brass wire beaten flat at one end, nicked with a triangular file 



