MAMMALS SET UP BY ORDINARY METHODS 113 



it is only necessary to lay this cardboard upon another piece, 

 cut this to the same size, and, by reversing the latter, the 

 shapes of the cardboard will be as right and left. Two 

 other pieces should be cut to the same patterns, to be dealt 

 with afterwards. Two of these should be coloured pink on the 

 inner surface, and one of them must be introduced between the 

 skin and cartilage of each ear, the best manner of doing this 

 being to return the skins of the ear by opposing the point of 

 the cardboard to the point of the ear, and gradually drawing 

 the latter over it, compressing the card meanwhile, so that the 

 broadest part may pass the narrower base of the ear. These 

 cards must be fitted into the extreme tip and edge of each ear, 

 which requires some little skill and patience. Sometimes thin 

 tin or zinc is substituted for cardboard, either of which is a 

 decided gain in shaping, but heavier, and apt to cut through at 

 the edges, whilst tin is entirely objectionable for other reasons 

 (but see p. 1 1 6). The head should now be returned to its 

 natural position within the skin, and the wiring-up commences. 



Let four wires be pointed — one for each limb — and pass 

 one of them in at the pad of each foot and along the back edge 

 of each limb to the inside of the skin of the body, taking care 

 not to push the wire through the skin, nor catch the skin up in 

 any part, but, if possible, let each wire pass within the tow and 

 clay covering the bones, and come some little distance through. 

 The points of the four wires being now within the body-skin, 

 cut them off, and, if left an inch or so in length, they will come 

 in useful for something else ; thi? precaution is taken to prevent 

 them sticking into the hands of the operator. 



Proceed next to consider the body-wire. The simplest 

 way, perhaps, and one much affected by foreign taxidermists, 

 is to make it longer than the body, i.e. of sufficient length to 

 come through the skull at one end, and up the tail at the other ; 

 two loops — each large enough to take two wires — are then 



