THE MODELLING AND SETTING-UP OF A TIGER 137 



At open stitches, purposely left along the whole of the body 

 and throat, a few corrections were made by the addition or 

 subtraction of the tow, etc., until the whole was sufficiently life- 

 like ; the open stitches were then drawn together, or re-sewn, 

 and the tiger was completed in all save the details of the head, 

 the tail, and the feet. These latter were next attended to. The 

 tiger, being intended to be represented as repelling the charge 

 of another, was made to exhibit his claws by forcing clay or 

 modelling -composition, followed by wadding, into the pads. 

 Note that not much clay, etc., is needed, — no more, in fact, than 

 sufficient to keep the pads from shrinking near the claws, the 

 wadding doing the rest. The sole of one of the feet, not being 

 quite in the right line with the supporting rod, was cut under- 

 neath to bring it properly into position ; all was then filled 

 out to a natural appearance, and the pads sewn up, excepting a 

 small hole left at the back of each, just behind the supporting 

 rod, by which errors might be corrected. The head was touched 

 up in the modelling, but the ears, eyes, lips, mouth, and tongue 

 were left untouched until the whole should be dry. Fine wire 

 nails were driven in along the line of the back, on each side of 

 the vertebrae, and in every other situation where needed. 



The tail was the next thing to be executed. A stout wire or 

 an iron rod was wrapped with tow to length and shape — thicker 

 at the base, of course, and tapering off at the tip. It was then 

 well smeared with clay, and inserted within the skin of the tail. 

 The part left unwrapped (some feet) had been previously 

 pointed, and was now thrust into the body. All being care- 

 fully made up and the necessary action given to the tail, a 

 second pointed wire or rod was driven in from the outside, 

 through the thickest part of the well-bound tow of the model 

 tail, into the body.^ 



1 This has also been improved upon by using one rod, affixed to the board of one 

 half model by screws passing through holes in a flattened portion as in the limb- wires. 



