178 TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



Tlie Making of the " Skin " 



Fill the skull, through the opening at the back of the orbits, 

 with some chopped tow (made by cutting it up with scissors) ; 

 the orbits themselves may be filled with wadding, but this 

 must never be used where there is any possibility of a wire or 

 pin being needed, as it will not allow even the sharpest wire to 

 pass. All of this must be thinly plastered over with soft clay 

 (or with modelling-composition Formula 71), to allow of the 

 shape being corrected when the head is turned, and also to 

 prevent shrinkage of that part. Especially must the clay be 

 well forced in about the beak and at the sides of the face. The 

 throat is also to be partially filled, where needed, with cut tow. 

 The skin of the neck should now be gathered up in the fingers 

 of both hands, and the thumbs and forefingers used to return the 

 head through the neck to its proper position, care being taken 

 that the bill does not catch in the skin and tear it. By judicious 

 handling the bill will appear, and, by pulling this gently and by 

 pushing with the fingers, the head will ultimately be returned 

 as in nature. To assist this, a thread may have been previously, 

 tied in the nostrils and around the beak. Arrange the ruffled 

 feathers with a fine needle,, and if some part stretches or forms 

 ridges upon the clay inside, use the needle as a pricker to 

 bring the feathers backward or forward — usually backward. 

 The hollow bags of the wings, lying over the bones from 

 which the flesh was removed, now require filling with cut tow 

 to replace this loss, and a threaded needle should be passed 

 through the hollows between the bones (ulna and radius) and 

 around the radius of each wing, the ends of the thread being 

 then drawn together until the distance between the wings is 

 as in nature. 



The leg-bones are the only members left which require 

 consideration, and these are to be bound with tow wrapped 



