2IO TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



possible to work from the members of a later brood, but, if not, 

 it is always possible to make a little wax model of one half of 

 the upper and lower gape, and to copy the colours at the time 

 from the nestlings themselves. 



After the birds are set up and the bills are dry, take 

 wax (Formula 98, or beeswax), and, having stirred in a little 

 tube oil-colour, say cadmium, aurora yellow, or aureolin — which- 

 ever is most like the colour of the natural gape, — brush a very 

 little turpentine over the parts to be modelled upon, and then, 

 with a small, common, camel-hair pencil, paint on the hot wax, 

 shaping it with the brush, and with any of the small tools, Nos. 26, 

 27, 34, 35. and 36, just warmed. The inside of the mouths, 

 if shown open, must \>q previously painted with wax of another 

 colour, and, if several small pans of coloured waxes are made, 

 they will always be useful, and can be blended one with another 

 like pigments if quickness and skill are exhibited. Indeed, the 

 young herons in the Leicester Museum (see pp. 402-405 and 

 Plate XX.) have the insides of their mouths coloured in two or 

 three hues of wax, and their bills in several others, and there are 

 many other groups in which the mouths and gapes have been 

 modelled. This, when it can be done properly, is far superior 

 to superimposing colour upon wax, as the colour being within, 

 locked up as it were, gives a certain brilliancy and mimics 

 nature remarkably well. When, however, this cannot be done, 

 colouring upon the wax, if skilfully managed, leaves little to 

 be desired. 



The combs and wattles of fowls and other of the Gallinae, 

 which are fleshy and afterwards shrink, should be skinned out 

 with care, then filled with clay or composition, and afterwards 

 coated with wax and coloured; or, better still, should be cast 

 from whilst the specimen is fresh, and modelled in wax (Formula 

 64), and should either entirely replace the dried and shrivelled 

 originals, or be superimposed upon them when thoroughly dry. 



