2i8 TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



means satisfactory appearance to the specimen, and causes far 

 more trouble, — the tongue must be cut underneath, the flesh 

 removed, replaced by clay or some other medium, and the skin 

 sewn up. 



It may be mentioned that some fine sand or plaster in 

 which to rub the fingers from time to time facilitates the 

 operations of skinning-out and trimming. 



The Setting-up of the Fish 



This is accomplished by two or three methods, all equally 

 objectionable and unscientific, but, as they are the only 

 methods known to the users of arsenic and ignorers of lines of 

 beauty and natural shapes, they must be given here, in the 

 hope that the " stuffer " will in time become a modeller, and so 

 progress by degrees from the infinitely bad to the really good. 



The skin, having been painted inside with the preservative 

 Formula 57, is measured for length and corrected by previous 

 measurements, and a piece of wire is selected of proportionate 

 thickness to the size of the fish, and of considerably greater 

 length. One end of this wire is bent around to form a large 

 pear-shaped oval, and is twisted firmly around the main stem. 

 Some distance from this, determined by the length of the fish, 

 the main stem is twisted upon itself to form a small loop ; 

 nearer the tail, the stem is twisted again in like manner, and, at 

 the remaining extremity, either a smaller pear-shaped loop is 

 formed or the end is pointed ; perhaps the latter is the easiest 

 to manage, although the loop is the most secure, and the wire 

 forms in reality an artificial backbone, the large loop being 

 subsequently thrust into the head, and the small one into the 

 tail of the specimen, the small loops between being for the 

 reception of short wires, which are made fast by being twisted 

 around the main stem, these subsidiary wires being used to 

 attach the fish to the backboard upon which it is afterwards 



