SETTING UP FISHES BY TAXIDERMIC METHODS 225 



and not to delineate it by any of the following methods, 

 it will be found a good plan for ensuring greater accuracy 

 to take a cast of the best side, and, having skinned the 

 specimen, to replace its skin within the plaster mould and 

 fill it with dry plaster until it entirely conforms to the shape 

 of the original fish ; there is, however, some difficulty in doing 

 this which the beginner may not be able to overcome, and the 

 best method of reproducing such objects is by casting. 



Professor Kingsley^ gives a description of the Davidson 

 method of setting up a fish, thus : — 



The necessary materials are thin pieces of soft wood about one- 

 eighth of an inch in thickness ; square sticks measuring from three- 

 fourths of an inch upwards ; plaster of Paris, glycerine, tissue paper, 

 pins, and double-pointed carpet tacks. 



The outline of the fish without fins is marked on two pieces of 

 board, which are held together by pieces of the square sticks tacked 

 across the ends, and then the portion corresponding to the body is cut 

 away, so that we have strips of wood, one following the dorsal and the 

 other the ventral contour of the fish. The fish is then placed in this 

 opening, and the various fins are extended and fixed in position with 

 pins, the board in the meantime being supported so that one side of 

 the fish can freely extend through the opening in the joined boards. 

 Strips of tissue paper wet with glycerine are then laid smoothly over 

 the fish, and next a coating of plaster is poured over the same side. 

 When the plaster is hardened, the boards, etc., are reversed, and the 

 rest of the work is carried on from the opposite side of the body. All 

 that portion of the fish which projects through the opening is first cut 

 away, and then all of the muscles, bones, and viscera are carefully 

 removed, until nothing remains but the skin supporting the fins and its 

 plaster backing. In this condition one side of the skin is entire, and 

 on the other side a narrow strip of skin extends around the median 

 line of the body from a quarter to half of an inch in width. The 

 interior of the skin is now dusted with arsenic. The eye is then placed 

 in position and the skin is filled with plaster, mixed to about the con- 



' The Naturalist's Assistant, pp. 14-16. 

 IS 



