THE REPRODUCTION OF FISHES IN PLASTER 227 



Reptiles 



Snakes, lizards, and so on, have been stuffed by the 

 methods adopted for batrachians, but the same remark applies 

 here, and those who advise the reproduction of any such, even 

 the largest, by taxidermic processes, are not artists, nor have 

 they much regard for anatomy. 



Tortoises and turtles are easily mounted by removing the 

 plastron and skinning the head and limbs, and, after 'the flesh 

 has been removed, leaving them attached to the carapace by 

 the skin of their upper surfaces, subsequently filling them out 

 by any of the methods mentioned in these pages, and replacing 

 the plastron by wiring and making up with shellac, or cement 

 (Formula 60 or 6 1). Mr. Frederic A. Lucas, in a very interesting 

 article " On the Mounting of Turtles," ^ gives full directions for 

 the skinning and setting-up of the creatures ; but really the 

 only way to satisfactorily reproduce even these easily " stuffed " 

 reptiles is to cast them, as has been most successfully and 

 beautifully managed by the American modellers,^ albeit they 

 have been executed in an objectionable material. 



If the actual shell, and not a model, be required, the head 

 and limbs may be cast, reproduced in any of the materials 

 mentioned hereafter, and arranged naturally within the carapace 

 and plastron. 



DIVISION II 



REPRODUCTIONS IN PLASTER BY VARIOUS METHODS 

 Fishes 



There are many objects in nature so difficult or impossible 

 to satisfactorily preserve by any processes of taxidermy, or 



' Third Annual Report of the Society of American Taxidermists (1882-83), PP- 

 84-90. 



2 See Shufeldt, op. cit. Plates XXXII., XXXIII., XXXIV. 



