SHELLS, ETC., AS ACCESSORIES IN MOUNTING 395 



Star-fishes, when well bleached by exposure for a length of 

 time upon the shores, are useful to throw down upon an arti- 

 ficial beach, but should first be well washed and plunged into 

 Formula 11 or 3 3. When, however, they are to be represented as 

 if freshly thrown up by the sea, and with their natural colours, 

 there is no plan whatever which will compare for one instant 

 with taking a mould of the animal in plaster, and reproducing 

 it in glue-composition. Formula 96 or 97, to be afterwards 

 coloured to nature. 



On Plate XIX. is shown, on the right-hand side, between 

 the seaweed and fungi, an uncoloured model of the common 

 Aster rubens executed in the light-coloured glue-composition 

 (Formula 97). 



Other invertebrata there are, such as land and marine 

 worms, often useful to introduce as the food of birds, and these 

 are only to be reproduced by the same methods. 



Sea-shells are, of course, most useful either for breaking up 

 to make a shelly beach or to be used whole. The commonest 

 shells are usually the best, as being the most frequently found 

 in positions haunted by sea-birds, and amongst these the 

 cockle, pectens, mussels, "tops," periwinkles, and some others 

 are especially valuable ; but a few words of warning as to 

 incongruities in mounting may not be misplaced, and the 

 indiscriminate sticking of all species of molluscs, corallines, and 

 seaweeds about modelled rocks is to be strenuously avoided. 

 Remember, therefore, that sponges, corallines, and seaweeds do 

 not grow above high-water mark, and be guided accordingly in 

 the choice of a subject ; and although it is perfectly legitimate 

 to place gulls, curlews, cormorants, and other birds upon a wet 

 rock covered with growing bladder-wracks, mussels, periwinkles, 

 and limpets, it would be ridiculous if in close proximity to a 

 nest of ringed plovers or terns, for, although these nest upon 

 the shore, yet it is always — if only just — beyond high-water 



