MODELLING OF ANIMALS, ETC. 163 



Moral, procure your specimens from tlie Highlands, where tliey 

 are not worshipped, nor protected, with a view to being hunted to 

 death afterwards. 



Having procured our specimen, we lay it in state on the 

 modelling table, and, having decided to mount it by the first 

 process mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, viz., by 

 using the skeleton as a foundation, we have further to decide if 

 the animal is to be open-mouthed or not. In the first case, we 

 shall require the skull, in order to show the teeth and palate ; in 

 the latter case, we may discard the skull if we choose, making a 

 model of the head in a similar manner to that of the stag, but 

 with the difference that now, our specimen not being homed, will 

 make a mould and model much more easily. We decide, then, to 

 keep the skull as part of the skeletal foundation. Skin out the 

 animal in the usual manner, as described in the last chapter, 

 with these differences, that the skin must be split on the under- 

 neath, from the vent to above the shoulder (in some cases, and 

 for some attitudes, this cut must extend up the throat) ; cross 

 cuts from this must extend all the w^ay down the limbs, on 

 their inside surfaces. By these five cuts the body is released 

 entirely from the skin, the head being cut off at the nose, and 

 the feet at the claws; nothing, therefore, of the skeleton re- 

 mains in the skin but the cores supporting the claws. Measure 

 the body now carefully for size, &c., and treat the skin in the 

 manner indicated at page 13i (first six lines), and turning 

 to the body, disjoint the hind limbs at the junction of the 

 femur with the pelvic girdle, and the fore limbs at the junction 

 of the humerus with the scapular arch (see Plate III). Cut 

 off the head {A, B), and trim it. If you cannot make a rough 

 representation in wood of the pelvic girdle {H) and scapular 

 arch {M), you had better cut these bones out and trim them, 

 as they, or their representatives, give a natural set to the limbs. 

 Throw away the remainder of the body. You now possess the 

 complete skin, and also the bones I, J, K, L, and N, 0, P, Q, 

 together with the skull and the ioxiv other bones, or their sem- 

 blances. Having properly cured all these parts, we will for this 

 lesson take the skeleton of the otter and its attitude as our 

 guide. 



Oui' first care, then, is to provide a block of wood, similar 



