In attempting to give the beginner a fair start in the general work of mounting small mammals of all sorts, from mice up to small foxes, I will describe in detail the entire process of mounting a typical specimen, which in this instance will be a squirrel. This will embody all the general principles involved, and after having laid this foundation we will proceed to consider exceptional cases, and describe the manner in which they must be met. The exceptional cases are bats, rabbits, young animals of the smaller species, and a few others.

We will assume that the subject before us is either a "dry skin" which has been fully relaxed, scraped, and rendered perfectly pliable and elastic, or else "a fresh skin," i.e., one which has been preserved in our antiseptic solution (the salt-and-alum bath) or possibly in alcohol, and has therefore never been dried. For the sake of the beginner's courage, which should never be taken out of him at the very first onset by putting him on a dry skin of doubtful quality, we will take the skin of a fine, old, gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) which lies in the bath waiting to be immortalized—or something else.

It may easily happen that for good and sufficient reasons the beginner has no salt-and-alum bath, and can not prepare one. In that event the skin can be mounted immediately after it is taken off the animal, only it is necessary to apply to it after the arsenical soap, as directed hereafter, a copious quantity of powdered alum. If you have no arsenical soap, then as you proceed with the mounting moisten the inside of the skin with water, and rub on powdered alum and arsenic, mixed in equal parts, and be sure that the skin is everywhere coated with it eventually. This leaves the fur dry and clean, and will save you the trouble of drying and dressing it.

On taking our squirrel skin from the bath to mount it we find its texture is firm, and it is somewhat shrunken in size, so that when it is filled out it will not stretch all out of proportion. If either in haste or carelessness you have left a layer of flesh upon the skin, pare it off until the inside of the skin is quite clean. If any holes have been cut by bullets or knives, sew then up from the inside with a strong linen thread and a No. 3 glover's needle—three-cornered.

Now for the wires. Measure the leg bones from the sole of the foot to the end of the thigh-bone, add three inches for what the wire must project beyond the sole of the foot, five inches more at the other end, and cut a No. 15 annealed iron wire[8] of the length thus obtained, for each hind leg. The length of the wires for the forelegs is obtained in the same way. Thus for our squirrel, the wires for the hind legs must be fourteen inches long, and for the forelegs twelve.

Cut another No. 15 wire twice the length from the back of the head to the root of the tail, and this will be the body wire eighteen inches long. The tail wire must be smaller, No. 17, long enough to reach from the tip of the tail to the centre of the body—seventeen inches. Straighten all these wires carefully, lay them together on the table, and remember the purpose of each. If they are rusty, rub them with sand paper. File one end of the tail wire to a tapering point, for the tip of our squirrel's tail is very slender.

We are now ready to make one of the legs, and will begin with one of the hind legs. Take one of the two longest wires, pass one end of it through the slit in the skin at the bottom of the foot, let it project three inches beyond the sole of the foot, and up into the skin of the leg. Now bend the wire until it fits closely along the under side of the leg bones as seen in the accompanying illustration. Tie it firmly with linen thread to the bones of the foot, to the tibia and the femur, as seen in the accompanying illustration.

Now take fine, clean tow, of good long fibre, and, beginning at the foot, proceed to wrap it around the leg bones, smoothly and evenly, to replace the muscles which have been cut away. The lower part of the leg is flat on the inside and round on the outside, almost bare of flesh at the ankle. Remember always that the flesh on the "calf" of the leg, and the forearm, lies behind the bones, swelling out toward the back and the inside of the limb, and in front the skin lies upon the bone itself. Observe this, and build up the muscles accordingly. The thigh is broad and much flattened, rounded on the outside only, as you must have noticed when you skinned it and cut off the flesh, and the knee-pan is prominent. To make the leg this shape, first wind some tow around the thigh bone, then make up a little roll of tow a little larger than your forefinger, place it along the under side of the thigh and wind it fast there with tow. By a judicious continuation of this process, you can make the thigh of the proper width and flatness both above and below the bone. At no point is a squirrel's thigh more than three-fourths of an inch thick, and the calf, the arm, and the forearm are even less. By reference to the tracing made of the animal in the flesh, you will be able to tell the width of the legs at all points and correct your work all the way along.

In all thin-haired animals the tendon of the heel must be made by drilling a hole through the end of the heel-bone, passing a small wire through for half its length, then twisting the wire together half-way up to the knee. Wind a little fine tow around this wire, gradually increasing the quantity from the heel upward until the false tendon is complete, and the upper end is wound in with the tow which forms the lower part of the thigh. In small mammals which have long, thick hair, as our squirrel for example, it is not necessary to make the tendon, as it does not show. Remember there is no flesh on the upper part of the foot-bones, but considerable underneath.

It is not best to make the legs extremely hard, or they will be difficult to bend, but at the same time the tow must not be put on in a loose, slovenly manner. Avoid making the legs too large; the opposite extreme is the lesser evil of the two.

When the leg is finished, anoint the skin of that leg with arsenical soap, rub either a little wet clay or thick soap over the tow leg so that it will slip into the skin easily, then turn the skin up over it and adjust it from the foot up. If the leg does not fit, turn the skin back and alter its shape until it does fit perfectly. This done satisfactorily, insert a little clay or finely chopped tow in the bottom of the foot, bend the wire so that it leaves the foot at a right angle, sew up the cut, and you are ready to proceed in like manner with the three remaining legs. Be sure to make both legs of each pair precisely alike if you wish to have a healthy-looking animal when finished.

Having made all the legs, the next thing is the tail. Take some of your finest tow in your right hand, the tail wire in your left, begin at the pointed end, and by turning the wire constantly from left to right, let it wind up the tow which runs between your right thumb and finger. Make the tail of a regular taper, perfectly smooth, and not too large. Try it in the skin occasionally to insure accuracy. If the first one is a failure, discard it and make another. When at last you have what is required, anoint the inside of the tail skin with arsenical soap, slip the false tail into its place, and if the tail has been slit open, sew it up neatly all the way along, commencing at the tip.

Now punch a small hole in the back of the skull a little above the occipital opening, pass the end of the body wire through it, force the end through into the nasal cavity and on out at the end of the nose. Let the end of the wire also pass through one of the nostrils of the skin for about two inches. Now put some soft clay on the sides of the skull and jaw to replace the muscles which have been cut away, and fill the orbits with the same material. Anoint the skin of the head and neck with the arsenical soap, turn it back over the skull, and when the skull is once more in its proper position in the skin, which can best be determined by noticing whether the eye opening comes over the centre of the orbit, drive a tack over each eye through the skin and into the bone.

Another tack at the top of the head will also do good service in holding the skull in its place while the grand struggle with the body is going on, for the head is the last thing finished. Life is too short and space too valuable to allow me to explain fully why all these things must be done, but if you neglect any of these simple directions you will very soon find out why they were given.

The legs and tail are wired and made, the skull is in its place, with one end of the body wire passing through it, and we are now ready to wire all the parts of the animal together. The skin lies on the clean table before us, right side out, with the legs in the same position as when we drew the outline. Bend the inner ends of the foreleg wires back from the head of the humerus at an obtuse angle, and let them cross each other like the limbs of an X, as seen in the accompanying figure. At the point where they cross each other, turn a little ring in the body wire, six inches from the end, just large enough for the two wires to pass through easily. For this purpose you will find a pair of round-nosed pliers convenient. Pass the end of each foreleg wire through the ring, and let them cross again, with the wire of the left leg underneath the other.

Now refer to your outline, measure the distance between the extremities of the toes, and it will tell you exactly how to adjust the leg wires so as to get the right distance between the two ends of the humeri, or, in other words, the shoulders. The wire between the head of the humerus and the ring represents the scapula, and, if rightly measured, will enable us later on to pose the forelegs with ease and success.

Now, with the round-nosed pliers in the left hand, grasp the three wires firmly at the ring, lay hold of the two leg wires with the flat-nosed pliers and give two complete turns to the right, twisting the wires together as tightly as possible. Bend up the body wire to one of the leg wires, and, leaving out the other, give these two a couple of turns. Take the other leg wire and body wire and give them a twist. If the legs are now solidly together, it is enough, but if they are not, this twisting process must be continued until they are perfectly firm. No looseness, if you please.

This done, straighten out the body wire once more, arrange the skin as before, according to your outlines, and you will soon see that the ring for the hind legs must be turned about five inches below the first one. The ends of the hind-leg wires are bent slightly forward (toward the head) from the ends of the femora, and also cross each other in the ring. After getting the hind legs the right distance apart, give the wires two turns as before, then bend the free end of the body wire straight up and over until it points toward the head. Proceed with it precisely as with the other leg wires until the hind legs are immovably fixed on it. Now give the free ends of the wires each a turn around the middle of the body wire and thus fasten all together, forming a backbone of twisted iron wire.

The end of the tail wire must pass under the hind-leg wires (as the skin lies on its back), and after giving a turn or two around the wire backbone, tie it fast with strong twine. The tail must be as firmly fixed upon the body wire as though it was soldered there. This done, wrap a goodly quantity of tow tightly and smoothly around the wire backbone, so that the numerous ends of wire, and the irregularities in the mass of twisted wire, will not cause trouble when we come to fill the body. Now that you no longer need to put your hands inside the skin, anoint it most thoroughly with the soap, from the back of the head to the base of the tail. While the skin is absorbing the soap, take a hatchet and chop up finely a quantity of coarse tow. With your longest forceps, cover the inside of the skin with a layer of cut tow, placing it between the wires and the skin. It is highly important to have a good thick cushion of it next to the skin at the shoulders, hips, and along the back.

This is the time to give the animal the attitude it is to have when finished. All the members are now completely under control, and we can give the animal any pose we wish. Bend up each leg at a right angle to its present position, making the bend abruptly at the head of each femur, and thus leave between them the same distance that separated them when they joined the pelvis in life. Likewise bend up the foreleg, by making nearly a right angle in the leg wire at the head of each humerus, and leave the proper space between the shoulders. With the play that is given to the forelegs, by means of the distance left between the shoulder point and the ring, we are able to adjust the forelegs with the greatest freedom, to move each shoulder either up or down, and increase or lessen the distance between them at will.

The most pert and characteristic attitude of a squirrel is sitting up on its haunches, either on the alert, eating something held in its paws, or, perhaps, washing its face with its paws. This attitude is rather difficult to get, but it is well worth trying for. Bend each hind leg at the knee until the thigh touches the calf and rests upon it. Bend the ankle-joint until the foot makes an acute angle with the calf. Make a very decided curve in the backbone, so as to throw the body well forward between the knees, which must come nearly opposite the centre of the body. Push the hind legs up into the body so that the squirrel can sit upon his tail.

The elbows drop down until they almost touch the knees, which is partly accomplished by curving the back. Just below the shoulders the backbone must be curved, to throw the head and shoulders up, and hold them well erect. Give the head the pose you wish it to have, slightly turned to one side, let us say.

The next step, a very important one, is filling the body. If you do not do it intelligently, your squirrel will need to find a grave in the ash barrel. The mechanical part of this filling process is exceedingly simple, and everything, or nearly everything, depends upon how much you know of the anatomy of the animal before you. This is a private matter between yourself and nature. Your hand will nearly always be able to keep up with your eye if you give it a fair chance.

With your long forceps, which work like a dextrous thumb and finger eight inches long, pick up the chopped tow, and little by little insert it in the skin where it is needed. First fill out above the backbone until you get the desired outline, in profile, of the back and shoulders from tail to head. Then fill out the shoulders and form them properly. Fill in the neck, first around the base of the skull, and sew up the neck skin from the end of the cut downward for about two inches, and without cutting off your thread insert more chopped tow in the neck and shoulders, packing it firmly, if you have the proportions right. Do not allow the tow to roll up into wads and make the skin full of hills and hollows on the outside. The pressure of the tow on all points of the skin should be the same, and the filling must be packed firmly and evenly, so that the finished animal will keep its shape tenaciously in the struggle for existence, and not collapse at a firm touch.

One secret of success in filling the body lies in gradually and equally filling out the entire body to fair proportions before finishing any one part. Give the animal its exact attitude, then proceed. If there is an apparent lack of skin at any particular point, attack that first, and fill it out. You will soon find how easy it is to draw skin from one part of the body to another by judicious filling.

Having finished the neck and shoulders, leave that part and go to the haunches. Fill around the base of the tail, the hips, the upper part of the thighs, and the abdomen. Be careful to make both sides alike. Commence at the root of the tail and sew up the opening for about two inches, without catching the hair in your stitches, after which you may bore two small holes in a pine board, the proper distance apart, pass the two hind leg wires through, and set the little animal up. This is only a trial trip, and if you find the feet are not the proper distance apart (or the squirrel does not walk properly, if you have put him in a walking attitude), or does not sit properly, take him off the board and remedy the defects. When you have corrected his attitude, proceed with the filling, sewing up from both below and above, until the body is properly shaped, filled full of tow, and the opening entirely sewn up.

Now comb the tow out of the damp fur, and, if it is dirty, wash it with washing soda, soap and water until it is thoroughly clean. Place the animal upon its board pedestal, and correct the attitude with the utmost care before you bend the wires up underneath the board and clinch them fast. If the specimen is even a moderate success thus far, we will go on with it.

If the animal you are mounting is a tree-climber, and you wish to mount it upon a tree limb, select one for the purpose, and, according to your desire to have it nearly perpendicular, slanting, or horizontal, saw it off at the lower end, plant it firmly upon a rough board pedestal, and fasten it by putting two long, stout screws through the board and up into the base of the branch. Put your specimen upon the branch as nearly in position as possible, mark the places where the holes should be bored, and bore them with a bit of the proper size. You can then run the ends of the leg wires through, draw the feet down closely, and clinch the wires on the opposite side.

As soon as the little animal is firmly fixed on his temporary pedestal, or his branch, which must be permanent, we are ready to give the final touches to the body. We will, with thumb and finger, press in the shoulders if they are too high or wide, flatten the body by pressure if it is too round on the sides, and emphasize the undulating outline of the sides also by pressure. If there is a hollow spot where the surface should be smooth, thrust a sharp awl through the skin, catch some tow on the point of the awl, and, with a sharp lifting motion, pull the fibre up until it fills out the hollow. If there is a lump of tow under the skin, making an unsightly hump, thrust the point of the awl through into it, and spread it out underneath until the skin lies flat. It is often necessary to work all over the body of an animal with the awl in this way.

We have now to finish the head. With the cutting pliers, cut off the end of the body wire close up to the skull, so that the end will be hidden. Adjust the skin so that it fits naturally and easily on the skull and around the mouth, and see that the eyes come over the centre of the orbits. If the clay which was put upon the skull does not fill out the jaws and sides of the head quite naturally, push in a little chopped tow until the proper form is obtained.

Avoid getting one jaw fuller than the other; it is only boys and men who chew tobacco who have cheeks that are not bilaterally symmetrical. Avoid getting one eye too far back, forward, up or down, but match the one that is correctly placed.

Fill in the end of the nose, the lips, and the chin with clay, fold the lips naturally and press them into place. If the skin around the mouth is not unnaturally drawn back, the lips will stay in place, and dry there without any fastening. If the skin is drawn too far back, the lips must be pinned in place until they dry. The advantage in using clay for filling out the head is that it enables you to press the skin down upon it and mould all the parts into their natural shape and size, without giving to the head that unnatural, puffed out, stuffed appearance, which is almost unavoidable when tow only is used.

Introduce clay at the eye opening until the addition of the glass eye inside will make the organ sufficiently prominent. Insert the glass eye edgewise through the opening, turn it in position and embed it in the clay. With a large needle, or your awl, adjust the eyelids upon the glass, and if the eye is not right, work it into its proper position. Adjust both eyes alike, and, above all, see to it that they both look at the same point, be that point real or imaginary.

The same amount of iris must show in each eye, and the position of the pupils must correspond exactly. Do not make them unusually staring, as though about to burst from their sockets. It is the eye more than any other one feature that gives any animal, living or stuffed, its expression, and this is due entirely to the arrangement of the lid and brow. The eyeball has, in itself, no more power of varied expression than a glass marble; therefore the facial expression of a mounted animal is wholly under the control of the taxidermist, provided he takes the trouble to procure good glass eyes of the right size and quality.

Unless the ears of your specimen are very small and insignificant, it will be necessary to cut two pieces of thin card-board the shape of each ear, but larger, and after getting the ear in position, pin it between them, so that it will be held in a natural position and good shape until it dries. Do not thrust the pins through the ear, but through the card-board around the edge. The last thing is to arrange the toes and feet naturally, and pin each toe in place until it dries. Since our squirrel is to be holding a nut, we will cut off the foreleg wires, all but half an inch, and bring the paws close together at the proper elevation. We must now drill two small holes in opposite sides of a hickory nut, force the wires into them until the nut rests nicely in the paws, and there let it remain. If necessary, we will tie the toes in position around the nut until they are dry. It is a common fault with beginners in taxidermy to slight the toes of their specimens, both birds and mammals, and, as a result, all such specimens have a slovenly, tramp-like appearance.

Nature alone can tell you how to pose the tail to represent the state of the animal's feelings. Try to look at your work with the eye of an artist, analyze it, and catalogue its faults, so that you will be sure to avoid them in the next specimen.

If the hair needs no more washing, comb it out carefully at the last moment, and set your specimen on a shelf to dry, out of the dust if possible, and out of the sunshine, and watch it while it is drying to see that the head and feet dry in good shape. At the end of two weeks, or perhaps three, the little mammal will be dry and hard, and ready for the last touches. Pull out all the pins which have been holding the toes, ears, lips, or eye corners in place, and if they leave any holes, fill them up with putty. I have not told you how to stuff a head with the mouth open, and model the soft parts in papier-machÉ and wax, because you will hardly want to try anything so difficult at present, and it involves processes which cannot be described within the limits of this chapter.

When your mammal is quite dry, dress the fur with a fine comb and brush, and beat it with a small piece of whalebone or a little switch, to make it stand out from the skin, full and fluffy, as in life. This end must be accomplished, no matter how long it takes.

Procure some tube colors, oil and turpentine, equal parts, and a small sable brush, with which to tint the eyelids and the end of the nose their natural color. Put a little varnish and turpentine, equal parts of each, on the toe-nails, and, in short, do everything you can that will give the specimen the look of a living animal. If it looks stuffed, put it in the darkest corner of your cabinet, and try another. The glass eyes must be cleaned with great care, and polished with a soft cotton rag until they glisten.

At the last moment change the rough board pedestal for a permanent one, either of black walnut, polished, or ash, planed and sand-papered very smooth, and covered with two coats of shellac. If you have perched your squirrel on the top of a small stump, sawed off square at the bottom, or upon a large branch, with a section of the trunk serving as a base, of course no artificial base is necessary. Artificial branches for mounted birds are bad enough, but for mammals they are altogether too bad, and should never be used.

In conclusion, do not expect that your first mammal is going to be an overpowering success. Do not take a cat for your first subject, for a cat is the most difficult of all small quadrupeds to mount successfully. A tough old squirrel is the best thing for you to wrestle with until you have learned the method thoroughly.

Exceptional Cases.—There are certain classes of small mammals whose skins should not be put through the salt and alum bath, if possible to avoid it, for several reasons. These are the young of the smaller mammalia, especially such as rabbits, squirrels, and other familiar forms. It is by far the best plan to mount all such skins as soon as they are taken off, without wetting the hair, and using dry arsenic and alum, equal parts, to preserve and poison them. The bones of young animals become quite soft in the bath, and the hair is difficult to dress to look like life. The fur of a rabbit is the meanest fur in the world to comb out and dress to look fluffy and immaculate after it has once been wet with salt-and-alum water. Mount them without wetting when you can, only poison them well against moths. Alcohol is far preferable to the bath for the skins of such species as the above, and, as our English cousins would say, is "not half bad."

Mounting Bats.—Having tried all known methods of mounting and displaying these pestiferous little subjects, I finally evolved an arrangement which I now conceitedly believe is the only satisfactory solution of the difficulties they present. My plan is to mount the bat without any wires, save in the legs of the larger species, and when finished lay it on its back on a smooth board, spread the wings, put pieces of pasteboard over the membrane until all is covered, and pin them down. Of course the wings must be in perfect position. When the specimen is dry, apply some royal glue of the best quality to the back of each wing, and stick his batship permanently on a strip of thick plate glass, which has been prepared previously by being cut to the proper size, and ground on the edges.

The accompanying cut (Fig. 28) was drawn from a specimen as exhibited, omitting the label. The advantages of this arrangement are as follows: It shows the specimen perfectly on both sides; the wings do not warp and shrivel up; it is possible to repair breaks in the wing membrane, and the most delicate specimen is well protected. The strip of glass stands on edge in a deep groove which has been cut to fit it tightly in the top of a flat, narrow pedestal having the usual moulded edge.