Boil until arsenic and soda have dissolved, stirring frequently. Use a vessel at least twice as large as necessary to contain the quantity used as it foams up while boiling. When cold put in a large bottle or jar marked Poison, of course. For poisoning finished specimens, mounted heads, etc., take one part of this solution to two parts water and spray the entire surface with this in an atomizer or larger sprayer. It should be tested before using by dipping a black feather in it and if a gray or white deposit is left on drying, it should be diluted still further until this is prevented.

To poison the inside of skins we make Arsenical Paste: Arsenical Solution (full strength), whiting sufficient to produce the consistency of cream. This should be mixed in a wide mouthed bottle or small pan and applied with a common paint brush. Do not apply to a perfectly dry skin, like tanned hide for a robe or rug, but dampen the inside first with clear water, then paint over with the paste and it will strike through to the fur side and be taken up around the fur roots by capillary action. This tends to put a damper on the activities of the moth, whose favorite grazing ground is at the hair roots just outside the skin.

For poisoning the skins of the smaller furred animals and all but the larger birds:

Mix equal parts by measure and apply to inside of the fresh skin with a soft brush or pad of cotton. If during the skinning and cleaning the skin has dried so the powder will not stick, moisten the inside of the skin with water before applying. Some taxidermists prefer to use in place of the paste some form of Arsenical Soap. This may be purchased from the supply dealer or made at home at quite a reduction. Personally I dislike the greasy, sticky feel of it; it is apt to cling around the finger nails and scratches, making them sore.

However, the following is the best formula for a time honored preservative:

Slice the soap and melt slowly with a little water. When melted stir in the potash and arsenic. Boil to the consistency of molasses and pour into a jar to harden. Add the camphor already dissolved in the alcohol and stir occasionally while cooling. Mix with water and apply with a paint brush to flesh side of skins.

In case one is timid about using any of the arsenical preparations I would advise them to try

Shave the soap thin and boil it with the whiting and water till dissolved. Then remove from the fire and stir in the chloride, adding the tincture camphor later when cold, as much of the strength of the latter would be lost were the mixture hot.

Keep in closed jars or bottles, and if too thick, thin down with water or alcohol. Apply like arsenical soap or paste. This is highly recommended by English writers. For a non-poisonous powder I would advise equal parts of powdered alum and insect powder in place of the arsenic and alum.

Mix thoroughly and put in glass or earthen jars or large mouthed bottles.

While most of the heads and skins of big game are preserved until they can reach the taxidermist, many of the smaller specimens become a total loss. Lack of time and knowledge are the chief causes of this loss of valuable souvenirs of days out of doors and interesting natural objects. Probably the easiest and least expensive method of temporarily preserving entire the smaller animals, birds, fish and reptiles is by immersion in the above preparation.

I would not advise its use on animals larger than a small fox or cat, and to insure an immediate penetration of the flesh the abdominal viscera should be removed from the larger specimens. The amount of solution used should be about ten times the volume of the subject, and it had best be replaced with fresh liquid after two or three days. I think this will work equally well on birds, reptiles and mammals.

If alcohol is less than 94% use less water. Use same as formaldehyde solution. This is said to be superior to the formaldehyde solution, though more expensive and harder to carry about on account of its greater bulk before mixing.

Specimens kept long in any liquid are apt to lose their colors. This fading will be reduced to a minimum if kept in the dark.

All furred skins of any size should be immersed in this for a time before mounting, and may be kept in it for months or years without injury. If you have time to skin an animal properly the skin may be dropped in the pickle jar and in a day, week, or month be better fit for final mounting than at first.

For the first few days it is necessary to move it about every day so all parts may be exposed to the action of the pickle. The form of pickle which I have found most helpful is:

Bring to boiling point to dissolve the salt. Allow to cool before stirring in the acid. When cold is ready for use.

When keeping skins in a wet state a long time I would prefer to use:

Boil to dissolve salt and alum; use like preceding.

If skins are to be kept some time they should, after a preliminary pickling, be put in new, fresh pickle and it should be occasionally tested with a salinometer and kept up to the original strength. Dirty and greasy pickle should be thrown away, but if clean and of low strength it can be brought up by adding new pickle of extra strength. It will do no hurt if more salt, even a saturated solution, is made of either of the foregoing.

While the salt and alum or acid pickle will keep our animal skins safely and in a relaxed condition ready for further preparation at any time, it will not answer for bird skins. For this we have a solution for keeping bird skins soft:

After skinning the bird and applying some arsenical solution to the inside, brush this solution liberally over the entire inside of the skin. Pay special attention to the bones, wing and leg, skull and root of the tail. If necessary the skin may be packed flat for shipment. One treatment will keep all but the larger skins soft for several months. The feet, of course, will become hard and dry and must be relaxed as usual before mounting.

Every taxidermist needs to be more or less of a modeler, and one of the most useful materials is:

This formula may be varied at the convenience of the operator. Work the glue into the pulp and knead the plaster into the mass. The more glue the slower it sets and a few drops of glycerine will keep it soft several days. Made with little or no glue it hardens quickly.

If the paper pulp is not at hand it may be made by tearing old newspapers or sheathing paper small and boiling and pounding till a pulp results. This composition is much in use in Europe in the making of many familiar toys and similar objects.

For modeling open mouths, finishing mounted specimens, making artificial rocks, stumps and boughs, it is very desirable.

Wax should be melted in a water bath, like a glue pot, as excessive heat will darken it. Cakes of wax of suitable colors may be had of the supply dealers and are most economical when no great amount of work is done. The same parties supply the paper pulp previously mentioned.

The preparation of a suitable setting for almost any mounted specimen will add greatly to its attractiveness. If you know where it is to be placed it is not difficult to make it suit its surrounding. For instance, a head of big game for hanging in a dining or ball room is suitably mounted on a polished and carved hardwood shield. While this would hardly match its surroundings on the wall of a log camp, a rustic panel of natural wood with the bark on would perfectly suit the latter place.

Heads, horns, and antlers are usually mounted on what are called shields. Fish and trophies of dead game birds and small game on panels. Single specimens are placed on severely plain wooden bases (museum style) or on those simulating branches, rocks, stumps or earth. These are artificial, but those built up in part at least with natural objects are most pleasing.

As we can not produce the best patterns of shields without special machines we must patronize either the supply dealers or the wood working mill for such. If convenient to a mill equipped with jigsaw and moulder they can be made up after your own patterns.

Some of the sizes most used are approximately as follows for mounted heads:

For mounting horns of elk and moose the size for deer heads will answer nicely, while deer antlers are suitable with a shield of the fox head size.

With a wood worker's gauge or something similar make a mark around them both near the lower sides. Now with draw shave and rasp work the edges off both Nos. 1 and 2. No. 1 on a bevel, No. 2 rounded. There should be a number of holes drilled and countersunk in No. 2, from the back, and when the two parts of the shield are properly adjusted they should be drawn closely together with screws too short to penetrate the face of the shield.

All shields and panels should be carefully sandpapered, filled and varnished, and polished if you wish. Don't make the shield or panel so ornate that the specimen will seem but an incidental, thrown in for good measure, so to speak.

Rustic panels can be made by sawing the end from a log on a slant, and planing smooth the oval. If this is heavily varnished on the front and back and the bark left on it is a very suitable mount for small heads, fish and birds. Artificial branches and trees for mounting birds should be avoided if possible; they are made by wrapping tow around wires, coating with glue and covering with moss or papier mache and painting. The result I consider unnatural and inartistic.

Water worn roots such as are found along the shore, twisted laurel branches, limbs of gum, oak and sassafras, all work up well in this and should be stored up to dry against a day of need. Out door people have a good eye for such things, but they are hard to find when you look for them, so gather them on your rambles. Papier mache is also a good modeling material for stumps, limbs and rock, being light, and readily taking coats of glue or paint. The expert can copy nature closely with it.

Snow scenes are frequently attempted but are not always a success. The peculiar fluffy and glittering appearance is rather difficult to reproduce. Torn or ground up white blotting paper mixed with a little ground mica has been used for this purpose. Glass icicles are listed by dealers and are quite natural in appearance, but the simulation of water is difficult and often disappointing.

It is often desirable to mount small specimens, of birds especially, in cases of some kind which will protect them from dust, dirt and rough handling and at the same time display them to advantage. The oldest and at the same time the least suitable contrivance for this is the well known bell glass or globe. It is difficult to find a safe place for this in the average house and it is not at all adapted to many specimens.

There is on the market a papier mache background also adapted to any picture frame, called the "concave dust proof case." This has the flat face glass of the old style wall case, but with the square corners and much of the weight eliminated. Any of these styles of wall cases may be placed on shelves as well as hung on the wall like pictures, at once preventing breakage and becoming valuable decorations.

Special cases are often built (as in museums) for large and valuable mounted specimens. Of these the top and at least three sides should be of glass. The preparing and placing of the accessories in some large museum cases have required an unbelievable amount of time and expense to attain the desired natural appearance of the mounting.

While it is unlikely that many readers of this book will undertake the collection of natural history specimens in any great numbers or as a special business, a few words on the subject may not be amiss.

It is well to bear in mind that the better the condition of the specimen when it first comes to hand, the greater will be our chances of success in properly preserving it. A small bird shot with a rifle is not worth bothering with unless excessively rare, and a fur bearer which the dogs have been allowed to maul and chew is very difficult to put in satisfactory condition.

One rule of the collector in the field is to shoot each specimen with the smallest possible charge of shot and powder which will kill it. I speak of shooting, as probably three-fourths of the objects mounted by the average taxidermist have been killed with fire arms.

In one case this small bore shotgun has been combined with a rifle, and the light weight and portability of this little arm makes it about the last word in guns for collecting all small specimens.

It as well as other single guns of the same bore, is built to use a round ball in the shot barrel, making them capable of stopping deer or bear at short ranges. However, choosing a gun is like choosing a wife, every one has their own tastes.

I would advise the would-be collector to load his own shotgun shells, at least those for small birds and animals, as it is almost impossible to get factory loaded shells but what are charged too heavily.

For the collection of animals for taxidermic purposes the use of traps will probably yield some of the best as well as the more rare and unusual varieties. Such styles of traps as least injure the appearance of the finished specimen are preferred.

Water animals taken in steel traps may usually be quickly drowned. If set on land they should be tended often to prevent suffering and usually mutilation of the trapped game. Full information on this subject will be found in Science of Trapping and other books on special animals by same publisher.

Fish are to be collected any way you can get 'em, (legally at least). Many varieties of these are to be bought at the large markets and many rare and hideous specimens are discarded by market fishermen when culling their catches. A few years ago before much restriction was imposed on the sale of game it was possible to purchase many desirable things at the markets of Washington, D. C. Not only bear and deer, but elk, ptarmigan, arctic hares, sage and prairie grouse, fox squirrels, pileated woodpeckers and many other odds and ends were offered for sale as well as all the usual land and water game.

However you take your specimens or how badly damaged they may be when they reach your hands it behooves you to see that no further damage befalls them.

Fur bearers will stand more rough usage and may be tied together by heads or feet or packed in game bag or pocket. Fish should be wrapped in paper to protect the scales.

It goes without saying that specimens which it is planned to preserve should be kept cool if possible until work can be started on them. Some varieties spoil more quickly than others; fish eating birds need quick attention; most birds of the hawk and owl family keep well, as do the pheasants, grouse, etc. Frozen animals keep perfectly in that state but spoil quickly after thawing.

Keep away from blow flies. Specimens are often sent to the taxidermists in apparent good order and when received are entirely ruined by fly maggots; the eggs being deposited before packing and shipping.

With a suitable specimen at hand it is for us to decide if we shall mount it or preserve it as a skin temporarily or indefinitely. To illustrate we will presume that we have a muskrat just from the trap which is to be mounted at once.

Before skinning it is best to get some measurements to guide us in the later work. In this case where the skin is to be mounted immediately a simple outline is sufficient, as we will have the body in the flesh and all the leg bones, etc., to guide us in rebuilding the creature.

OUTLINE OF MUSKRAT. HIP AND SHOULDER JOINTS MARKED

Laying the animal on its back, make the opening cut by pushing the knife point through the skin at the juncture of neck and chest. Run the blade down between skin and flesh, separating the skin in a long clean cut to the root of the tail. Open the tail also along the under side from the tip to within an inch or so of its base. Slit open the sole of each foot from the middle toe to the heel and further if necessary so the leg skin may be turned down over the foot.

Beginning at this central cut, skin back each side until the shoulder and hip joints are encountered. Bending the limb will show the exact joint where the muscles are cut apart and the legs severed from the body. Cut off the tail near its base, leaving it in the skin for the present. Loosen the skin from back and shoulders and turn it wrong side out over the head. Skin down until the ears are reached, cutting them off close down to the head and continue on to the eyes. Work carefully around these and cut close to the skull to avoid hacking the eyelids. Cut through the nose cartilage, and when the lips are reached cut them away close to the gums, leaving both their inner and outer skin on the pelt. Cutting them off at the edge of the hair is a frequent cause of trouble as they are full and fleshy and should be split, pared down on the inside and when mounted, filled out to their natural shape to perfect the anatomy.

The brain may be removed with a hooked wire, the skull well rinsed inside and out and given a good coat of arsenical paste or other preservative. The next step is determined by what you intend doing with the skin. If it is to be kept for purposes of study without mounting it should be made up as a scientific skin. If to be mounted at once or in the near future it should be put in the jar of salt and acid or alum. It can of course be mounted at once without this bath but I believe it is well worth any extra work it entails.

Some young furred animals and others with very delicate skins do not work up well from the bath and had best be mounted without it, being handled more as bird skins are.

In skinning the larger quadrupeds we make two additional cuts, from the right to the central line and out to the left fore foot and a similar cut connecting the hind feet. These opening cuts are on the back and inside of the legs, you will understand.

With most large subjects another cut from the shoulders up the back of the neck is necessary. On animals having horns or antlers this is terminated in a Y or T shape, reaching the base of the antlers. After loosening the skin around the antlers the head is removed through this incision. As it is hardly possible to make an outline sketch of a large animal, as full a set of measurements as possible is useful in all cases.

The bones of the legs will be in the way attached to the skin and the two upper bones of each leg may be detached and if lack of space or transportation make it necessary, thrown away, though if the bones of one hind leg and one front leg are preserved artificial duplicates may be carved.

SKINNING BIRD-BREAST CUT.

Cut off the flesh in which the tail quills are rooted leaving it on the skin with one or two of the last vertebrae. Use care in this or you will cut the skin above the tail too. The body may now be hung up by a cord tied to the stump of one of the legs and both hands used in separating and turning the skin back until the wings are reached. The skin is loosened around these and they may be severed at the elbow joint unless the bird is to be mounted with wings spread, when it will be best to unjoint at the shoulder and preserve the entire wing bones.

Continue skinning to the base of the bill, scoop the eyes from their sockets and cut loose the forward part of the skull from the neck. This is usually accomplished with four snips of the scissors much easier to practice than to describe.

Make one cut on each side of the head, through the small bone connecting the base of the lower jaw with the skull, another through the roof of the mouth at the base of the upper mandible and between the jaws of the lower, and the last through the skull behind the eyes and parallel with the roof of the mouth. This will free the skull of the neck and most of its flesh and muscle.

In most cases the head should be returned to the skin as soon as possible to avoid its drying out of shape and giving the feathers a wrong set. After cleaning and poisoning the skull and filling the eye sockets with cotton this reversing is undertaken. If working on a small bird the learner is apt to come to grief here, as only by careful and patient work without the application of some force is the returning process accomplished successfully.

The wings are skinned to the first joint, stripping the wing primary feathers from their fastening on the bone with the thumb nail, clipping off the large bone near the end and detaching the small bone with all flesh and muscle adhering. If this is clipped off at the wrist joint the entire wing is cleaned. This method applies to all small and medium birds not wanted with spread wings.

The main principle in the preserving of skins may be stated thus: All skins must be removed and cleaned of flesh so the preservative may be applied to every part of the inner surface, where it will act directly on the roots of the hair or feathers.

The preservative applied, we must decide on the next step, whether it is to be mounted at once, in a short time, or laid away indefinitely as a scientific skin.

If we have to lay it away until tomorrow, put a little cotton inside to prevent the inner surface sticking together, wrap in a damp cloth and unless the weather is very hot it will be all right.

Alligators and the lizard family are skinned like the other four-footed species, as are snakes and fish, with the exception they have no limb bones to be cleaned and preserved. Fish are better opened along one side than the central line of the body.

Reptile skins if not put in the pickle jar had better be packed in salt after poisoning as when entirely dry they are practically ruined. Skins of fish are best kept in either a saturated solution of salt (water with salt added until no more will dissolve), alcohol or formaldehyde solution. Whatever method is used the delicate colors will vanish and unless you can have a fresh specimen at hand when mounting it you should make the best color record you are able. This is true to some extent at least of all coverings of fur, feathers, or scales, and the stronger the light the more damage. I have seen a mounted mink placed in direct sunshine, bleached to a drab and the yellow feathers on a 'flicker faded almost white.

The water species can have the lower shell detached from the upper at the side and after cutting the skin around the rear two-thirds this shell is turned over to the front and the skinning and cleaning proceeded with.

If not mounted at once make into a dry skin after poisoning or small turtles may be put in alcohol.

Probably most bird skins which are not mounted at once are kept in the form of "scientific skins." In other words they are skinned, poisoned and without wiring, given the shape of the dead bird. Their plumage, size, etc., may be examined, they are easily packed or shipped and, if properly made, may be mounted at any time but at the expenditure of considerably more work than a freshly taken skin requires.

The instructions on skinning leaves us with the skin wrong side out with the exception of possibly the head. The leg and wing bone, cleaned of flesh, should be well poisoned as well as the skin and after wrapping with pieces of cotton bat to their approximate size, returned to their places. It is well when doing this to under rather than over fill.

Connect the bones of the wings with a bit of thread or cord. After filling out around the eyes and upper throat, wind a small stick or piece of wire with cotton to a size a little smaller than the natural neck and push it into the opening at the back of skull.

Our fingers, forceps and a setting needle made of a large needle or part of a hat pin in a wooden handle will accomplish this. Stained or dirty plumage should be cleaned before the skin is filled out, by first sponging with tepid water, then with gasoline or benzine and drying with plaster of paris or corn meal. Never apply this without the gasoline first or you will have trouble indeed.

Now the skin is ready for its label, which should supply the following information:

1. Length in inches from tip of tail to end of tail.
2. Distance between the tips of outstretched wings.
3. Length of wing from the first joint.
4. Color of eyes, feet, bill, etc.
5. Date, locality, collector.
6. The sex.

The first three items are often combined, in the case of a bluebird for instance, 7-12-4, the order being understood.

Unless the plumage plainly indicates the sex this should be assured by examination of the skinned body. By making an opening in the side of this near the back bone the inside surface of the small of the back is exposed. In the case of the male there will be visible two rounded bodies, varying in size with the season and species, and in the female a flattened mass of spheres.

After labeling and fastening the bill together with a pin or thread the skin should be slipped inside a paper tube to dry. Water birds with long slender necks should have the head bent around beside the body and the long legs of waders are bent at the ankle and left resting on the body; this to prevent breakage.

Duck, geese and any fat birds need the inside of the skins well scraped, sponged with gasoline, partly filled with plaster paris and left for several hours so all grease may be absorbed. This grease should be removed prior to applying the preservative as it will prevent any effectual penetration by the latter.

After cleaning either the inside or out of a skin with plaster it will be necessary to gently beat it with a whisk broom or something similar to dislodge the particles of plaster. A current of air (from a bicycle pump, for instance) will remove the dust from the feathers when dry.

Fewest dry scientific skins are made up from the quadrupeds, but in case the matter of transportation prevents wet preservation or they are wanted dry the all around taxidermist must practice at making them up also. Like the bird skin they should be thoroughly rid of flesh and fat after skinning but do not require such finical handling. Rinsing in water with a little washing powder or soda added will remove blood stains and some grease but the benzine bath with the drying after, as recommended in the chapter on tanning, etc., will be needed in case of very fat specimens.

All small animals are made up about the same as birds, wrapping the leg bones in tow, oakum or cotton and filling out the body with the same material. The skull cleaned and poisoned had best be put in the centre of the body with the filling, when it can be found at any time by ripping a few of the stitches.

The skin of the head is filled out with the same material and the tail may either be bent up under the body or drawn together by a few stitches around a wrapped wire extending into the body half its length. Of course the operator will see that the entire inner surface of the skin is treated liberally with some preservative, arsenical paste preferably, before the filling process.

After stitching up the opening cut the skin is laid on a board, back up and the legs neatly disposed, the front feet beside the head and the hind ones drawn back beside the tail. The feet are fastened with a pin each and after smoothing down the fur with a small metal fur comb the skin is laid aside in an airy, shady place until fully dry.

With each scientific skin a record should be made of the following details:

1. Length, end of nose to root of tail.
2. Length of tail from root to end of bone.
3. Height at shoulders.
4. Color of eyes, lips, feet, etc.
5. Name of species, sex, locality, date, and collector's name.

These may be noted down on a corner of the outline sheet, which is numbered and filed away; the skin tagged with a duplicate number is put in the pickle jar or made up as a dried skin, whichever is desired, or the full information may be put on a tag attached to the skin. Many collectors simply number all specimens and preserve all information in their note books. The foregoing details are sufficient for animals less than bear and deer in size.

The larger animals should have as many as possible of the following additional measurements:

Skins of large animals, a bear for instance, may have a slight wrapping of tow or excelsior on the leg bones to prevent their coming in contact with the skin and the whole skin laid to dry on a scaffold of poles or something similar. When nearly dry fold up with the legs inside in a square shaped package. This can be tied up with heavy cord or even sewed up in burlap to prevent damaging the skin in transit. Fish and reptiles are not a success as dry skins.