Practical Taxidermy a Manual of Instruction to the Amateur in Collecting, Preserving, and Setting Up Natural History Specimens of All Kinds. to Which - Softcover
Excerpt: ...crowd the head with peat and the face, and parts of the skin inside, and around the fins and tail, with putty. Lay the fish-skin, cut uppermost as before, and ladle in dry plaster, beginning at the tail end; as this fills in, sew up, being careful to shorten the skin, making it deep, and not long and narrow at that part; being particular also to well ram in with a short stick the plaster to fill all out, and to remove ugly creases or depressions. When about a third of the fish is done, fasten your stitches and go on filling in at the head; as you work toward the middle, lift head or tail very gently to peep underneath at the progress you are making. As the stuffing progresses, deepen the body toward the middle, being careful at the same time to well ram in the plaster. Finally sew up. Now take another board, a little more than the length and breadth of the specimen, lay it upon the top of the skin and tie it to the board on which the fish is resting; by this means you will be enabled to reverse the fish without cracking the skin or destroying the "set" of it. Untie your boards and the object is before you right side uppermost. It will now be seen if your modelling is true or not; in the latter case, note where all imperfections occur, reverse the fish once more, and ram more dry plaster in between the stitches, or if the latter be sewn up too tightly, cut them where needed, sewing up again when all is satisfactorily accomplished. The specimen being once again right side uppermost, will appear somewhat flat along the centre, this arises from the plaster accommodating itself to the flat surface of the board. You must now, therefore, pass a wet cloth several times over the surface of the skin, and proceed to pat it in a light and dexterous manner into a more rounded shape with your hand, or by the aid of a piece of board shaped in the manner of a small flat bat. The head will require a great deal of attention; it is now flat and, perhaps, drops down...
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- PublisherRareBooksClub.com
- Publication date2012
- ISBN 10 1153794810
- ISBN 13 9781153794817
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages130
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