The American Boy's Handy Book/Chapter 25

To the practical naturalist a knowledge of taxidermy is not only an interesting accomplishment from which to derive amusement, but is almost an absolute necessity, an indispensable adjunct to his profession. Probably there is no study the pursuit of which affords such opportunities for physical exercise and real healthy enjoyment as that of natural history. It is a study that, by broadening the horizon of thought, enlarges the capacity for pleasure. To the pride of the sportsman in exhibiting the results of his skill and success, the naturalist adds the intelligent pleasure of acquiring a more complete knowledge of the life and habits, nature and anatomy of his trophies, as well as the ability to detect at a glance any unknown genus or rare variety he may capture; and here the practical knowledge of taxidermy enables him to properly preserve the other wise perishable specimen.

Captain Thomas Brown, F.L.S., says that boys ought to be instructed in the art of stuffing birds and mammals. So, boys, you have good authority for commencing young; but do not suppose that after reading the following directions you can sit down, and, without any previous experience, set up a bird as neatly and perfectly as one of those you see in the museums or show windows. On the contrary, you must expect to make one or two dismal failures, but each failure will teach you what to avoid in the next attempt.

Let us suppose an owl has been lowering around suspi​ciously near the pigeon house or chicken coop, and that you have shot the rascal. Do not throw him away. Image missingFig. 147.Stuffed and Mounted. What a splendid ornament he will make for the library! How appropriate that wise old face of his will be peering over the top of the book-case! (Fig. 147). He must be skinned and stuffed! With a damp sponge carefully remove any bloodstains there may be upon his plumage. Plug up the mouth and nostrils with cotton; also insert cotton in all the shot holes, to prevent any more blood oozing out and soiling the feathers. You may then lay him aside in some cool place until you are ready to begin the operation of skinning and stuffing the owl.

Measure the length of the bird, following the curves of the form, from root of tail to top of head, and its girth about the body; make a note of these figures.

Place the bird on its back upon the table, in such a position that the head will be toward your left hand; then, with the knife in your right hand you are ready to make the incision.

With your left hand separate the feathers, left and right, from the apex of the breast-bone to the tail (Fig. 148). Cut a straight slit through the skin between these points, using the utmost care to prevent the knife penetrating the flesh or the inner skin which encloses the intestines. With a bird as large as the owl, you will find that you can easily separate the skin from the flesh with your fingers, though it may be best to use a blunt instrument, such as a small ivory paper-cutter, to reach ​the back by passing it underneath the skin. In removing the skin you must try to shove in lieu of pulling, lest you stretch it out of shape. Press as lightly as possible upon the bird, stopping occasionally to take a view to see that all is right and that the feathers are not being soiled or broken. When you come to the head do not let the skin dangle from your hand or its own weight will stretch it. Bearing these things in mind, you can commence removing the skin in the following manner: Image missingFig. 148.The Incision. Press the skin apart at the incision, and dust the exposed part with Indian meal to absorb any fluids that may escape; carefully lift the skin on one side and separate from muscles of the breast with the point of your knife and a small ivory paper-folder alternately, as occasion may require, until the leg is reached and you have approached as near as possible to the wings. Having accomplished this, and dusted again with the Indian meal, the thighs must be pressed inward and the skin turned back far enough to allow you to use your knife and disarticulate the hip-joint. Bend the tail toward the back; keep down the detached skin upon each side of the incision with the thumb and first finger of the left hand; then with your knife make a deep cut, exposing the backbone at a point near the oil gland, which you will find near the root of the tail; sever the backbone near this ​point, but be careful to leave a large enough piece of it to support the tail feathers.

Take the part of the body which is now denuded of the skin in the left hand and peel the skin upward to the wings; during this operation your knife or small scissors may be used to cut any of the tendons which are met with. Separate the wings from the body at the shoulder-joint. Next turn your attention to the head and neck. Push the skin back toward the head, after the manner of removing a kid glove from the finger, until the back part of the skull is laid bare; then with your knife detach the vertebræ (neck bone) from the head. This will sever all connection between the body and the skin. The dismembered, denuded carcass may be thrown aside and your attention turned to skinning the head, which member in an owl is so large in proportion to the neck that care must be used in drawing the skin of the neck over it, lest you stretch. the skin. A great deal depends upon the delicacy of your touch, especially when you reach the eyes. Work slowly; cut the ears close to the skull; do not cut either the eyelid or the eyeball, but separate them carefully; then remove the eyes, which can be done by breaking the slender bones which separate the orbits (eye-holes) in the skull from the top of the mouth. Cut away all flesh from the neck; at the same time remove a small portion of the base of the skull. Through the opening thus made extract the brains with a small spoon or some similar instrument, after which draw the tongue through the same cavity. After removing all fleshy particles from the head and neck, and scraping out the eye-holes, paint them with arsenical soap and stuff them tightly with cotton. Be careful not to detach the skin from the bill, as the skull must be left in place. Coat the interior of the skull with arsenical soap and fill it with tow.

The wings and legs still remain intact. Push back the wings ​to the first joint; lay the bones bare, removing all the meat. Paint with arsenical soap and return them to their places. Go through the same process with the legs and rump; and after all flesh and fatty matter have been removed, paint the whole interior of the skin thoroughly with arsenical soap, and you are ready to begin the operation of

Take a piece of straight wire (size 20) equal in length to the measurement you made from root of tail to top of head; wind about it a bunch of excelsior (straw will answer as a substitute for excelsior shavings); secure this to the wire by repeated wrappings of stout thread, and mould the bundle into a shape resembling the bird's body; regulate the girth by the measurement you noted down for that purpose before you commenced the skinning process. When you have completed the artificial body there will, of course, be a portion of the wire still bare, which represents the neck. File the extremity of this wire to a sharp point, then force it diagonally up through the skull to the top, where it must be clinched; wrap the neck wire between the artificial body and the head with cotton batting (Fig. 149). Now draw the skin back so as to cover the artificial neck and body.

The eyelids must be carefully pulled in place over the cotton in the eye-holes, or orbits; pull the eyelids up nicely, to ​Image missingFig. 150.Wiring the Leg. make the parts about the eye appear plump and natural. Push more cotton down the throat until it has a round, real look. For the legs use two pieces of wire, each sharpened at one end. The taxidermist must shove the wire through the ball of the foot and guide it with the other hand up along the side of the bones of the leg, the skin being turned back for that purpose (Fig. 150). This figure shows the leg with skin turned back, as it appears when the wire is pushed through.

Wind cotton around both wire and bone to the natural thickness of the thigh, and go through the same process with the other leg; then push the wires clear through the artificial body and bend the protruding ends into a hook form (Fig. 151). Taking hold at the part extending from the bottom of the foot, pull the wire of each leg down until the hooks fasten firmly into the body. Image missingFig. 151.Showing how Leg-Wire is attached to False stitches sew up the Body. The ends of the wires protruding from the foot are left to fasten the bird to its perch, which is done either by wrapping the wires around the perch or by thrusting them through holes made for the purpose and clinching the ends. With a few hole in the breast. For small birds this is not necessary. After your owl is set up in ​this manner, gather the wings up close to the body and fasten them there by thrusting two wires, one from each side, diagonally through the skin of the second joint.

If you wish the tail to be spread you must push a wire across the body through each feather.

Eyes can be made of white marbles painted yellow with black centres, but glass eyes are better and cost very little. To fix the eyes, put a touch of glue upon the cotton in each orbit and insert the glass eyes, being careful to place them properly under the eyelids; with a sharp needle pull the lids nicely in place.

The stuffing of the bird is now finished, and it may be placed upon the branch in some natural position (Fig. 147, page 233).

The attitude fixed, it only remains to put the feathers in their natural order as smoothly and regularly as possible, and to keep them in place by winding a thread over the body very loosely, beginning at the head and winding until all the feathers are secured (Fig. 152). The bird must be left in some dry place for several days. When it is perfectly dry the thread may be taken off and all protruding wires cut close to the body. The specimen is now ready for the parlor or library.

The above directions, with very little modification, will serve for any other bird. For practice, a chicken is the best subject, as it is easily obtained and large enough not to be readily damaged by the awkwardness of a beginner.

The more tools you have the better, but if my reader has carefully read the foregoing description he must have noticed that during the whole process of skinning and stuffing the owl ​the only tools used were such as are within the reach of every boy—a penknife, a paper-cutter, small spoon (a mustard-spoon will answer), and a thread and needle. Arsenical soap is the only material used not likely to be easily procured. This preparation is of course very poisonous and should be so labelled. It can be procured of any taxidermist or made by any drug gist from the following recipe of Bécœur:

Mr. J. Wallace, the taxidermist, recommends the following recipe: "Dissolve ten pounds of finely cut, best white soap in warm water; add one pound of potash; thicken with pipeclay and a little lime to give the preparation body; heat and stir well. When cooling add ten pounds of arsenic." Of course the young beginner will not need any such quantity as is represented in either of these recipes, but if he goes to the druggist that gentleman can make the soap in any quantity desired. The utmost care must be observed in handling this preparation and keeping it out of the reach of children and animals, although it is not very tempting in taste or looks and hence not as dangerous as other compounds might be.

The boys at school used to say, "You cannot eat your apple and keep it." Being not only fond of fishing and fish, but also taking an interest in the study of ichthyology, the question with me has been, How can I eat my fish and still pre​serve it for future reference? A few experiments and several failures suggested a plan which has proved partially successful.

Having caught a very large bass or trout that you would like to preserve as a trophy, or some odd-looking fish that you want to keep as a specimen, the following is the plan to adopt:

Place your fish upon a piece of paper of any kind you may have, or a piece of birch bark; spread out the fins and trace a careful and accurate outline; then with your pocket-knife remove the tail at a point just beyond its junction with the body of the fish; in the same manner cut off the fins, being careful not to injure them; a small portion of flesh will be attached to Image missingFig. 153.Portfolio of Fish. each; this must be removed with your knife. Put the fins in a safe place, and again taking your knife, insert the blade under the gill and cut up to the centre of the top of the head; split the head down in a line exactly on the top to the upper jaw; carefully cut through this and the lower jaw to where the gill commences underneath; this will sever the whole side of the head. Cut away all the flesh from the inside and remove all the bony structures possible without injuring the outside. The eyes can be removed so as to leave the outside skin or covering unbroken. Wash the half of the head clean and put that with the fins in your note-book, taking care to leave a leaf of paper between each, to prevent their adhering together.

When you reach home you can have the fish cooked, and while it is cooking trace the outline of the fish upon a clean sheet of white paper; take the fins, head and tail from your note-book, dampen them with a sponge or wet cloth, and with glue or mucilage fasten them in their proper places upon the ​outline drawing, distended by means of pins; the latter may be removed after the glue or mucilage is dry; write in one corner the weight of the fish, the date upon which it was caught, and the name of the place where it was captured. You can then frame it or number the sheet and place it in a portfolio (Fig. 153). In the course of a season's fishing quite an interesting and valuable portfolio of fishes can be made. The writer has often caught fish whose names were unknown to him, and in this manner preserved them, or enough of them to identify the fish at some future period when he had time to look it up.

If the reader desire to try his artistic skill and attempt a colored drawing of a fish, he should do it from life. To see the fish as it really appears, a very simple contrivance can be made in the form of an aquarium, with wooden ends and glass sides; the wooden ends must have perpendicular grooves in them so ​that an extra pane of glass can be used as a slide (Fig. 154). Place the live fish in the aquarium, and when he is on one side Image missingFig. 154.Cross Section of a Sketching Aquarium. of it quickly slip the slide in so as to imprison the fish in such a narrow space that he is unable to flop or turn around, Image missingFig. 155.Mounting-Board. but must patiently keep his broadside to the artist until the picture is finished.

Great care must be taken in killing insects, intended for the cabinet, and death should be produced without disfiguring them or rubbing off the down or scales that covers the bodies and wings of some specimens. A convenient and successful way to kill insects is to drop them into a wide-mouthed bottle, the bottom of which is lined with blotting-paper that has been previously saturated with ether, benzine, creosote or chloroform. When a butterfly, bug, or beetle is put into a bottle prepared in this manner, and the bottle tightly corked, the insect expires without a struggle, and hence without injuring itself. From the bottle the specimens may be taken and pinned upon a mounting-board, consisting of two strips of wood resting upon supports at ​each end, a space being left between the strips for the body of the insect. Under this space or crack a piece of cork is fastened (Fig. 155) in which to stick the point of the pin. After pinning the specimen to the mounting-board, spread the wings and Image missingFig. 156.Butterfly pinned to Mounting-Board. Image missingFig. 157.Beetle, with legs set. Leg-pin. legs out in a natural position, and if it be a butterfly or moth, fasten its wings in position with bits of paper and pins, as shown in Fig. 156. An ingenious and simple device for pinning the leg of an insect is illustrated by Fig. 157. It consists of two needles with their heads driven into a small pine stick.

Mr. E. S. Morse gives probably the best device for arranging an insect box for the cabinet. It consists of a light wooden Image missingFig. 158.Cross Section of Morse Insect Box. frame with paper stretched upon the upper and under surface. Dampen the paper and glue it to the frame; when the paper dries it will contract and become as tight as a drum-head. Inside the box upon two sides fasten cleats, and let their top edges be about one-quarter of an inch above the bottom. Rest ​the paper-covered frame upon these cleats and secure it in position. The bottom of the box should be lined with soft pine to receive the points of the pins. The space under the frame can be dusted with snuff and camphor to keep out such insects as delight to feed upon the prepared specimens of their relatives. Fig. 158 shows a cross section of a box upon Mr. Morse's plan.

The best moths and butterflies are obtained by rearing the caterpillars in cages made for the purpose. I am indebted to Mr. Albert Lawrence for the accompanying plan of a larvæ box, invented and used by himself for several seasons (see Fig. 159). The Lawrence box, as may be seen by the diagram, can be taken apart and packed away when not in use or during transportation.

The sides, ends, and top are wooden frames covered with wire netting; the bottom is a flat board. They are all joined by hooks and screw-eyes. To take them apart it is only necessary to unfasten the hooks.

are very likely to lose their colors if placed in spirits, and if pinned and dried like beetles they will not only lose all color, but their bodies will shrivel up and change in form and proportion to such a degree as to make the specimens next to worthless. Mr. Ralph Hemingray, of Covington, Ky., sent the author some spider bottles manufactured under his direction of very thick, Image missingFig. 160.The Hemingray Bottle. clear, white glass, three inches high by one and one-quarter inch broad, and threequarters of an inch thick. These bottles are convenient in shape, and when a spider is put in one and the bottle filled with glycerine, the spider looks as if it might be imbedded in a solid block of crystal.

I have had some brightly colored garden spiders preserved in this manner for two years, and they have not only retained their original shape but color also. In the place of corks, pieces of elastic are stretched over the tops of the bottles; this allows the glycerine to expand or contract. Fig. 160 represents a drawing of one of these bottles with a spider in it. A case of specimens preserved in this manner makes not only an interesting cabinet, but a very pretty one. Although many persons have a horror of spiders, they lose all their nervousness when the insects are seen neatly labelled and enclosed in pretty glass bottles.

Many really beautiful, as well as some absurdly comical designs can be made of properly preserved insects by ingenious lads.

Butterflies may be made to have the appearance of hovering in mid-air by mounting them upon extremely fine wire.

​Grasshoppers can be arranged in comical, human-like attitudes.

Beetles may be harnessed like horses to a tiny car made of the half of an English walnut-shell. A very pretty design can be made by seating a grasshopper in a delicate sea-shell of some kind, and glueing the shell to a bit of looking-glass; fine wires attached to the shell will answer the double purpose of a support and harness for a couple of flying beetles; a little moss glued around the sides so as to conceal the ragged edges of the glass will add greatly to the effect, and the whole will have the appearance of a fairy boat being drawn over the surface of the water by two flying beetles, guided by the long-legged imp in the shell.

Preserved insects are exceedingly brittle, the least touch will often break off a wing or leg or otherwise disfigure the specimen, hence it is necessary not only to be very careful in handling them, but to supply some sort of cover to protect them from accidents, dust, and injurious insects. Dome-shape glasscovers are best adapted for small groups or compositions, and these may be obtained from the dealers at moderate prices, or, if the young taxidermist has acquired sufficient skill to make his work valuable, he can readily trade off duplicate specimens for glass-covers, as many amateurs as well as some professionals do.

Starfish must be first placed in fresh water and allowed to remain there for several hours; they may then be removed and spread out upon a board, and heid in position by pins or nails driven in the board alongside of the rays, but not into the creature. Put the board in a dry place out of the sun, and the air will absorb all the moisture in the specimens; the latter, as they dry, become hard and stiff.

I have several starfish preserved in this simple manner, and ​although no pickle or artificial preservative was used, they have kept in good condition for several years.

Small crabs may be dried in the same manner. The flesh must be extracted from the big pincers of the larger crabs and lobsters; this may be done by breaking off the points of the pincers and removing the meat with a crooked wire. The points of the claws should be saved and glued in place after the animal is dry. The smaller claws may be allowed to dry; small holes pierced in them will allow the air to enter and facilitate the drying process. The insides of both lobsters and large crabs must be removed from an opening made underneath. Wash them with cold water and inject carbolic acid and water into their extremities; place them upon a board to dry, with their legs spread out; after all moisture has evaporated, varnish them and fasten the bodies and legs of the specimens to a board with fine wires.

All soft-bodied animals, such as squids and slugs, can be preserved in spirits. Sea-urchins, such as are found upon our coast, may be dried like starfish, but it is best to remove the insides of the larger specimens.

With these suggestions, sufficient to help the young taxidermist, I will close this chapter. I have purposely avoided advising the use of expensive material or tools; where it was possible, I have not suggested the use of poisonous preservatives, but have given the most simple and safe methods of mounting specimens for the cabinet or for decorations.