lips and remove their fleshy interior, split the nose
cartilage and separate it from the outer skin. With some blunt tool pry
the skin of the back of the ear from the cartilage and turn the ears
wrong side out to their tips. Give the scalp at least 24 hours' pickling
or it will be liable to excessive shrinkage on drying.

Many a fine head mounted green, without thinning or pickling, has shrunk
and continued to shrink for months, until all stitches gave way and it
cracked and shriveled to an inglorious end. If a paper head form is to
be used, the top of the skull at the base of the antlers is sawn off and
the balance of the skull discarded, the more common method will require
the cleaning of the skull with antlers remaining on it. A little boiling
will expedite this and by chopping an opening (1-1/2 inches wide in case
of a deer) into the lower part of the brain cavity the brain is removed.
This opening will also receive the end of a wooden neck standard of
plank three inches wide.

[Illustration: DEER SKULL ON STANDARD.]

A nail through the top of skull will hold it temporarily till the lower
jaw bones are placed and the whole held solid by packing the base of
skull and jaws in a mass of soft plaster which will harden in a few
minutes. This neck standard should be at right angles to the greatest
length of the head.

Measuring the neck skin where cut off gives the circumference of an
egg-shaped board, representing a cross section of the neck at that point
in a vertical line. The neck standard is sawed off at the proper place
and angle and made fast to the board by nails and screws. With a very
short neck it will be necessary to depress the nose considerably that
the antlers may not come in contact with the wall. This should all be
calculated before fixing the skull permanently on the neck standard. The
standard can be held in the vise and a little measuring will indicate
the point of attachment and angle needed to clear the wall.

[Illustration: NECK BOARD.]

Now wind excelsior on the neck standard and skull until the skinned head
and neck are roughly reproduced. Try the skin on occasionally to guide
in this.

Do not put any excelsior on the upper part of the skull and face as no
amount of flesh was removed there. Give the cheeks a natural fullness
and remember the neck was not round like a stove pipe. By sewing from
side to side the shape of the gullet and wind pipe can be molded. When
the skin is still not quit