tc,
being cut out. To remedy this procure a cork, which push into the
cavity whence the cartilage of the nose has been removed, roughly
shaping it, and covering it over with a pad of putty, pushing some
also into the skin of the nostrils at the same time. The inner skin of
the lips is still hanging down as a bag. Fill this up with sufficient
putty to allow for shrinking, sewing it to the outer skin.

The lips may now be adjusted in position by sewing the upper to the
under, if the fox is to be shown with a closed mouth, or by driving in
"needle points" in various positions, if the mouth is to be open,
until these parts set. Fill in the orbits with putty, attending to the
eyebrows, reproducing the various muscles underneath, and insert the
artificial eyes. All that now remains to be done is to push two
pointed wires down the back of the ears, and run them along each edge,
finally pushing them in the skin of the head, where required; the two
loose ends being twisted together at the top keep the ears in
position.

The tongue, if intended to be shown, must be removed from the pickle,
cut on its under side, and skinned completely out to the tips and to
each edge. All the included flesh must then be cut away, and replaced
with putty, the cut sewn up, and it is then ready to be inserted in
the mouth in the required position, when modelled into shape.

The animal being stuffed and mounted to your satisfaction, you must
bear in mind, that although you have perfectly cured the skin--turning
it, in fact, into a species of leather--you have not rendered it proof
against the attacks of insects; it must, therefore, be washed over
with one of the preparations given in Chapter IV.

The preceding method of skinning and stuffing an animal is given, not
because it is the most scientific, but because it is the most
satisfactory to the learner, and is, indeed, the method which obtains
with the majority of taxidermists. Though perfectly efficient as far
as it goes, it yet possesses the disadvantage of allowing a certain
percentage of shrinkage, and that caused solely by the yielding nature
of the tow used to fill out the places where the muscles formerly
rested. To an educated eye this defect is at once recognised by the
uneven contour of the cheeks, superciliary muscles, and various parts
of the limbs, and also by the generally "wooden" appearance of the
specimen.

The system on which I will now give a lesson is far more tedious in
i