PLATE XVIII.Group of Coyotes. Mounted by the Author.
By a curious coincidence, within three years from the time the Society of American Taxidermists found its first group of birds so frowned upon by museum officers, the British Museum undertook the preparation of a large series of mounted groups of birds, with accessories both natural and manufactured. Precisely in line with our idea, these groups were intended to show the birds in their haunts, and, as far as possible, to show their nesting habits. Naturally enough they were produced with the care which such subjects merit, and the results aretruly admirable. When some of these groups were seen by the enterprising and far-sighted President of the Board of Trustees of the American Museum of Natural History, Mr. Morris K. Jesup, he immediately determined to have a series of bird groups prepared for the great institution he has for many years so ably directed. He engaged Mr. Jenness Richardson, then in the taxidermic department of the National Museum, and the work was begun in 1886. Mr. Richardson never saw any of the bird groups of the British Museum, and the work he has produced is as much his own as though the British Museum collection had never existed. Going as he did from the National Museum, the group idea was by no means new to him, and the seventy beautiful groups he has since produced stand as a lasting monument to his skill as a taxidermist, his artistic conception in designing, and his energy as a collector. No other feature in the entire Museum of Natural History at New York is so attractive and pleasing to the general public as are the groups of mounted birds.
Thereare several vital principles which apply to all kinds ofgroups, both large and small, and we must consider these before proceeding to discuss the different kinds of groups.
Specimens.—The specimens selected to compose a group should by all means be the finest procurable. It is a mistake to go to the trouble and expense of mounting a number of specimens in a group unless each object is entirely satisfactory in quality. If the group is to represent a family, let the old male and female specimens be of the largest size, and with the finest possible pelage or plumage, as the case may be. Do not begin the mounting of a group until you have in hand a series of specimens that is entirely satisfactory. Let them be so fine that their quality will be remarked by all observers. It will then be a pleasure to lavish work upon them. Even if you should mount a specimen and afterward discover that it is inferior, discard it by all means in favor of a better one. A large group of either mammals or birds represents a very considerable outlay in money and time, and unless the quality of the specimens is above criticism, the group is by no means a success. I have found that it is a work of from one to two years' time to procure the specimens necessary for a complete group of large mammals of any kind.
The best of all ways to procure specimens for groups is to go into the field, find them in their haunts, study them alive, study their habitat and their habits; shoot, measure, and preserve them with your own hands. If you are unable to do this yourself, then it must be done for you by some competent person, under your direction. In procuring young animals, which are very necessary in nearly all groups for scientific purposes, the greatest vigilance is required to enable the collector to secure the specimens just when they reach the right age and size.
Design.—When you have determined to prepare a group of a certain species, study the character and size of the subjects to compose it, and then begin by sketching, to the best of your ability, a design in which each specimen shall have its place and attitude. In the preparation of large groups, I have always found the satisfactory arrangement of the specimens the most puzzling and perplexing feature of the work. But however difficult it may be to satisfy myself with a design, I never proceed with a group until the composition of my sketch group is satisfactory. The two largest and finest specimens in a group should constitute its central and commanding figures. Put as little life as possible in the corners of a group, and by all means make the specimens show an interest in, and a relation to, each other. The design must be dominated by one central idea or purpose, which should never be lost sight of in the arrangement of the group. It is unnecessary to say that each group should form a perfect picture, compact, well rounded, and the relationship of the different specimens to each other should be so clearly defined as to leave no room for the suggestion that the specimens have been mounted independently, and simply placed together.
Space.—No matter how small or large a group may be, to be perfect in effect it must have abundant case-room. Let there be some room to spare in the corners and above the group. The top of the case should by all means be of glass. An airy, light, out-door effect can not be secured in a small, cramped cage, in which the specimens appear like caged circus animals. If you wish to have your specimens look alive, and as if they are really on their native heath, they must not be "cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd."
Accessories.—Although poor accessories are better than none, you will, of course, have them all as nearly perfect as possible. Spare neither time, trouble, nor expense in procuring the finest collection of accessories that you can possibly gather. Do not think you must be satisfied with the first that comes to hand, but search far and wide until you have obtained preciselywhat you want. Do not be too lavish in the use of accessory material. Remember that enough is as good as a feast, and too much is good for nothing. There are two principles, either one of which can govern you in your selection of accessory material. One is to select a given spot of ground of precisely the same area as the section you propose to use as the groundwork of your group, and reproduce only such materials as are found on that particular square of mother earth. This is the idea which has been strictly followed in the preparation of the groups of birds in the American Museum of Natural History by Mr. Richardson. I hold to a different principle. I believe that it is best to select from a given locality such material as will best representan ideal section of the country to be represented as the habitat of the group. Of course, it is necessary to exercise care not to bring together too great an assortment of materials. By acting on this principle we secure a limited selection of the most common and familiar species of plants in a given locality, and at the same time have the advantage of arranging them for the best artistic effect on the ground which has been prepared to accommodate the group according to the design. With small groups, in which a nest or burrow is to be represented, it is an easy and simple matter to reproduce the exact situation in which the home of the animal was situated. In the preparation of large groups this is a practicable impossibility.
Special Exhibition Groups.—To this class properly belongs such subjects as Verreaux's "Arab Courier attacked by Lions;" Edwin Ward's "Lion and Tiger Struggle;" and the two groups, "Lions Fighting" and "Horseman attacked by Tigers," prepared by John Wallace, of New York. Such groups are bold in design, theatrical in effect, and each one is supposed to represent atour de forceon the part of the originator. They are valuable for great expositions, for show-windows, fairs, crystal palaces, and the like. For such purposes the more startling they are, the better. Animals are usually chosen which will admit of a representation of vigorous action. The most favorite theme is large animals in combat. He who has the boldness to introduce the human form divine in such a composition will oftener than otherwise have occasion to wishhe hadn't. The human figure is, at best, a difficult subject to handle, and in its introduction with mounted quadrupeds the designer often finds, to his sorrow, how very short is the step from the sublime to the ridiculous. In general I should say that the human figure is an excellent thing to leave out of a group of mounted quadrupeds, unless it happens to be an Esquimau completely enveloped in thick furs. In the preparation of groups of this class, the ambitious taxidermist has before him almost as great a variety of subjects as has the sculptor, since his work is subject to precisely the same general rules.
Grouping Small Mammals.—Since our small mammals cannot migrate south in winter, as do the birds, each species must provide itself with a winter home, or perish. The nesting and burrowing habits of these builders of "homes without hands" afford a most interesting field for investigation and study, and one which is of great interest to everyone. Almost without exception, every mammalian species found in the United States below the size of the coyote, establishes for itself during a part, if not the whole, of the year, a fixed habitation. Some of the more enterprising species, notably the squirrels and rabbits, enjoy the luxury of a summer residence as well as a winter home. The groups of small mammals which the National Museum is now producing and placing upon exhibition have for one of their principal features the illustration of the homemaking habits of the species represented. A mention of one or two examples will serve to convey an idea of the type of each class.
A group of American opossums may be taken as a good example. The case which encloses the entire group is 4 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 3 feet high. The frame of the case is as light as possible, and all four sides and the top are of glass. On the side of a sloping bank stands the base of a small gum-tree, with the roots on the lower side exposed by the crumbling away of the bank. Of course the trunk rises to the top of the case, where it is cut squarely off. At the bottom of the sloping bank, between two of the roots, is an opening, which is recognized at once as the doorway to the opossum's home. The burrow winds upward between the roots of the tree, and finally turns off to the left into the bank, where, afterrunning through a passage-way of two or three feet in length, the nest itself is found. It is in a pocket-like excavation, and a circular section is cut out of the front of the bank so as to make an opening through which the nest can be seen. The nest is lined with dead leaves, in which lies an opossum curled up and sound asleep. At the back of the case a sectional view of the bank is represented, and by means of an opening cut here and there, the course of the burrow is plainly seen. In the foreground is an old mother opossum with several young ones riding on her back, clinging to her gray coat, while the head of another protrudes from her pouch. This represents the manner in which the opossum carries her young after they have reached a certain age. From a small branch hangs another opossum, suspended by its prehensile tail, sprawling in mid-air. This specimen is a female, and shows the size and location of the wonderful marsupial pouch. Another individual is climbing up the trunk of the tree. A fourth specimen, which has been disturbed by another, is pausing to protest with widely opened mouth, while in the act of creeping into the mouth of the burrow.
Please notice the number of facts that are taught by this simple little group. It shows that the opossum is a marsupial, and the female carries her young in a pouch in her own body; that when the young reach a certain age, they ride upon the mother's back, clinging to her fur; that the animal is arboreal in habit, and has a prehensile tail, by which it is capable of suspending itself; that it burrows in banks in dry situations, and sleeps curled up like a ball in a bed of dry leaves. It also shows the full size of the adult, the young of the previous year, and the recent brood. But for an unfortunate accident, which has yet to be repaired, it would also show the number born at one birth. Of course in this group the grass and moss is properly represented, and there are artificial leaves on the tree branches which enter the group.
Groups of this class can easily be made to show the ordinary nesting and breeding habits of the animals represented. Now it happens that animals of some species make a variety of nests, according to circumstances or caprice. In 1889 we prepared a group in three sections, each of which shows one of the habits ofthe gray squirrel in nesting. Each is composed of an actual nest, and in the identical tree in which it was built by Bunny himself. One represents a nest in a hollow beech tree, in which a pair of gray squirrels bred for years. Another is what might be called a summer nest, made of cedar bark, in the top of a cedar tree. It is a round ball, and in size and shape much resembles a hornet's nest. The third section represents an outside nest of green oak-leaves, placed on a branch of an oak tree. These three groups are exhibited in one case, but while each is separated from the others by a plate of heavy tinted glass, it is made apparent that they all illustrate the habits of the same animal. The specimens composing the three groups were all collected within a radius of ten miles of the city of Washington. Besides teaching what the nesting habits of the gray squirrel are, it also impresses upon the observer the very important fact that the habits of different individuals of a given species are capable of wide variation. They show how dangerous it is for a student or scientific investigator to generalize too freely from one or two facts, and that it is dangerous for anyone to say what an animal willnotdo!
In beginning the preparation of small mammal groups (for a museum) the following hints may be of service: It is not necessary that a small group should be designed and sketched out in advance. The first step, therefore, is the finding of a typical family of specimens, and a suitable burrow or nest. The character of the creature's home will largely determine the design of your group. By all means endeavor to secure a nest or burrow which can be fitly shown as a typical home of the creature represented.
When the nest of an animal is situated in a tree, it is nearly always possible to cut out a section of the tree, and introduce it bodily into your case, with appropriate leaf settings. When an animal burrows in the ground, as do the fox and the woodchuck, the best that can be done is to dig out the spot carefully, taking measurements and diagrams as you proceed, to show the direction and size of the entrance and the exact shape and size of the nest. You can then manufacture a bank and reproduce a perfect fac-simile. Of course all the nest materials—refuse bones, hair, and feathers—must be taken along bodily, and used in the manufactured nest.
In displaying a portion of a tree-trunk which contains a nest, it has been our custom to saw out a rectangular section at one side of the hollow, and hang the piece on hinges at one side of the opening, like an open door, so that the entire interior and the situation of the nest can be seen. Of course it is in order to place a number of the young specimens in the nest in characteristic attitudes.
When you have collected a number of young specimens, mount them at once while the forms and attitudes are fresh in your mind and the skins are in good condition. If you are lucky enough to get the young alive, you can mount some of the skins while the others serve as living models.
Now comes an important point. It usually happens that at the time when the young are of the best age to display in a group, the fur of the adult specimen is at its poorest. Worse than that, shedding is often in progress. No matter what hypercritics may say, do not hesitate to perpetrate an anachronism by takingadultspecimens later in the season, when their fur is at its best. It would be an injustice to the group, to the species, and to yourself, to include adult specimens in their poorest pelage. Along with your groups of young animals, which necessarily represent conditions during spring or summer, do not forget to represent some of your species in their winter homes, with their stores of nuts, acorns, etc., for winter use.
The field open to the conscientious and really artistic taxidermist in the preparation of groups is a wide and deeply interesting one. I know of no branch of taxidermy which ought to be more interesting than this. Its possibilities are open to all. While it is impossible for everyone to prepare groups of large mammals, in the matter of small groups you can say, "The world's mine oyster."
Groups of Large Mammals.—In creating a high-class group of large mammals, it is, as has been stated before, extremely desirable to prepare the design first, and collect the specimens to suit it. There is no burrow or nest to reproduce, and this course is not only possible, but usually very necessary.
There is one important fact which should never be lost sight of in the preparation of a design for a group of large quadrupeds. If the animals are purely terrestrial, as will be the casein nearly all large groups, the largest and finest adult male and female should each stand on a flat and horizontal surface, in easy and conventional attitudes. This is necessary in order that the form, height, and back outline of each of the typical adult specimens can be studied by the technical zoologist with as much certainty and accuracy as any ordinary case specimen standing on a flat pedestal of hard wood. To illustrate the point: If the huge bull bison in our large group had been put walking up hill, or walking down hill, it would now be practically impossible for anyone wishing to draw a picture of him to accurately determine the precise angle of his hump. Furthermore, his height at the shoulders would be either exaggerated or diminished, almost unavoidably. As it is, he was with deliberate intention mounted on a flat and horizontal surface, as was the cow also, so that even though they are in a group they lose nothing whatever of their value to the technical zoologist, who demands that all specimens shall be mounted on flat surfaces, and in conventional attitudes for the sake of comparison. Having done this much for pure science, we are at liberty to vary the attitudes of the remaining specimens of the group.
In a museum group suppress all tendency to the development of violent action on the part of your specimens. In a well-regulated museum no fighting is allowed. Represent every-day, peaceful, home scenes in the lives of your animals. Seek not to startle and appal the beholder, but rather to interest and instruct him. Surely there are enough quiet and peaceful attitudes to supply all your specimens without exhausting the stock. Let them be feeding, walking, climbing up, lying down, standing on the alert, playing with each other, or sleepily ruminating—in fact, anything but fighting, leaping, and running. If you do not happen to know the habits of the animals which form the subject of your group, and it is impossible for you to learn them by observation, then must you throw aside all reserve, and appeal to some one who has seen and studied them in their haunts.
It is no child's play to prepare a group of large mammals. It invariably costs several hundreds of dollars, perhaps even thousands, and the work is supposed to last a century or longer. Judge, therefore, how important it is that every detail of thework should be absolutely above criticism. If you mount such a group in haste, you are certain to repent at leisure.
Having prepared your design, collected your specimens, and made all your studies for the entire group, the next step, of course, is mounting each individual specimen. It is an excellent plan, and one which we have found particularly satisfactory in grouping ruminants, to prepare all the manikins before putting any skin on permanently. We begin with the most important specimen. By mounting the manikins one by one, and grouping them, we are able to secure the precise artistic effect that was intended in our design. The grouping of the naked manikins from time to time enables you to eliminate errors, and make such changes in the attitudes as the eye may suggest.
A few facts in relation to the work done in setting up the buffalo group will serve as a fair index to work of this kind. Of course it is to be understood that every case is to have a wooden floor, and that one end can be opened bodily. Each of our buffaloes stood on a strong, thick base by itself, a rough pedestal, in fact, of a very substantial character. With pine boards we built a miniature hill, on which stands the spike bull, placed him upon it, and fastened him there permanently. The final work of arrangement was not undertaken until a trial grouping in the case had been satisfactorily made, and the exact position of each specimen definitely settled. A hole was cut in the bottom of the case, to give depth to the pool of water. The bottom of this pool was carefully modeled in papier-maché, and painted. The specimens standing farthest from the end containing the doors were first put in place, and the groundwork built up around them. The face of the cut bank was made by nailing wire cloth to a skeleton framework of boards, and covering this with a coarse sort of papier-maché, made of sawdust, plaster Paris, glue, and hair, and used in large quantities. As fast as a specimen was put in place and fastened, the rough groundwork of boards was covered with the papier-maché composition to make a perfectly smooth foundation to receive the prairie sod. From first to last, between three and four barrels of this coarse papier-maché was used. It was made to set quickly, and the modelingwhich was done on the surface of the cut bank, and in the bed of the stream, was done as soon as the soft material was put on. The surface of the pool was represented by a sheet of plate glass, a quarter of an inch thick. The entire groundwork of the case was covered with genuine prairie sod, each piece about one inch thick and a foot square, cut on the buffalo range in Montana, and shipped in barrels to Washington.
When this sod became perfectly dry, it lost all color and had the appearance of cured hay. In order to give it the right tone, it was necessary to spray it with a thin mixture of green paint in turpentine, to impart to it a pale green tint. As soon as the papier-maché was dry, the sod was cut neatly, matched carefully, and laid upon it—the joints being skilfully closed. A number of clumps of sage brush and bunches of broom sedge, grubbed up in Montana and carefully dried, were set here and there through the group. A bed of cactus was also introduced in the foreground. The sage brush required no preparation except to pack it carefully, and dry it after it reached Washington, with the branches in position. The leaves were of the right color when dry, and remained attached to the stems. Montana dirt was used in the bottom of the buffalo trail, and on the side of the cut bank. A few buffalo bones were stuck in the side of the bank to represent fossil bones as they are often seen protruding from the faces of cut banks in Montana. While the papier-maché around the edge of the pool was yet soft, tracks were made in it with genuine buffalo hoofs of various sizes, and many more tracks were made in the dust in the bottom of the buffalo trail. Of all the accessories in the buffalo case, everything in sight came from the Montana buffalo range, except the sheet of glass forming the surface of the pool.
PLATE XIX.Drawn by C.B. Hudson.Group of American Bison in the NationalMuseum.—Collected and Mounted by the Author.
The last six months of my connection with the National Museum witnessed the completion of the great group of moose, which we began in 1889. In size and general make-up it is a companion piece to the group of buffaloes, and is a memorial worthy of the colossal species it represents. The setting represents a section of the moose woods of Upper Canada, in which the larger animals are browsing on the tender twigs of the white birch. The animals have come together at the edge of a bog, which is growing full of a gigantic species of grayishmoss, peculiar to that locality. The time represented is the middle of autumn. The few leaves that remain on the maple saplings have been painted with October's most gorgeous tints of crimson and yellow, mixed with green, and the leaves of the white birch have turned pale yellow. The ground is plentifully strewn with leaves of bright tints, through which the green moss of moist banks shows in patches here and there.
Of the animals, the three largest—and huge beasts they are, truly—are feeding upon the birch twigs. A yearling calf is licking the head of a tiny brown-coated younger brother, while a two-year-old bull is in the act of "riding down" a stout birch sapling in order to get at the branches of its top, which would otherwise be beyond his reach.
Three of these fine specimens were collected by Colonel Cecil Clay, of Washington, and by him presented to the Museum for this group, together with the trees, moss, and other accessories, which he collected with infinite labor and care in the moose woods. He also furnished us with field notes and critical advice throughout, which had much to do in making the group what it is—a monument to Colonel Clay's skill and prowess as a sportsman, and to his deep interest inAlces malchis. It is to be sincerely hoped that other sportsmen will follow the Colonel's admirable example, and aid the museums in which they are most interested to secure some attractive groups.
The moose group was followed immediately by the group of musk-oxen, and there are others of Rocky Mountain goat, mountain sheep, and sea-lions in course of preparation.
Theprinciples which underlie the production of successfulgroups of birds are precisely the same as those which have already been set forth under the head of "Groups of Small Mammals." In addition, however, there is another which should be kept constantly in mind, viz., to guard against the temptation to permit the accessories of a group to completely overshadow, and, I might say, overwhelm, the specimens themselves. Be careful to make the birds conspicuous, and to avoid the appearance of an exhibit of artificial plants and flowers, instead of mounted birds.
Of course each species must be represented by itself in a case which shall contain its nest, displayed in the identical bough, or bunch of grass, or hole in the bank which it occupied when found by the collector. Except when a nest is situated in a bank of earth, the collector should cut a square section out of nature, of the proper dimensions for casing, and convey bodily the nest and its situation to the museum. Occasionally circumstances will prevent this, when it becomes necessary to collect the nest and the material surrounding it, so that with their aid the situation of the nest can be built up in the laboratory.
The finest groups of birds to be found in this country are those in the American Museum of Natural History in New York, which are the work of Mr. Jenness Richardson. At present (1891) the series consists of groups composed almost wholly of species found in the State of New York. Each group, except in a few instances, occupies a light, iron-framed case by itself, and stands on an ebonized table-base, raised on legs about eighteen inches from the floor. The framework of the case, and the wood-work of the base is painted black. When the home ofa ground-nesting bird is shown, a section has been cut from mother earth, placed on the base as the foundation, and all the perishable plants growing thereon have been carefully reproduced in wax by casting, and put back in place.
Where a nest was situated in a low bush, the bush and its foliage, and the ground beneath have all been included in its transfer. When a nest was placed on the end of a bough, the difficulty has been surmounted very satisfactorily by cutting off as much of the bough as could be put in the case, then reproducing, on the bottom of the case, the ground exactly as it was under the tree, and simply laying carelessly upon it the cut branch containing the nest and the birds. Of course watery situations call for the introduction of the plate-glass imitation.
The feature of these groups that is so pleasing is that each one appears to have been cut out of its place in field or forest, and brought to the museum within an hour. The life-like birds, the earth and water, the natural wood, and the beautiful foliage of spring combine to impart to each group the breezy freshness of the forest, the very soul of Nature all unchanged.
To see these charming productions, fresh from the hand of a true artist-naturalist, and lay aside the spirit of carping criticism which would find fault with even a heavenly harp, is the next thing to finding one's self in the actual haunts of our native birds, with their songs trilling in our ears. Mr. Richardson's groups lack but one thing—the song of the birds. They are so many pretty pages from Nature's choicest book, and actually bring the life of the forest into the otherwise dead and silent museum hall.
The time will yet come when our wealthy lovers of art and animated nature will find places in their houses for such groups as these, and the money to pay for them will be forthcoming. At present they are tired of the old-fashioned glass "shade," covering a stiff and utterly unnatural pyramid of small stuffed birds on an impossible "tree." The old-fashioned wall-case of birds also fails to satisfy the æsthete, for the simple reason that something better is wanted. We are all ready to step up to a higher plane.
Groups of Reptiles.—I know of but one good group of reptiles, and that is a group of turtles which was prepared by Mr.F.A. Lucas, and displayed at the exhibition of the S.A.T., in New York, in 1883, where it received a medal, and afterward was presented by him to the National Museum. This altogether unique and pretty group teaches one very important lesson, viz., that even the most commonplace animals are interesting when they are well mounted, and grouped with a setting which represents their natural haunts. Some of the specimens in this group are represented above water, and some beneath it, while one enterprising individual is caught in the act of diving, with part of his body under water and the other half out. The situation represents the successful accomplishment of a very neat mechanical feat, and is of itself an illustration of the possibilities in such matters.
After the quadrupeds of North America have been gathered and grouped until there remain in that direction no more worlds to conquer, it will be quite in order for our enterprising taxidermists then to proceed to the mounting of groups of reptiles.
There are possibilities with such subjects as the crocodiles, iguanas, lizards of various kinds, serpents, and turtles that few dream of. Already Professor Goode has under consideration the production of a series of reptilian groups for the National Museum, and within a short time the work will be undertaken.
Inthe preparation of museum specimens in general there is,from first to last, a great deal of painting to be done, and a knowledge of how to paint specimens properly is quite as necessary as a knowledge of how to mount them.
Materials Necessary for General Work.
Windsor & Newton's Tube Colors, as follows:
Ivory black, 8 cts.;Vandyke brown, 8 cts.;Burnt sienna, 8 cts.;Raw sienna, 8 cts.;Burnt umber, 8 cts.;Raw umber, 8 cts.;Naples yellow, 8 cts.;Chrome yellow, 8 cts.;Yellow ochre, 8 cts.;Indigo, 8 cts.;Indian red, 8 cts.;Vermilion, 15 cts.;Flake white, 8 cts.;Sugar of lead, 8 cts.
For coarse work, all these colors, except the finer ones, should be bought in one-pound cans, ground in oil. In addition to colors ground in oil, it is extremely desirable to have from one to two pounds of each of the following:
Dry Colors, and Cost per Pound.
Zinc white 10 cts.Vandyke brown 15 cts.Chrome yellow 25 cts.Lamp-black 35 cts.Plumbago 10 cts.Raw sienna 15 cts.Burnt umber 15 cts.Raw umber 15 cts.Burnt sienna 15 cts.
To the enterprising taxidermist a few dollars judiciously expended in such materials as the above are bread cast upon the waters, that will be sure to return to him before many days, buttered on both sides.
No matter what it costs, have the right kind of brushes, and a good assortment of coloring materials. Do not try to "get along" with whatever you happen to have, if it happens to be not the right thing. Don't try to paint fish scales with a sash tool, or delicate fin-rays with a fitch. Use for such purposes delicate, little sable pencils (flat), Nos. 1 to 4. Take good care of them after use, wash them out with soap and water, or benzine, and keep them in good working order by keeping them clean and soft. Do not let the colors on your palette get in a nasty mess, fit to turn an artist's stomach inside out, but keep your palette clean and in good order. Take from the tubes only as much color as you are likely to use. Keep the centre of your palette free from masses of color, so that you can have that space for mixing.
Only those who have first been taught the slipshod ways of the slouch, and afterward learned the methods of the artist, can realize the advantages in favor of the latter as revealed in results.
General Principles.—The skins and fleshy parts of all mammals and birds become shrunken, mummified and colorless when dry, and if not covered with hair or feathers require to be painted with the colors which have disappeared. As to what the colors should be, the taxidermist must learn by observation from living specimens, or those freshly killed, or from good colored illustrations.
Surface.—Whatever the subject to be painted, the first care is to see that the surface is properly prepared to receive the color. If it be skin, it must be perfectly clean, and free from dirt, dust, or loose scales. If a skin has any sort of powdery deposit upon it, it must be scraped clean with a knife. Holes and seams must be filled up with papier-maché, long enough in advance that it will have time to dry. Papier-maché which is to be painted should always be given two coats of white shellac, mixed rather thin, before putting on any paint. If this is not done, the maché will absorb two or three coats of paint, like a sponge, and the surface will dry perfectly dead.
Gloss.—The colors on terrestrial mammals and birds (except the mouth parts and noses of the former) are very seldom, if ever, what may be called glossy. The mouth parts of mammals, or at least such as are wet by the animal's saliva, are always glossy, as also are the edges of the eyelids, and the bare end of the nose in ruminants.
To give paint a perpetual gloss, like varnish, use colors ground in oil, and mixed with boiled linseed oil only when applied.
To give paint a faint gloss, use colors ground in oil, and mix with a mixture of boiled linseed oil and turpentine, equal parts.
To have paint dry without gloss, mix with turpentine only when it is applied.
To have paint dry flat and dead, use dry colors, and mix with turpentine.
To make paint dry quickly and be very hard, mix with it a little sugar of lead (ground in oil) fresh from the tube.
To paint the skin of an animal, and yet make it look as if the skin contained the color instead of bearing it upon its surface, use oil colors, mix with boiled linseed oil and turpentine, equal parts, and apply. When the paint isbeginningto dry, so that it is sticky, take some dry color of a corresponding tint, dip into it a clean, dry, square-ended bristle brush of good size, and twirl it about until it becomes filled with the dry powder, then, with light and delicate strokes, apply it directly upon the painted surface so that the dry color will fall upon the wet paint like a shower of colored dust. This is to be done with the motion that painters use in "stippling," and may very well be done with a stippling brush, if you have one. Do not get on too much of the dry color, or the effect will be spoiled. Your eye must teach you when to stop. In this process of stippling dry color into wet paint, plaster Paris may very frequently be used to good advantage to deaden gloss, and soften effects. In coloring the hairless portions of the faces, hands, etc., of apes, baboons, and monkeys, and on many other subjects, this process is of very great value.
Blending Colors.—If two colors are laid down, one against the other, each in a solid mass, up to the imaginary line that lies between them, the effect is hard and unpleasing, because unnatural. Nature never joins two contrasting-colors without a blending together and softening of the two tones where they touch each other. If it be red and brown, the red merges a little way into the brown, imperceptibly, perhaps, and the line of demarcation between the two is thus softened, and naturalized, if you please. Therefore, in your painting have no hard lines where your colors meet, but always blend adjoining colors together by passing a small brush over the line where they meet.
Strength of Tones.—The colors that Nature puts on an animal are not hard, crude, and staring, like bright red in the mouth of a mounted quadruped, but they arealways in harmony with the other parts of the object. A bird may have yellow legs, but if it does, you may be sure they will not be a bright, glossy, chrome yellow, so gaudy as to instantly catch the eye. The chances are, they will be Naples yellow, with only a tinge of chrome. Learn to soften tints so they will not be staring, gaudy, and offensive to the eye. Examine the tongue of a live tiger or lion, and you will notice its color is a pale pink.
In all painting, study the harmony of colors, the strength of tones, and the blending of tints. Do not get your colors too gaudy, too sharply contrasted, nor laid on roughly; but paint evenly, and keep all your colors in perfect harmony.
Painting the Skin of Thinly Haired Mammals.—It very often happens that the skin of a thin-haired mammal has a decided color of its own, which must be imparted to it by painting. This is particularly the case with our next of kin—the apes and monkeys. The orang utan has a chocolate-colored skin, except the old males, in which it is black; the mona monkey has a bluish skin, and the faces of nearly all primates require painting. To paint a skin through thin hair, use oil colors mixed with turpentine, and made so thin that the mixture runs over the skin as soon as it touches it, like water. By separating the hair, it is often possible to get the paint on the skin without saturating the hair save at its roots; but if the turpentine color does get on the hair it must be sponged off with benzine. Do not mix your colors with oil, or you will get into serious trouble; but the oil in which the tube color has been ground will be just sufficient to give a natural tone to the skin. If the color whenput on appears too strong and conspicuous, stipple the surface with a little plaster Paris, to tone it down.
Painting Legs and Beaks of Birds.—Paint the legs and beaks of such birds as require it, with a mixture of boiled linseed oil and turpentine, equal parts of each, and have your paint thin enough on the legs that it will not obscure the scales. On the beak, a thicker coat is necessary, and, in fact, it is nearly always necessary to put on two coats. In coloring the beaks of toucans and hornbills, blend adjoining colors very deeply but evenly, and let there be no hard boundary lines anywhere. A little white wax softened and cut with turpentine and mixed with the paint on a bird's beak gives the color a depth and transparency quite similar to the appearance of the beak of a living bird.
Painting Mounted Fishes.—A fish must be perfectly dry before it is touched with a brush. Time spent in painting a half-dry specimen is so much thrown away. The repairs with papier-maché must be complete and dry, and the specimen perfectly clean. Nearly every fish possesses in its coloring pigment a quality which imparts to it a silvery, metallic lustre; therefore, to secure the finest result attainable in painting a fish, either an actual specimen or a plaster cast, all those that are silvery must first be coated over the entire scaly surface with nickel leaf, laid on sizing, similar to the treatment of gold leaf in gilding.
With dark-colored fishes satisfactory work may be done without the use of nickel leaf, except on the under parts, which are nearly always silvery white. It is absolutely impossible to reproduce the brilliant lustre so characteristic of white scales by the use of white paint alone, or even silver bronze, or silver paint. Without the nickel underneath the paint looks dead and artificial. If you are called upon to make a large collection with as little outlay as possible, it will be sufficient to omit the nickel leaf, for your paint will still faithfully record the colors. But if you wish to have your fish look as brilliantly beautiful as when taken struggling from the water, put on the leaf first, and paint on it,thinly, so that the silver will show through your colors and impart to them the desired lustre. If you paint too thickly, the leaf will be covered up, and its lustre obscured.
Do not attempt to use silver bronze, silver paint, or evensilver leaf, for nickel leaf is the only substance which has sufficient lustreand will not oxidize, and turn yellow.
If the whole body of a fish is dark, and without silvery tints, it is, of course, unnecessary to use leaf, for the lustre can be obtained by varnishing over the paint.
In many fishes, such as the scaled carp, for example, Marsching's gold paint or Japanese gold can be used directly on the scales (afterthe entire fish has had a thin coat of Hendley's enamel varnish), and the silver paint can be used to good effect in edging the scales. On the belly, however, which is silvery white, nickel leaf must be used. The heads of most fishes are so dark as to render the use of leaf unnecessary upon them, and of course it need not be used on the fins.
Painting Plaster Casts of Fishes, Reptiles, Etc.—When a cast is first taken from the mould, it will nearly always be found that its surface is pitted here and there with little round holes caused by air-bubbles. The process of wetting the inside of these holes, and carefully filling each one with mixed plaster Paris is called "pointing up" a cast. After this has been carefully done, and the form and surface of the white cast is perfect, if the cast is thoroughly dry we are ready to begin to paint it, and proceed as described in the preceding section.
In case you find it impossible to use nickel leaf on your fishes, you can do very good work without it, except that the silvery parts will not be really silvery, and the white paint put on will gradually turn yellow with age. After you have given the specimen a good coat of colors (using zinc white for the silvery parts, because it is more permanent than other whites), varnish the specimen all over with a kind of heavy white varnish called Siccatif de Harlem, or, lacking that, enamel varnish. This will dry in about twenty minutes, after which paint the object over again, this time with extreme care in the final touches. In painting fishes and reptiles, there is a vast amount of detail to be wrought out, and constant blending of colors. On many fishes each scale must be marked off and painted separately. In blending the edges of two adjoining colors, it must be done with a clean brush—a small one, of course—with either a quick, nervous motion along the line of contact, or else a steady sweep, according to circumstances. When the brush gets fullof paint, wash it out in benzine (notturpentine), because it quickly becomes clean, and dries perfectly in a moment.
The eyes of fishes and reptiles are so peculiar, and vary so exceedingly, that it is a practical impossibility to provide glass eyes that will be exactly right for each species. For fishes, as good a way as any is to let the eye be castin situ, and when you paint the fish, paint the eye also as it should be, and when dry, varnish it over with a thick coat of soluble glass or enamel varnish.
Theprocesses employed in making plaster Paris moulds and casts are very simple, and easily learned, even by one who hashad no previous knowledge of the subject. To be sure, a certain degree of intelligence and skill is necessary in the operator; but we are not writing for the edification of duffers who do not know how to use their hands, or follow plain directions.
The first thing to understand is the difference between a mould that will "draw," and one that will not. A mould may be made on one side of a base-ball, and it will draw off the object at once, because there is no point on the ball behind which, or under which, the plaster can catch, and hang fast until something breaks. A mould of one full side of an apple will not draw, because the apple has a hollow at each end, and when these are set full of plaster the mould and the apple are held firmly together.
A hollow or a protuberance on an object which would prevent a mould from drawing away makes what is called an "undercut," and necessitates the making of a separate piece in the mould. To cast several copies of a human head and neck necessitates the making of a mould in several pieces, all fitting very nicely together, with countersink joints, to accommodate the undercuts behind the ears, under the chin, the hollows of the eyes, etc.
A mould made in more than two pieces is called a "piecemould." It may have any number of pieces, of course, according to the nature of the object. Perhaps the most remarkable piece mould in existence is that used by Professor H.A. Ward in making casts of the tail of the great fossil armadillo called the glyptodon. The tail is a mass of big conical tubercles, and the mould contains, as nearly as I can remember, about one hundred and twenty-five pieces, all fitting into a big "jacket" of plaster which holds them all in place while a cast is being made. In the case of a piece mould the cast is not taken out of the mould, but the latter is dissected and taken off the cast, piece by piece.
The principles involved in making moulds and casts are best explained by brief descriptions of the processes, and if they are learned by carefully following the directions here given, the operator will be able to apply them, indefinitely, to all classes of objects, large or small.
How to Make a Piece Mould.—Let us take a good-sized apple as our subject, and follow out the process, step by step.
1. In making a mould of any kind of fruit, first soak the fruit in water an hour or two, to "plump it up," so that it will not swell in the mould and cause trouble.
2. Wipe it dry, and with a small paint-brush give it a thin coat of lard oil, so that the plaster will not stick to it. Some objects should be coated with clay water, or very thin clay, instead of oil.