Fill the neck first, using your wooden filler, then the body. If the body threatens to be too small, fill that first. Before going far, fill out the hind-quarters properly. Work on the body _all over at the same time_, and do not finish one-half of the animal before you have touched the other half, for this course would get you into endless trouble.
[Illustration: PLATE VI. INTERIOR MECHANISM OF A HALF-MOUNTED WOLF.]
Having filled the body full, and shaped it the best you can, and sewn it up at all points save two,--a hole between the forelegs and one under the tail,--now put it in final position on its pedestal, and fasten it there. Having done this and surveyed the scene, you will observe that the form of the animal is very faulty, and the skin not nearly full enough. Something more must be done.
Unless the specimen is a seal, or something else with short, close hair, part the hair carefully and make a long, perpendicular slit in the skin behind each foreleg and in each flank, as shown in Plate III., I-I, and K-K. Through these openings you can introduce your metal filling tools, and also filling materials _ad libitum_, and give the interior a complete overhauling. You can easily push your iron filler through the straw, and raise the line of the back, shoulders, or hind-quarters, and lower the line of the breast and abdomen until both are right. Then, fill with more straw, or tow, if you like now. Through these holes you command the entire body of the animal at every point, and now you must work out your own salvation. When all is finished and the body is quite full and solid, sew up the openings carefully, and unite the hair over them so that they will be hidden. If you are careless in filling, and pull out a lot of hair around each of the openings, so much the worse for you.
For full instructions in regard to work on heads, see a special chapter.
[Illustration: FIG. 30.--Fillers of Various Kinds, One-sixth Actual Size. _a_, Filler of hard wood, 3 ft. long (another should be 2 ft. long); _b_, filler of steel, 5/16 inch x 3 ft. for long reaches in large mammals; _c_, filler of iron, 3/8 inch x 2-1/2 ft., for heavy work (another should be 18 in. long); _d_, filler of brass, or galvanized iron wire, No. 5, for light work (another should be still smaller, for very fine work).]