MOUNTING THE HIGHER VERTEBRATES. 109 



With the understanding 1 , therefore, that we are aiming at 

 perfection, and that " a little knowledge is a dangerous thing-," 

 we will endeavor to call attention to a few principles which 

 underlie all good work in taxidermy. At the same time I will 

 try to point out a few of the most common faults generally ob- 

 servable in mounted specimens. 



PERMANENCY. This is the foundation on which every speci- 

 men must be built in order to be first class. A preserved and 

 mounted animal that has not enough solidity and stability to 

 stand the test of time is unworthy of a place in any museum 

 or private residence, for its existence is sure to terminate 

 speedily in disappointment, disgust, and loss. During the last 

 eight years the National Museum and American Museum of 

 Natural History have thrown away and otherwise gotten rid of 

 enough stuffed specimens to stock a small museum, and all be- 

 cause of poor and unstable taxidermic work only twenty years 

 ago. 



A taxidermist who knows his business can mount a specimen 

 to last ten years or ten hundred, just as he chooses. If you, 

 like a certain taxidermist I once knew, believe in " quantity not 

 quality," then you, like him, can use small and weak support- 

 ing irons (" they work so much easier than heavy ones ! "), half 

 clean your skins and skulls, ram a skin full of excelsior, straw, 

 paper, and rubbish from your dirt-box, sew it up with long 

 stitches and cheap twine, cram its eyes and nostrils with nasty 

 putty, and insert the cheapest eyes obtainable. Then, while 

 the specimen may look passably well during its first six 

 months, by the end of two years its sides will be a succession 

 of hills and hollows, its seams will be ripped and gaping wide 

 open, its nose will be shrivelled up and shapeless, its ears will 

 look like dry autumn leaves ; it will lean over helplessly to one 

 side, and will also have settled down upon its feet until they 

 are shapeless deformities. 



This is no fancy picture, for it fairly represents the condi- 

 tion of many a buffalo, deer, and moose that I have been called 

 upon to either dismount, remount, or destroy. A dishonest 

 taxidermist may slight the interior work of a specimen and 

 have it escape detection for six months, or even a year, but 

 time soon tells the story. Dishonest or careless work, like 



