CHAPTEE XXVI. 



MOUNTING FISHES. 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. Judging from specimens generally, 

 it would seem that taxidermists, the world over, either do not 

 know how to mount fish specimens with the same degree of ex- 

 cellence as mammals and birds, or else they are universally 

 slighted by intention. Certain it is, that in nearly every large 

 zoological museum the stuffed fishes are the least attractive, 

 and the least like life of all the vertebrates. In many instances 

 the reptiles are not far behind in unsightliness, although as a 

 rule they are a little more life-like than the fishes. In only one 

 natural history museum out of twenty-seven have I found a col- 

 lection of stuffed fishes which surpassed in number and quality 

 of specimens the collection of birds and mammals, and formed 

 the most attractive feature of the entire museum. That fish 

 collection is to be seen in the Government Museum at Madras, 

 India. 



The specimens were all mounted while fresh from the ocean, 

 which, of course, has been a great advantage to the taxidermist. 

 I was somewhat surprised to learn that the taxidermist in ques- 

 tion was an Indian native, named P. Anthony Pillay, because 

 East Indian natives are, almost without exception, very indif- 

 ferent taxidermists. 



None of the specimens are mounted on standards, but either 

 lie flat in table cases, or, if too large for that, hang against the 

 wall. The common scaly fishes always lie upon one side, usu- 

 ally the right, with tail curved upward. 



Mr. Pillay assured me that the exquisite smoothness of his 

 specimens was due to the use of silk cotton as a filling material, 

 plucked from the pod and cleaned by hand. His scale fishes 

 and sharks were very life-like, but his rays and ray-like Rhino- 



