ORNAMENTAL TAXIDERMY. 221 



ground up in a mortar to get it fine enough to use. If ground 

 too finely, it becomes a dull white powder, like marble dust, 

 and is useless. In order to give a glistening appearance to the 

 surface the particles must be large enough to reflect light. 

 Mica is of no use for this purpose. In making the snow that 

 covers the ground underneath the group of musk ox in the Na- 

 tional Museum, Mr. Joseph Palmer invented a compound com- 

 posed of the pulp of white blotting-paper, starch, and plaster 

 Paris, which made a white, fluffy-looking mass that could be 

 sprinkled over the ground by hand, and closely resembles a 

 light fall of snow. 



For the preparation of boughs of evergreens for use in 

 groups, so that the needles will not fall off the twigs, Mr. 

 Jenness Richardson, taxidermist to the American Museum of 

 Natural History, in New York, has, by long and patient ex- 

 perimenting, evolved a solution in which he actually effects 

 the complete preservation of coniferous foliage. When the 

 branches to be used have been put through this liquid and 

 dried, they are afterward painted, and are really as perfect as 

 when living on the parent stem. Mr. Richardson has kindly 

 put me in possession of the knowledge of his entire process, 

 but I am not at liberty to publish it at present. 



Painted Backgrounds. The beauty of a wall-case, or indeed 

 of any group in a flat case, is greatly enhanced by the addition 

 of a painted background of the proper character to represent 

 the home surroundings of the living creatures in front of it. 

 Of course the back must seem to be a harmonious continuation 

 of the bottom, where the real objects are. The tints of the 

 picture should be very quiet, and by no means gaudy or strik- 

 ing, and should not attract attention away from the zoological 

 specimens. The objects to be gained in a painted background 

 are distance, airiness, and, above all, a knowledge of the country 

 inhabited by the bird or mammal. As an example of the value 

 of a painted background in the production of a pleasing effect, 

 the reader is respectfully referred to a group the writer pro- 

 duced nine years ago, entitled " Coming to the Point," and now 

 in the National Museum (see Fig. 1, Plate XVI.). It is not 

 boasting to say that that simple group, composed of a white 

 setter dog, six partridges, a bush full of autumn-tinted leaves, 



