ORNAMENTAL TAXIDERMY. 



223 



four seasons, and it is only the very unscientific who need to 

 be informed that the blue-birds building- their nest are meant 

 to represent " Spring/' 



TABLE GROUPS. Veiy fine specimens are often furnished with 

 cases having- glass on all sides, including the top, permitting 

 inspection from all 

 points. Of course every 

 group of this kind re- 

 quires a small table for 

 its base. The most 

 striking table group I 

 have ever seen is one 

 that was prepared by 

 Mr. F. A. Lucas, en- 

 titled " An Interrupted 

 Dinner," and repre- 

 sented by Fig. 2, Plate 

 XVI. A red-tailed 

 hawk has just killed a 

 ruffed grouse, and has 

 scarcely begun his meal 

 when a goshawk 

 swoops down upon 

 him with outstretched 

 talons to seize the 

 quarry. The hawk has 



FIG. ST. Wall-case of Birds, bv Frederic A. Lucas. 



turned upon his back, 

 shielding his prey with 

 one wing, and with beak and talons " at full cock " is ready to 

 receive his assailant, who hovers in mid-air immediately above 

 him. The goshawk is supported on an invisible brass stand- 

 ard, which enters his body by way of the tail, and the illusion 

 is perfect. 



Mr. Frederic S. Webster has in his Washington studio a 

 table-case single specimen which is in every sense a master- 

 piece. It is very nearly a replica, but with a heron of a larg'-r 

 species, of his prize piece, " The Wounded Heron," represented 

 in Plate XVI., Fig. 5. A snowy heron lies on its back (on a 

 black velvet panel), its breast pierced by a gilt arrow, which 



