224 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. 



the wounded bird has seized with its right foot, and is endeav- 

 oring to withdraw. The subject is a difficult one, and its 

 treatment in every detail is masterly. 



DEAD-GAME PANELS. Game birds of all kinds particularly 

 the handsomest ducks, geese, grouse, woodcock, and snipe- 

 made to represent bunches of dead game, are very popular as 

 dining-room ornaments, and during the last ten years the taxi- 

 dermists of this country have produced thousands of them, 

 many of great beauty. In regard to their proper make-up I 

 will offer a few suggestions. 



While the bird is yet warm, or at least relaxed, hang it up by 

 one leg, pose it carefully, and mark out its outline on paper. 

 See that the bird hangs like a dead bird, and not like a stuffed 

 bird. In mounting the skin, make the body flat rather than 

 round, and have the eyes three-quarters dosed. The majority of 

 "dead-game" birds are mounted with their eyes wide open. 

 Birds close their eyes when dying. 



The "Dead Gull," shown in Plate XVI., Fig. 5, which is the 

 work of Mr. E. A. Capen, of Boston, author of " Oology of New 

 England," may be taken as a perfect model of its kind. In ev- 

 ery line it is a dead bird, one that has been killed with small 

 shot in a sportsman -like manner, and has fallen dead without a 

 feather awry. 



FIRE-SCREENS. Probably no handsomer lire-screens were 

 ever produced by a taxidermist than those of Mr. Thomas 

 W. Fraine. The specimen presented by him to the National 

 Museum is represented in Plate XVI., Fig. 4. It is made of 

 the mounted head and neck of a peacock, set against a back- 

 ground of the ocellated tail feathers, of which the magnificent 

 metallic feather shield from the bird's back forms the centre. 

 The framework is a very thin board of tough but light wood, 

 the back of which is covered with satin or raw silk, and the 

 whole is supported on an elegant gilt tripod standard. The 

 effect of this arrangement as a whole is truly superb, and it 

 is no wonder that Mr. Frame's peacock screens have been very 

 popular. 



The wings of the roseate spoonbill, the scarlet ibis, pelican, 

 egret, great blue heron, and many other birds, are often made 

 into fire-screens, either with or without the mounted head and 



