CHAPTEK XXIX. 



GROUPS AND GROUPING. 



THE rapidity with which the art of taxidermy has won its way 

 to public favor in the United States during- the last two decades 

 is certainly very gratifying 1 . Less than twenty years ago a great 

 naturalist declared that a skin stuffed is a skin spoiled. Even 

 ten years ago the only specimens permitted in museums were 

 those that were mounted singly, in stereotyped attitudes, on 

 polished pedestals of hard wood. 



Between the years 1860 and 1876 a few of the more ambitious 

 taxidermists of Europe produced various groups of mammals, 

 large and small. Of these, one of the most noteworthy was 

 the "Lion and Tiger Struggle," by Edwin Ward, of London, 

 and another was Jules Verreaux's " Arab Courier attacked by 

 Lions." The most of these groups represented animals in the- 

 atrical attitudes, usually fighting. While they were of much 

 interest for certain purposes, they were of but little value to 

 persons desiring to study typical forms of the species which 

 were represented. It would have been quite as appropriate to 

 place the " Dying Gladiator " or " The Laocoon " in an ethno- 

 logical museum, as it would have been to place such groups as 

 the " Lion and Tiger Struggle " of Edwin Ward, or Rowland 

 Ward's " Combat of Red Deer," in a collection of mounted 

 mammals in a scientific museum. Up to the year 1879 no large 

 groups of mammals had been prepared in this country which 

 were considered appropriate for scientific display collections. 

 Furthermore, the production of groups of mammals or birds 

 suitable for scientific museums was generally considered an 

 impossibility. 



In 1879 the writer returned from a collecting trip to the East 

 Indies, having in mind numerous designs for groups of mam- 



