GROUPS AND GROUPING. 233 



good one ; and, although the production of groups did not come 

 to pass precisely as was then anticipated, time has wrought 

 its perfect work, and groups are now the order of the day. 



In 1882 the writer was appointed chief taxidermist of the 

 National Museum. In the year following, the first group of 

 orang utans, " The Fight in the Tree-tops," was purchased of 

 Professor Ward by that institution, and after being partly re- 

 constructed was placed on exhibition in the Hall of Mammals, 

 where it now is. Since it left his establishment, Professor Ward 

 has been pleased to call it " the king of groups." 



The group idea was frequently advanced by the writer to the 

 directors of the National Museum, but the time for its practical 

 adoption on a liberal scale did not arrive until 1886. It is true 

 that in 1884 Professor Goode had six groups of ducks prepared 

 by Mr. Webster, and six bird groups of the same size prepared 

 by Mr. Marshall at the Museum ; but with the completion of 

 these the mounting of bird groups there came to an end. The 

 condition of the regular exhibition series of mounted mammals 

 demanded several years' uninterrupted work before any attention 

 could be devoted to such exceptional work as the preparation of 

 groups either large or small. Finally, in the year 188G, the au- 

 spicious moment arrived. The collecting by the writer of a very- 

 large series of specimens of the American bison resulted in his 

 receiving permission to prepare a large mounted group after his 

 own design. To his intense gratification he was given cr/<- 

 I>l<niclie as to time and expense, and no limit was placed 011 tin- 

 size of the group, the character or extent of the accessories, or 

 the cost of the case to contain all. The experiment was to be 

 regarded as a crucial test of the group idea as adapted to the 

 purposes of scientific museums. 



While the group of buffaloes was still in course of prepara- 

 tion, the writer prepared, as a "feeler," a very simple group, 

 consisting of three coyotes, a large male and female and one 

 young specimen. The attitudes and grouping was simplicity 

 itself, and the ground was nothing but gravelly sod, bearing a 

 few stunted bunches of bad-lands grass. In order that famil- 

 iarity might not breed contempt, this group was kept carefully 

 secluded from the observation of the Assistant Director until it 

 was finished and in its case in the mammal hall of the museum. 



