244 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. 



in nearly all large groups, the largest and finest adult male and 

 female should each stand on a flat and horizontal surface, in 

 easy and conventional attitudes. This is necessary in order 

 that the form, height, and back outline of each of the typical 

 adult specimens can be studied by the technical zoologist with 

 as much certainty and accuracy as any ordinary case specimen 

 standing on a flat pedestal of hard wood. To illustrate the 

 point : If the huge bull bison in our large group had been put 

 walking up hill, or walking down hill, it would now be practi- 

 cally impossible for anyone wishing to draw a picture of him to 

 accurately determine the precise angle of his hump. Further- 

 more, his height at the shoulders would be either exaggerated 

 or diminished, almost unavoidably. As it is, he was with 

 deliberate intention mounted on a flat and horizontal surface, 

 as was the cow also, so that even though they are in a group 

 they lose nothing whatever of their value to the technical zool- 

 ogist, who demands that all specimens shall be mounted on flat 

 surfaces, and in conventional attitudes for the sake of compari- 

 son. Having done this much for pure science, we are at liberty 

 to vary the attitudes of the remaining specimens of the group. 



In a museum group suppress all tendency to the development 

 of violent action on the part of your specimens. In a well-reg- 

 ulated museum no fighting is allowed. Represent every -day, 

 peaceful, home scenes in the lives of your animals. Seek not to 

 startle and appal the beholder, but rather to interest and in- 

 struct him. Surely there are enough quiet and peaceful atti- 

 tudes to supply all your specimens without exhausting tho 

 stock. Let them be feeding, walking, climbing up, lying down, 

 standing on the alert, playing with each other, or sleepily 

 ruminating in fact, anything but fighting, leaping, and run- 

 ning. If you do not happen to know the habits of the animals 

 which form the subject of your group, and it is impossible for 

 you to learn them by observation, then must you throw aside all 

 reserve, and appeal to some one who has seen and studied them 

 in their haunts. 



It is no child's play to prepare a group of large mammals. It 

 invariably costs several hundreds of dollars, perhaps even 

 thousands, and the work is supposed to last a century or longer. 

 Judge, therefore, how important it is that every detail of the 



