SCIENTIFIC TAXIDERMY FOR MUSEUMS. 375 



at this writing, or in the very last part of the century's hist quarter, 

 by scores of teachers in Europe and America who entertain precisely 

 similar opinions. Not only this, but recruits are rapidly coming- to the 

 ranks as time hastens on, and it is quite safe to predict that in another 

 century, or even less, the old time "bird- stuffier" will cease to be found 

 " in the flesh" among - us. 



Already I have given above, in the words of Montagu Browne, who 

 have been the chief promoters of this art in Great Britain; other na- 

 tions also have in this way powerfully contributed to the material prog- 

 ress of taxidermy. In France the immortal names of Verreaux, Verdey, 

 and others had a most beneficial influence; and our own country has 

 been by no means backward in this particular. 



Within the past ten years or more the published opinions of a num- 

 ber of these writers are the best evidences upon the substantial nature 

 of the progress of this science that we can here adduce, and by quot- 

 ing some of them I resort to the most effective means in my power to 

 illustrate what taxidermy has attained to in those places where its 

 standard is now considered to be at the highest plane of its present 

 development. 



Turning again to the article Taxidermy, by Mr. Montagu Browne, 

 already referred to above, we find him concluding it thus: 



A new school of taxidermy, with new methods, whose aim is to combine knowl- 

 edge of anatomy and modeling with taxidermic technique, are now coming to the 

 front, and the next generation will discard all processes of "'stuffing" in favor of 

 modeling. Within the limits of an article like tbe present it is impossible to do 

 more than glance at the intricate processes involved in this. In the case of mam- 

 mals, after the skin lias been completely removed, even to the toes, a copy is 

 made of the body, posed as in life, and from this an accurate representation of form, 

 including delineation of muscles, etc., is built up in light materials; the model is 

 then covered with tbe skin, which is damped and pinned in to follow every depres- 

 sion and prominence; the study is then suffered to dry, and, models having been 

 made, in the case of large animals, of the mucous membrane of the jaws, palate, 

 Tongue, and lips, these are truthfully reproduced in plastic material. The ordinary 

 glass eyes are discarded, and hollow globes, specially made, are hand-painted from 

 nature, and are fixed in the head so as to convey the exact expression which the 

 pose of the body demands. Birds, if of any size, can be modeled in like manner, 

 and fishes are treated by a nearly identical process, being finally colored as in a '•still- 

 life*' painting. 



To give a life-like appearance, attention is also paid to artistic "mounting.'' By 

 this is meant the surrounding of specimens with appropriate accessories, and it is 

 well exemplified by the new work shown in the natural history museum at South 

 Kensington, where, for example, birds are arranged as in a state of nature, feeding, 

 or flying to their young, sitting on their eggs, swimming in miniature pools, or 

 preening their feathers whilst perched lovingly side by side, and surrounded by 

 exquisitely modeled foliage and dowers. This, with correct modeling of the speci- 

 mens, which, except in rare instances, is not quite so striking in the new groups, 

 indicates the future of the art, the hope of which lies in the better educal ion of tax- 

 idermists as designers, artists, and modelers. 



Not only should they be better instructed in designing, in art. and in 

 modeling, but, what is quite as important, they should be trained espe- 



