378 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1892. 



bis head between bis forepaws and eyes upturned in my direction. 

 On the floor in bis immediate neighborhood were a number of beauti- 

 fully mounted birds on stands, and fearing lest the animal should 

 suddenly arise if I came farther into the apartment, and do some dam- 

 age, I started to pass round and give him as wide a berth as possible. 

 The room was small, and Mr. Bell was engaged with a couple of stu- 

 dents at a window opposite where I entered, but he turned in time to 

 see my detour around the fox, and did not spare me in his merriment 

 at my thinking the animal was alive. To some extent, however, he 

 mitigated my chagrin by saying he had deceived over a hundred vis- 

 itors with that fox during the rive years it had lain there. I could not 

 help but admire his tall and well-knit frame, his piercing blue eyes, 

 and general bearing. His specimens too, which I examined, were per- 

 fect works of art, and, as all know who have ever had a similar oppor- 

 tunity to study them, were tin' admiration and the envy of the taxi- 

 dermists of those days, now long gone by. 



Of all the taxidermical institutions, however, that this country has 

 developed none can in any way compare with the natural science estab- 

 lishment of Prof. H. A. Ward, of Rochester, N. Y. Not only has Prof. 

 Ward powerfully influenced for good the growth of the ait in America, 

 or we may truthfully say throughout the civilized world, but he has by 

 inspiring others with bis enthusiasm and energy built up a school of 

 advanced taxidermists that are worthy emulators of his skill, and who 

 have with marked ability passed the torch in many directions. There 

 is not a museum in our land at all entitled to bear the name that is not 

 in some way, whether directly or indirectly, indebted to him for im- 

 provements of all kinds in its taxidermic methods, and the proper 

 modes of exhibiting materials illustrative of the kindred arts ami 

 sciences. 



Mr. F. A. Lucas, who has done so much to develop the exhibiting of 

 osteological subjects, and models and specimens of both vertebrates 

 ami invertebrates at the U. S. National Museum owes much of his suc- 

 cess to his early training under Prof. Ward, and the art is not only 

 under lasting obligations to him, but through his wise teaching it has 

 been firmly and permanently placed in that quarter upon a safe and 

 lasting basis. That Mr. Lucas appreciates "The scope and needs of 

 taxidermy" in their truest sense no one can doubt who has ever read 

 his article of that title in the Third Annual Report of the Society of 

 American Taxidermists. 



Mr. Frederic S. Webster is another of whose writings and produc- 

 tions the country has every reason to be proud, and the high standard 

 of work so constantly put forth by that artist has always had a most 

 beneficial effect upon the younger aspirants in the United States. 



Attention of American and European students has also been drawn 

 from the old-time museum models in taxidermy and directed to a closer 



