382 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1892. 



osseous system. In its entirety, however, this can not be fully appre- 

 ciated without a full knowledge of the muscular system, for there are 

 possible movements that the skeleton, when cleaned and dried, is capa- 

 ble of making, which, in life, become impossible from the operation of 

 muscles and tendons. So myology must be systematically studied 

 pari passu with the subject of skeletology, and with the aim constantly 

 in view of acquiring a clear insight into the normal postures of animals. 



This leads to the consideration of the question of correct form, and 

 to acquire that requires prolonged research and study upon the entire 

 subject of topographical anatomy. Muscles extended; muscles con- 

 tracted; muscles at rest; contours formed by the normal deposit of adi- 

 pose tissue; contours formed by parts of the skeleton that are merely 

 subcutaneous; contours formed by the presence of glands of all kinds, 

 of scsamoidal bones, cartilages, and every other structure that may in 

 any way affect the normal contour of an animal. To this must be added 

 the careful study of all external characters proper, as the hair and 

 analogous parts, throughout the animal kingdom — the eyes and their 

 surroundings, the nasal structures, the mouth of all vertebrates and 

 invertebrates. Indeed, there is not a point properly falling within the 

 range of topographical anatomy in its very widest sense that should be 

 beneath the special notice of the taxidermist. 



Colors of parts should also receive marked attention; and the taxi- 

 dermist should keep a notebook devoted to that one branch alone. 

 Never should an opportunity be lost to record by actual [tainted 

 sketches the colors of every external anatomical character presented 

 on the part of any animal whatsoever. Zoology itself would be far freer 

 from gross errors of the color descriptions of animals were naturalists, 

 as a rule, more careful in such matters. This is marked by the case in 

 ichthyology and in the naked skin tracks of mammals and birds. We, 

 then, are naturally led to the question of drawing and painting; and no 

 one will doubt the necessity of a taxidermist being more or less pro- 

 ficient in all these branches. But none of them will be of any service 

 to him unless the power be supplemented by the more important fac- 

 ulty of being a correct observer, and to be a correct observer is to see 

 and appreciate things as they really exist. Taxidermists should have 

 a knowledge of not only making correct sketches of all kinds of animals 

 and their haunts and of plants and coloring them correctly, but they 

 should be enabled to use such instruments as are demanded in making 

 reduced drawings correctly from large subjects. Coloring in oil is also 

 of great value in restoring the tints in some cases on the skins of pre- 

 served animals, and the student in this art should constantly aim to 

 cultivate his sense of color appreciation and of the matching of all the 

 various shades. 



.More or less pertinent to this question, Capt, Thomas Brown has 

 said: * 



Taxidermist's Manual, pp. 3, 4. 



