384 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1892. 



etc., recorded upon opposite pages. Photographs should be made also 

 of plants of all kinds directly in the places where they occur in nature; 

 also the resorts of animals of every description; birds' nests; and, in 

 short, every possible natural subject and creature and locality that the 

 taxidermist may be called upon to reproduce in his workshop. He 

 should also make photographs of dissections, the skeletons of animals, 

 models, and designs, and of dead animals. Ever should it be promi- 

 nently before his mind that one of the greatest of all taxidermieal de- 

 siderata is the obtaining of good models of all kinds and descriptions, 

 and models true to nature in every sense of the word. Frequently 

 artists who are correct observers and portrayers of animals make tine 

 illustrations of them, either in the form of colored or uncolored prints, 

 and these the taxidermist should secure for his "note book" when- 

 ever he possibly can. 



On this point Mr. Staebner has very truly remarked:* 



It would seem almost superfluous to insist ou the value, nay the absolute neces- 

 sity, of good illustrations as aids to the taxidermists, were it not that the impor- 

 tance of the subject appears to be hardly yet fully appreciated by many of the very 

 ones to be most benefited. 



There was a time, now happily past, as the work exhibited by this association 

 abundantly proves, when individuals who mounted birds and animals (as their cards 

 set forth) were content to ram a hide full ot packing material, sew it up, and call 

 the effigy by ibis or that name, according as this or that animal was desired. The 

 degree of monstrosity, if it may be so termed, thus produced, was in inverse ratio 

 to the care of the workman for his art and his knowledge (often scant enough) of 

 the external appearance of the animal he was attempting to reproduce. These mon- 

 strosities of taxidermy are still to be seen in many of our public museums, where, let 

 us hope, they at least serve the purpose of teaching the younger generation, how not 

 to do it. 



As in all other departments of human activity, so in this is the skilled workman 

 plainly superseding the unskilled, and the class of work thus becoming- more and 

 more a source of pride and satisfaction. The man with a love for his art, necessa- 

 rily something of a naturalist and witn a naturalist's care, anxious about the correct- 

 ness of all the details of his work, must utilize all the aids at his command, and of 

 these aids accurate drawings and paintings occupy the chief place. These are the 

 taxidermist's works of reference to which he goes for information precisely as an- 

 other goes to his encyclopedia, since the ability is given to no man to carry all the 

 minute points of an animal's external appearance in his mind. That the representa- 

 tions for this purpose should be what are strictly understood as works of art is obvi- 

 ously unnecessary. 



The objects to be secured, however, and which they should possess to meet the 

 requirements of the case are: (1) accuracy of outline; (2) truthfulness of attitude, 

 and (3) in order offlmportance, correctness of coloring, and in so far as they conform 

 to these things are they already, by just so much, works of art. What is technically 

 known as artistic effect should here be a secondary consideration. Having secured 

 the first three essential points, attention may be given to the last. 



In the case of rare animals such representations as is well known are the sole reli- 

 ance of the taxidermist. That they have a value even in the case of more familiar 

 animals may be instanced by the case of the walrus. The pictures of this mammal 



* Staehner, F. W. : Note on the value of animal illustrations to taxidermists. Third 

 Auu. Rep. .Society of American Taxidermists, 1882-'83, pp. 72-71. 



