394 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1892. 



Still, where alcohol is the preservative used, there yet remain the loss 

 of color and the distortion due to shrinkage. Many authors in the art 

 of taxidermy have suggested in their works from time to time various 

 plans for the skinning of fishes, and " stuffing" them much in the same 

 way that birds and mammals are done. But as a rule, failure of greater 

 or less degree is generally the outcome of all such attempts. I have 

 studied collections of stuffed fishes in many parts of this country and 

 elsewhere, and I yet have to meet with one in any museum or private 

 collection, that comes up to what it ought to be. We turn from the 

 cases of such objects with feelings of anything but a pleasurable nature. 

 We hear a great deal said about the beauty of birds, and they are beau- 

 tiful, but I, for one, see a beauty that is quite equal to it in the vast 

 majority of fishes. Where has nature a lovelier object to offer for our 

 admiration than a finely marked adult speckled trout just as the fellow 

 is pulled out of his natural element and lies in the bright rays of the 

 sun, panting upon a grassy bank ? And, do we ever see anything that 

 very much resembles his incomparable charms in our miserable dried-up 

 collections of" stuffed" fishes'? Hornaday has said: 



Certain it is that in nearly every large zoological museum the stuffed fishes are 

 the least attractive, and the least lifelike of all the vertebrates, In many instances 

 the reptiles are not far behind in unsightliness, although, as a rule, they are a little 

 more lifelike than the fishes. In only one natural history museum cut of tweuty- 

 seven have I found a collection of stuffed fishes which surpassed in number and 

 quality of specimens the collection of birds and mammals, and formed the most 

 attractive feature of the entire museum. That fish collection is to be seen in the 

 Government museum at Madras, India, and I have reason to believe it is at present 

 the finest of its kind in existence. The collection consists of a very general assort- 

 ment of specimens from the Indian Ocean, and particularly from the Coromandel 

 coast, and besides a large number of small specimens it also contains as many large 

 sharks, Rhinobatidce, and rays as the authorities have been aide to obtain without 

 duplicating the species. 



The specimens were all mounted while fresh from the ocean, which, of course, has 

 been a great advantage to the taxidermist. I was somewhat surprised to learn that 

 the taxidermist in question was an Indian native named 1'. Anthony Pillay, because 

 East Indian natives of all classes are almost without exception very bad taxider- 

 mists. Upon being introduced to Mr. Pillay, an old Mohammedan gentleman with a 

 long white beard, dressed in the style of his class, he very obligingly explained to 

 me his method of mounting fish of all kinds.* 



Personally, I have but liftle or no confidence in cultivating the art 

 along on these lines, notwithstanding the measure of success attained 

 to by the Indian taxidermist just mentioned. For all large zoological 

 museums I believe that experimentation should proceed in the direc- 

 tion of discovering, if possible, some clear, transparent, preservative 

 fluid that will not change the form or color of the specimens, and then 

 exhibiting them in such positions as we would see them in aquaria 

 and such tanks containing living fishes as are to be seen at the exkibi- 



* Hornaday, W. T. : A New and Easy Method of Mounting Eish Medallions. Sec- 

 ond Ann. Rept. Anier. Taxidermist, 1881-'82, p. 38. 



