SCIENTIFIC TAXIDERMY FOR MUSEUMS. 401 



models, and good illustrations in the vertebrate scries really first 

 come into play. It is only the exception among fishes that such 

 necessary adjuncts elsewhere will be found useful. One would hardly 

 think of looking for a model to make a cast of a ''Needle Gar," for 

 instance; he might in the case of such a form as the Goosefish (LopJiius 

 pisctttoriitx); whereas in the case of an attacking Cobra, or some of 

 the winged or frilled lizards models would soon be in demand, or at 

 least very much more so. Snakes form no exception to these remarks, 

 for the attitudes assumed by them in nature are not only various 

 in the extreme, but in some cases downright peculiar. And, in good 

 groups of reptiles peculiar characters and habits should be exhibited 

 by showing them or exhibiting them by a duplication of the species 

 composing the group. The blowing viper (Seterodon) should not only 

 be preserved and shown with expanded and flattened fore parts, but at 

 a state of rest likewise. Take another example in the little lizard 

 Anolis, the American chameleon ; we would by no means gain a full 

 idea of its form aud appearance from one specimen, colored bright pea- 

 green, and the flaming red ornament at the throat retracted; but we 

 should have a group of at least four or five of them, showing all such 

 remarkable characters, as well as the various tints it may assume when 

 it exerts it chameleonic powers. With many lizards and with many 

 snakes this is not always necessary, and with them one good, faithfully 

 colored cast will be quite sufficient. 



Of course, the very large reptiles, as large Iguanas, Alligators, and 

 even such large snakes as Anacondas and Pythons, admit of being skill- 

 fully mounted by the manufacture of bodies made of tow — that is, a 

 manakin,with internal wire supports and a final clay covering; but, as 

 1 have said, it would appear that the time has come when all small rep- 

 tiles will no longer be so preserved, and the tendency to cast them is on 

 the increase. An ingenious method of preserving small reptiles in al- 

 cohol is resorted to by Mr. Samuel Garmau at the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology at' Harvard College, but I have never had the personal 

 opportunity of investigating it, though the fact that so able an herpi- 

 tologist recommends it as is Mr. Garman is enough to say that it pos- 

 sesses its merits for museum purposes. He claims that by its means 

 he "can give the specimens life like attitudes, or arrange them in 

 groups, as if playing, courting, or fighting; and the liquid heightens 

 their beauty, as the water does that of the pebble at the seashore, 

 while ravages of insects are entirely out of the question."' 



The larger Chelonia, as the Hawksbill, the Green turtle, the Leather- 

 back, and the Loggerhead, can also be mounted by the processes usually 

 recommended by the best taxidermists and successfully, and Mr. Lucas 

 has pointed out an admirable way for mounting the smaller turtles,* 



* Lucas, F. A. : On the mounting of turtles. Third Ann. Rep. Soc. Aiiut. Taxider- 

 mists, 1882-'83, pp. 84-90, 2 figs. 



H. Mis. 114, pt. 2 26 



