SCIENTIFIC TAXIDERMY FOR MUSEUMS. 405 



original. So far as external form is concerned it simply stands as 

 good as the original, as ottering- to the naturalists of all ages an abso- 

 lutely correct idea of this interesting chelonian. Lizards are more 

 difficult to cast than are turtles, as in many of their details of external 

 structure they are more delicately formed, and, upon the whole, I do 

 not think an equal success has been attained at the Museum in the 

 plaster casting of saurian s as has in the case of the chelonians. 

 Nevertheless the plaster casts of some of the larger lizards leave us 

 nothing to be desired in that art. A truly magnificent thing is seen in 

 the plaster cast of Tupinambis (Plate xxxv). It would seem to be per- 

 fect in every particular, and by all odds is the finest result of the kind 

 that I have ever had the pleasure of examining. 



Just here this is all 1 have to say in regard to the preservation of 

 reptiles tor museum exhibition, but the subject, in a general way, will 

 be reverted to again before closing this paper. 



We next pass to a consideration of the preservation of birds. Upon 

 entering this department, after passing fish and reptiles in review, we 

 seem almost to come into entirely new fields. Zoologically birds are not 

 one bit more important than either fishes or reptiles, but from a popular 

 standpoint they have probably received, as every biologist knows, fully 

 fifty times the attention. Ornithological literature, taken by and large, 

 is a hundred fold more voluminous than that of the two other groups just 

 mentioned put together. Thousands of birds have been preserved by 

 one method or another (not including alcoholics), to one fish. When one 

 alludes to the art of taxidermy in the presence of the laity the idea that 

 first comes up is, that the taxidermy of birds only is intended ; mammals 

 are far less frequently thought of by such people; and fish and reptiles 

 rarely or never. Plates, figures, drawings, and illustrations of this 

 group are far more numerous; and, notwithstanding my sincere efforts 

 to equalize the illustrations for the various departments in this paper, 

 somehow or other the plates of birds constitute nearly one-half of 

 them. Many taxidermists devote themselves to birds alone, and it is 

 only those in this country who are really finished adepts in the art that 

 can skillfully handle the preservation of any kind of an animal what- 

 ever, birds included. 



Taking all this into consideration, one would naturally think that that 

 department of taxidermy had made far greater progress than any other; 

 but I hasten to say this is by no means the case. If we take the col- 

 lections of such an institution as the National Museum for example, we 

 find upon examination that there is quite as much bad taxidermy among 

 birds as there is among mammals, and when it is bad it is very bad. 

 On the other hand, from the host of "terrifies' 1 that still linger in the 

 cases of the ornithological department there has been growing out of 

 it of recent years a most satisfactory and most encouraging progress. 

 Both individual specimens as well as groups of birds are now being 

 produced which bear every evidence of the highest accomplishments 



