SCIENTIFIC TAXIDERMY FOR MUSEUMS. 407 



very best that could have beeu done under the circumstances; for when 

 birds' necks are stretched out of all proportion, and then allowed to 

 remain that way for years, it is by no means an easy matter to even 

 partially restore them again to their normal lengths. Even among the 

 more common birds there still linger numerous examples of old-style 

 bird stuffing in the cases of the National Museum. Some of these abso- 

 lutely violate every correct principle of taxidermy, and it is devoutly 

 to be hoped that the time is not far distant when they can be presented 

 to some fourth-rate museum or college "in the provinces." Surely 

 both this Museum and the people have outgrown such scarecrows. I 

 allude to such looking affairs as we have represented in Plate xxxvni 

 of this report, a specimen of Larus occidentalis. Now, gulls make espe- 

 cially beautiful subjects when they are well mounted ; for in nature they 

 are graceful in the extreme, and their plumages, so simple and so harmo- 

 niously blended, are very attractive. Plate xxxix, a mounted specimen 

 of Creagrus furcatus in the national collection, is in my opinion an ab- 

 solutely lifelike reproduction of the bird as it appeared when it was 

 alive. It is nature ami simplicity itself, and, with its neat stand, leaves 

 nothing to be desired in the way of mounting a single individual in an 

 attitude of rest.* 



There is no class of vertebrates that admit of grouping for museum 

 exhibition that can exceed birds. Most of the species are small, which 

 is an advantage, inasmuch it allows us to increase the amount of nat- 

 ural surroundings; then a great many birds have very peculiar habits 

 and construct a great variety of nests, and these may often be repro- 

 duced with the greatest possible interest, t 



One of the most lifelike groups of birds known to me is the pair of 

 Black Ducks (Anas obsoura) and young, which form a part of the 

 ornithological mounted collection of the American Museum of Natural 

 History of New York City. Through the kindness of Dr. J. A. Allen, 



"This gull was the work of Mr. Nelson R. Wood, one of the taxidermists employed 

 in the National Museum, who also prepared all the mounted domestic fowls and 

 pigeons here shown with the exception of the white-faced hlack Spanish cock (Plate 

 i. xix, Fig. 2) ; the Parrot (Plate xliv, Figs. 1, 2) ; the Baltimore oriole (Plate lxxiii) ; 

 the turkey (Plate XLVIH,); and the great horned owl (Plate i.xxii). Mr. Wood 

 has cheerfully tendered his assistance to me in several ways during my examination 

 of specimens, for which he fully deserves my thanks, as he does for the loan of his 

 living specimen of Gambel's partridge and Black Sumatra cock, both of which by 

 photography have been secured for plates for this paper. 



tAccording to Mr. Goode: "The mounting of animals in picturesque and lifelike 

 groups in the midst of accessories taken from their natural haunts appears to have 

 been first attempted by Prof. Paolo Savi in the early part of the present century. 

 In the museum of the University of Pisa nearly one hundred of these arc still pre- 

 served. One of these, a group of starlings upon the head of a dead sheep, is as tine 

 as anything since produced anywhere; and a pair of boar hounds attacking a boar 

 is, for action, the best piece of mammal mounting I have ever seen. The collection 

 is a wonderful one, and is still perfectly preserved." 



