SCIENTIFIC TAXIDERMY FOR MUSEUMS. 431 



groups occupying the walls, could be advantageously devoted to cases 

 of the smaller species groups, single pieces, and other specimens. 



Coming to the Felidce in the collection of the Museum we hnd it repre- 

 sented by specimens similar to those in the other groups, in other words 

 by the good, by the bad, and by the indifferent, and these are the most 

 undoubted examples of every genus of this provisional classification. 

 We see a specimen of the last-mentioned kind in the lynx shown in 

 Plate xc, wherein faults about the mouth, slightly wrinkled ears, and 

 some minor points debar it from the category of the best specimens of 

 taxidermy. While on the other hand the grand specimen of a tiger, 

 the head and fore part of which is given in Plate xci, has not its peer for 

 that species in any public museum in the United States. The Puma 

 is also another admirable preserved specimen of this group. 



Of this group Hornaday has said that the "large Felidcv (tiger, lion, 

 leopard, etc.) are the finest subjects for the taxidermist that the whole 

 animal kingdom can produce. They offer the finest opportunities 

 for the development of muscular anatomy, and the expression of the 

 various higher passions." (Taxidermy, p. 171.) This may be very true, 

 but in my opinion the pieces left by this talented artist to commemorate 

 his name after his connection with the Museum was severed, and the 

 ones which will most surely pass his name down into history as a most 

 masterly taxidermist of his time, are the group of American bison, and 

 "Mungo" the African elephant, though bis Bengal tiger, to gain a sim- 

 ilar place, be stepping in the very footprints of the latter as he leaves 

 them. 



One who has not seen the feat performed in one of our larger museums 

 can have but little conception of the skill required in handling the 

 facial expression and all the structures that enter into the mouth parts. 

 The skinning of a tiger's tongue and preserving it so as to make that 

 organ resemble the original as it appeared in the living subject; the 

 cleaning of the teeth ; the blending of the black part of the lips with 

 the delicate pink gums inside; to make the animal grin and not smile, 

 and to lend to the eyes the flash of anger, are all accomplishments that 

 demand of the artist his best judgment, knowledge, skill, and, what is 

 more, his infinite patience. 



I agree with him when he says: 



Some of the old-fashioned taxidermists have the habit of smearing a lot of nasty 

 lampblack in the eyes of every mounted mammal [and a variety of birds, too], for 

 what purpose no one knows, but possibly in imitation of actresses, some of whom 

 have the same unaccountable trick, and a hideous one in its results in both cases. 

 There is only one point in its favor: it is the easiest way in the world to give an 

 animal a black eye. (Ibid., pp. 177, 178.) 



Many groups of monkeys and the higher apes now adorn the cases 

 in the mammal department of the IT. S. National Museum. Some of 

 these are among the best groups of the kind in the hands of the insti- 

 tution. Among them is the now famous group of Orangutans, too 



