434 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1892. 



proportion of the recesses being- so very dark that tlie specimens can 

 not be properly seen, much less studied. The National Museum build- 

 ing is better fitted for the exhibition of ethnological and other material 

 than it is for zoological. We stand in need, very much in need, of 

 a scientifically constructed zoological museum, for, in the first place, 

 to properly exhibit the superb collections that have within compara- 

 tively recent times grown up here, and, second, to relieve the buildings 

 already in use. As the British Museum threw off its South Kensington 

 Department of Natural History, so has. and from like causes, the time 

 come for us to make a similar step. 



1 have called attention to the fact that taxidermists should be thor- 

 oughly educated men, fully trained in all the technique of their art in 

 its broadest sense, as pointed out in the body of the paper; that with 

 respect to the art itself, the main factors of success to be observed are 

 the using of every means at our command to reproduce nature in 

 every particular, not only in the case of the specimens themselves, but 

 in the accessories used in connection with them; that they should be so 

 prepared as to resist in every way the ravages of time, or the attacks 

 of pests; that they should, in addition, not only show the appearance 

 of the animal itself, but aim to give a chapter in its life history, drawing 

 therefor either upon its habits or its habitat; that everything that in 

 any way whatever partaking of the grotesque or fanciful or extravagant 

 innovations should be promptly and forever discountenanced. 



My studies have led me to believe that the art of taxidermy has had 

 a singular evolutionary growth peculiarly its own, the various phases 

 of which have, in one place or another, been pointed out in the forego- 

 ing pages, and that of recent years the strong tendency in our leading 

 museums has been to group animals, and for a variety of purposes. I 

 am convinced that in the future museums will carry this idea still fur- 

 ther, and that these groups will be so combined as not only to exhibit 

 single species, showing some of their habits and surrounding in their 

 natural haunts, but also to a very large extent to show faimal regions, 

 and the animal and plant life of various geographical areas. When thus 

 presented in the museums of large cities, and showing in that way the 

 distribution of the animal and plant life of the region wherein the par- 

 ticular city may be situated, or for the country at large in our Govern- 

 ment museums, the ever-present lesson they will present for study to 

 the thousands of men, women, and children who may see such an exhi- 

 bition during the course of a year will in its practicable value be sim- 

 ply beyond all calculation. By such arrangements the eye will be 

 enabled to take in and the mind appreciate the aspect and the biologic 

 forms of any particular region of the United States almost at a glance. 



For the sake of economy, both for the present and the future, we should 

 employ only the very best materials in our work, and. what is quite as 

 important, secure the services of only. the most skillful and advanced 

 artists in the country. Not mere plodders for pay, but men thoroughly 



