1034 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



zebra, the tiger, and the rhinoceros, mounted by Jenness Eichardson, 

 came iu for the most favorable criticism, and this was given without 



stint. 



It is with no little envy, and with still more regret, that Mr. H. H. ter 

 Meer compares the advantageous circumstances under which the finished 

 pieces of work are placed upon exhibition at the National Museum, as 

 contrasted with what happens to them at Leyden, where the build- 

 ing is old, and where "the animals, instead of being placed iu groups, 

 are packed away iu a compact throng in dark cases, one animal admir- 

 ing the tail of the other." ' 



Further discouragement is experienced from the fact that the Dutch 

 biologists filling the more influential positions do not exert themselves, 

 either by pen or word, to powerfully promote the art among them. 

 There are, further, no organized taxidermical societies iu the country, 

 and little or no literature is produced to assist the taxidermic artist. 

 Mr. H. H. ter Meer, jr., is a firm believer in and advocate of the higher 

 education of taxidermists, as set forth in the aforesaid " Scientific 

 Taxidermy for Museums," and he takes occasion to express himself 

 very forcibly to that effect. Pleasure is expressed at the fact that the 

 American taxidermists are thorouglily alive to the question that the 

 day is well past when the workman can hope to produce satisfactory 

 results by "stuffing skins of the forms they intend to preserve" instead 

 of by the use of the model and the manikin. 



For some years past Mr. H. H. ter Meer has practiced what Kerr, his 

 able instructor, had taught him, and with " extraordinary dexterity " 

 he sews strips of tow side by side upon the sculptured body of the 

 mammal, iu such a manner as to exactly imitate the superficial muscles 

 and other parts in the way they occur in nature. Mammals' heads are 

 "carved out of peat," and it "does not matter out of what substance 

 a mammal is modeled, provided the form is reproduced exactly as it 

 would be were the animal alive, and that it is possible to drive pins 

 in it without bursting or breaking the artificially prepared body, in 

 order to press the skin into the hollows between the muscles." It is 

 especially enjoined that the prepared model of the animal's body be 

 the exact reproduction of the original, before the skin is drawn over 

 it, in order to obviate the necessity of subsequently introducing any 

 additional filling between it and the latter. Kerr's methods of imitat- 

 ing the superficial anatomical parts require much patience and time 

 to learn and successfully practice, and this is apt to discourage many 



' Since the present article was written tlie author has published three articles 

 entitled "Taxidermy at the Leyden Museum," and these are illustrated by eleven 

 halftone figures, showing the most recent pieces mounted by Mr. ter Meer and his 

 father. One of these represent a fine group of jackals, so the charge that no group 

 of mounted mammals exists at the Leyden Museum juust now be set aside. Various 

 other improvements have also been introduced in the taxidermical department of 

 the institution iu question. (See Shootiny and Fishing, XXII, Nos. 8, 9, and 11. New 

 York, June 10, 17, July 1, 1897. Pp. 146, 147, 168, 169, 206, and 207.) 



