THE GREAT ANTEATER. 



Few phases of natural history are more interesting 

 than the remarkable development during the last 

 twenty years of the beautiful art of taxidermy. The 

 contrast between former and up-to-date results is 

 clearly recognisable on visiting the older museums, 

 especially those on the Continent. From mere 

 "stuffing" the science of correctly mounting a 

 mammal or bird has advanced to a high degree of 

 perfection, the contour of limb and pose of body 

 being in many cases rendered with a wonderful 

 correctness that doubles the value of the mounted 

 skin. The early collections consisted of ghastly rows 

 of stuffed mummies, goggle-eyed and distorted ; 

 the recent ones exhibit numbers of choice nature 

 studies, true works of art. One may here specially 

 mention the white-tailed gnus (black wildebeest) in 

 the Leyden collection, the stuffed quagga at Amster- 

 dam, the gerenuk antelopes at Paris ; the valuable 

 series in our own National Collection, secured largely 

 through the efforts of the late Sir. W. H. Flower, 

 will be familiar to many. Most (probably all) taxider- 

 mists employ the "old" though improved method of 

 mounting the skin on a body of straw or tow stiffened 

 by an artificial skeleton of wire ; another process by 



