The Artistic Grouping of Stuffed Birds. 93 
perfect specimens were, without doubt, unduly ex- 
travagant, as we are given to understand that the 
late Mr. Booth often killed a score or more of birds 
of the same species, from which to select four or so 
of the best to furnish specimens for his case. 
The grouping and setting up of the shore birds 
are especially beautiful, and of these we might 
mention a case of Sanderlings as worthy of special 
notice. Four or five birds are grouped in various 
and most natural attitudes along a piece of sandy 
beach, from which the sea has evidently just receded, 
leaving a line of dark wet sand, contrasting with 
the white dry sand above high-water mark. The 
subject is simple, but the effect is charming. The 
cases of land birds in this museum are not, we 
think, so happy, and perhaps the reason for this 
may be found in the fact that the late Mr. Booth 
would use no natural material in the cases, imagining 
that it would decay in course of time. He deter- 
mined to make everything as lasting as possible, 
and accordingly all the trunks and boughs of trees 
were made of papier mdché, the result being, in the 
majority of instances, an artifical appearance, 
especially noticeable in the case containing the 
Green Woodpeckers. 
The cases in the Natural History Museum at 
South Kensington afford an ample proof of the 
