METHODS IN THE ART OF TAXIDERMY. , .j 



Mr. Frederic A. Lucas, and mans- of liis pieces exiiibited at the ex- 

 hibitions of vSociety of American Taxidermists called forth universal 

 praise and admiration. Among the bird groups in the National ]\Ius- 

 eum is one entitled " An Interrupted Dinner," by I\Ir. Lucas. A Red- 

 tailed Hawk has just killed a partridge, and has scarcely begun to 

 devour it when a Goshawk swoops down upon him with outstretched 

 talons to seize the quarry. The hawk has turned upon his back, 

 shielding his prey with one wing, and, with open beak and talons is 

 ready to receive his assailant, who hovers in mid-air immediately 

 above him. The hawk in mid-air is supported by a wire which passes 

 up along the tail feathers into the body. 



Plate LXXXVII of this work is " The Wounded Cxull," represent- 

 ing a Great Black-back Gull which has just been wounded, throwing 

 up one wing and screaming, while the blood is oozing from the wing 

 that is broken. It is the work of Mr. Frank B. Webster, of Hyde Park, 

 Massachusetts, and is an admirable design well executed. There is 

 but one thing that this gull lacks — the scream or notes of distress. 

 This, with a number of herons, ibises, hawks, owls, grouse, and other 

 birds arranged with natural surroundings by Mr. Webster, are in the 

 writer's collection, and many of them are equal to some of the best 

 work I have ever seen. 



It is with especial pride that I call attention to the artistic taxi- 

 dermic w^ork which I have recently seen prepared by Mr. Charles K. 

 Reed, of Worcester, jMassachusetts. Fortunately for Mr. Reed, he is his 

 own artist in every particular, and can paint his own backgrounds and 

 arrange his accessories with far more than ordinary ability, while the 

 forms and attitudes of his mounted specimens are equal in every 

 respect to the beauty of his landscapes. 



I refer in particular to the groups of birds, small quadrupeds and 

 those of fishes which this artist arranges in convex glasses, and which 

 are placed in massive frames to be hung on walls like pictures. The 

 foreground is made of a cutting from the natural twig, or trunk from 

 the tree on which the bird would perch, and, if it be a ground-bird, 

 the foreground is made up of artificial or natural materials on which 

 the bird rests, and the background is painted. When properly worked 

 up by the artist the effect is charming, and when I recall to mind Mr. 

 Reed's Snowy Owl scene, that of the Kingfisher, the group of Ruffed 

 Grouse and young, the Bob-whites, the scene of squirrels at home, 

 the Golden Plovers, the bunch of trout, etc., we feel that no adequate 

 idea can be formed of the beauty and naturalness of these designs 



