CHAPTER XI. 



HINTS ON THE FORMS AND ATTITUDES OF MAMMALS ; ACCESSORIES, 

 GROUPING, ETC., WITH REMARKS ON THE ARRANGEMENT 



OF REPTILES. 



The chief object of the taxidermist's art is to faithfully reproduce 

 the forms, attitudes and expressions of living animals with the 

 actual skin. From the moment you take up the pencil to make a 

 sketch and to take the measurements of an animal for the purpose of 

 mounting its skin, your strife to imitate nature has begun. The per- 

 fection of everything depends upon the relation it has to the end 

 which it is to serve. A mounted mammal is intended to please the 

 eye just as much as its figure does in stone or on canvas, and in order 

 to do this the inanimate form must compare closely with the animate. 

 The size and shape of the various muscles, the general form and atti- 

 tude and expression must be life-like. This is not an easy task 

 to accomplish with a shapeless skin ; it involves the highest princi- 

 ples of art. You need not attempt to make black white or white 

 black or purposely mistake, for with all your pains you may fall far 

 short of the mark. The specimen that is worth preparing demands 

 all the skill you are able to bestow upon it. Go at your task then with 

 the determination to copy nature to the best of your ability. At 

 every opportunity study the living animal, and, of the dead ones, make 

 sketches and casts, take measurements, study colors, and whenever 

 possible study their skeletons. These are the principles which, with 

 the proper application and skill, will bring forth fruits of labor ap- 

 proaching closely to the ideal. 



The taxidermist should, by all means, study the fundamental 

 principles of osteology in order to knoiv the attitudes which 2.x^ possible 

 and tho.= e that are impossible for an animal to assume. No sculptor 

 would deem his education complete without a thorough knowledge 

 of the skeleton. We must, therefore, adopt the same system of study 

 in order to secure the best results. 



Never allow your quadruped to be better developed on one side 



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