METHODS IN THE ART OF TXXIDERMY. m 



No one who visited the anthropological building at the World's 

 Columbian Exposition is likely to forget the highly artistic group of 

 birds, small mammals, and the fish pieces with painted back-grounds 

 in handsome frames with convex glass, by Charles K. Reed, of Worces- 

 ter, Massachusetts. In these we have pictures of exquisite beauty for 

 our walls, with the actual mounted specimen in the foreground and 

 scenes in the back-ground painted from old nature. The accessories 

 are usually a combination of natural and artificial leaves, branches, tree 

 stumps, etc., the ground work also being made of natural and artificial 

 material. The sky or other back-ground is painted in oil. Plates 

 LXXX\' and LXXXVI are reproductions from photographs of two 

 subjects. 



Perhaps one of the most admired of Mr. Reed's pieces is that of a 

 group of screech owls, representing a hollow tree stub containing four 

 downy voung of the same species. On the top of the stub is one of 

 the parent birds, presumably the female, wnth a dead bird in her talons, 

 and is just making ready to spread a feast before its waiting young. 

 Close by sits the male quietly watching in another direction. The 

 scene is picturesque and pleasing, the accessories and painted back- 

 ground are true to nature, and, the whole being encased in an elegant 

 massive frame under convex glass, forms a picture of unusual interest 

 and beauty. 



Fur Rugs with Mounted Heads.— All but the head of a skin 

 which is to be made up into a rug should be tanned in the regular 

 manner by a tanner. If you have the skull you may mount it accord- 

 ing to the directions given in Chapter XII. Some prefer to mount 

 the head without the lower jaw, using only the upper part of the 

 skull, so that it will lie flat on the floor. The finest manner to 

 mount the head on the skin of a leopard or tiger is with the mouth 

 snarling, similar to the one figured in the frontispiece. If you have 

 no skull for the skin you must either carve one out of wood or pur- 

 chase a papier-mache one. Papier-mache skulls can now be obtained 

 from dealers in natural history supplies for nearly all the commoner 

 mammals. To give the proper stiffness to a rug it should be lined with 

 thin leather or buckskin, and beneath that the felt lining should be 

 placed, allowing the edge of the latter to project two inches beyond the 

 edge of the skin. It should then be pinked with pinking iron. 



Polishing Horns. — Some very handsome pieces of furniture are 

 made up with highly polished horns. The chief element necessary to 

 polish a pair of horns by hand is physical force. If machinery is at 

 your service, so that you can use a buffer, then the labor is not so great. 



