THE HOME OF A NATURALIST. 317 



specimen several times daily, keeps up a constant influx 

 of new objects into his museum. It is very interesting 

 to watch the advance of the skin through the operation, 

 and to see how it gradually grows from a wet and almost 

 shapeless mass into a form apparently instinct with 

 life and energy, like a lump of clay under the sculptor's 

 hand; and how the skin, at first loose and flaccid, 

 gradually acquires firmness and plasticity, until at 

 length it obeys the slightest touch of the operator's 

 hand, and permits each feather or hair to be arranged 

 according to his will. 



There are one or two other modes of taxidermy 

 which deserve a passing notice. In one method, for 

 example, the operator removes the skin, takes a cast in 

 plaster-of-Paris of the ' ecorchee,' and stretches the 

 skin over the cast, thus ensuring for the time an exact 

 copy of the original. Yet even this plan, despite of its 

 ingenuity, is but partially and temporarily successful ; 

 for all skin will persist in contracting as it dries, and 

 the operator cannot possibly give the thousand little 

 elevations and depressions of the softer parts, on which 

 depends so much of the true expression. 



Another most ingenious plan is that which has been 

 employed by Professor Sokolov, of the Imperial 

 University of Moscow. By this process, which consists 

 of injecting certain preservative fluids into the system, 

 the whole substance is rendered impervious to decay, 

 and even the expression of the features so perfectly re- 

 tained that the first impression of a spectator is that 



