TAXIDERMY. 3 



commanded by the unfortunate Captain Baudin 

 He unremittingly employed all possible means G: 

 enriching the Museum, which rested the greater 

 rjart of its hopes on him ; and neither a burning 

 sky, nor the discord vhich reigned on board the 

 vessels, could relax his zeal. Death alone put an 

 end to his labours ; he fell on the 20th of February, 

 1802, and was buried in the little island Maria, in 

 the South sea. 



The art of Taxidermy has only made progress 

 since the last sixty years. About this period, the 

 celebrated Reaumur published a memoir, on the 

 method of preserving skins of birds to be sent 

 into distant countries/ He formed a very beauti- 

 ful cabinet of Natural History in his own house, 

 which, after his death, became the basis of the col- 

 lection of birds in the Museum of Paris. Ex- 

 perience soon proved that the means he proposed 

 were insufficient for preservation, and availed still 

 less for preparation. Reaumur received birds 

 from all parts, in spirits of wine, according to the 

 instructions he had given ; he contented himself 

 by taking them from this liquor, and introducing 

 two ends of an iron wire into the body behind the 

 thighs; he then fastened the wire to the claws, 

 the ends, which passed below, served to fix them 

 to a small board ; he put two black glass beads in 

 the place of eyes, and called it a stuffed bird. 

 The larger animals, such as the Saw-Shark, 

 B 2 



