TAXIDERMY. 7 



fifteen or twenty days in mounting a small quadru- 

 ped, a bird, or a caterpillar, when we can teach 

 them the way to mount a common-sized bird in 

 less than an hour, and a caterpillar in five minutes. 



The Abbe Manesse has rendered great service 

 to science by excellent observations on the man- 

 ners of animals. No one has known so well the 

 eggs of birds, and their manner of laying ; he also 

 possessed a superb collection, ticketed with the 

 greatest precision. He confided in himself alone ; 

 he would always see the male or female before he 

 determined the species to which the eggs belonged. 

 He neglected no information which might be pro- 

 cured, either by correspondence or his own pain- 

 ful labours. At the age of forty-five years he 

 climbed the highest trees, with the assistance of two 

 hooks, which he had fitted to a pair of boots, des- 

 tined to this use, and a girth which encircled his 

 body and the tree at the same time. 



In 1789, he had acquired a great number of 

 notes on the laying of birds. At the request of 

 M. Dorcy he decided to publish them, with plates 

 of all the eggs which he knew. He had drawn a 

 great part of them, and engraved three or four 

 plates with much care; but the Revolution de- 

 prived us of this work. The author has since em- 

 ployed the period of his long emigration in new 

 $,nd interesting researches on the same subject, 

 and has assembled a great number of interesting 

 B 4 



