THE TWELVE-THREAD EPIMAOHVS. 



147 



in ultramaiine, caraiine, and gold, wovdd "pale 

 and distorted fonn of the stuffed bird. Yet that 

 fails egregiously in reproducing the bird as it was 

 who has visited a museum. 



Putting aside the inevitable shrinking and 

 legs, and claws, which change from their natural 

 black parchment, the feathers always present an 

 no taxidermist whose hand, be it ever so skilful, 



their ineffectual fires" even before the stiff 

 very stuffed semblance of the living creature 

 during life, as every one must have observed 



darkening of the soft parts about the head, 

 forms into dry and shrivelled pieces of dull, 

 unsightly staring appearance ; and there is 

 can give to the stuffed creature the exquisite 



TWELVE-THKEAD EPIMACHUS.— AWe«ri(/eji niger. 



swell and rounding of the various parts, and that air and carriage of the body which is S9 

 indicative of the character. Not only is this the case mth the stuffed bird, but immediately 

 after death the plumage loses half its beauty ; for during its lifetime the bird is able, by 

 smoothing or ruflling its plumage, to give to its form a vast, variety of expressions, which sink 

 in death to one listless aspect, which tells that life has fled. The very respiration of the bird 

 keeps the feathers in continual motion, causing them to change their tints wdth every breath. 

 Such being the case, even with the recently slain bird or the preserved skin, it may well be 

 imagined that no artist is sufficiently skilful to delineate, no artificial color sufficiently brp- 

 iant to reproduce, and no pen sufficiently accomplished to describe, the glowing tints with 

 any degree of success, when the drawings and the descriptions are compared with the living 



originals. 



