104 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol, XII, 
properly preserving their trophies, and I am glad to be able to quote a note 
written by Mr. Barton, when kindly looking over the draft of this paper. 
He writes :—“ A sportsman should always study Natural History and learn a 
“few of the ordinary ways of preserving specimens and trophies in the field, 
“ By so doing he will find much more pleasure in the sport, and will know that 
“ what he kills is not wasted through ignorance, How many beautiful skins 
“are spoiled and afterwards thrown away simply through not having a little 
“ proper attention paid to them at first? The skinning is probably left to 
“be done by the men without any supervision, and there are very few natives 
“who, without any instructions, will skin a tiger's head so that it can be set 
“up decently. Many aman who shoots his first tiger looks on it with pride 
“and would gladly pay down a large sum to have the head set up as a trophy, 
“but he has not the least idea how to set about its preparation, so leaves it 
“to his men, and the thing turns outa failure, I remember some years ago 
“a large tiger skin being sent down to the Natural History Society to be 
“eured ; the fresh skin had been laid out flat in a large tin-lined wooden case 
- “about 8 feet by 7 feet, no preservative of any sort had beeu put on the skin, 
“and the case was about four days on the journey to Bombay, and was a mass 
“ of corruption when received, In the letter that came with the box it stated 
“that the skin had been putin perfectly fresh and in perfect condition so 
“that there could not be any excuse for its not being properly set up! One 
“may imagine the sportsman’s feelings when told the state it was in on arrival 
“and that it had to be buried, And this was his first tiger !”’ 
For the benefit of anyone who wishes to follow Mr. Barton’s advice, let 
me recommend a book on “Taxidermy” by Mr, W. T. Hornaday, who, for a 
number of years, was chief taxidermist of the U.S. National Museum at 
Washington, and whose most interesting experiences of field work in India 
and other countries are related in his “ Two Years in the Jungle,” The former 
of these two books is one that should undoubtedly be in the hands of every 
field naturalist, for it will be found to cover in detail a great part of the sub- 
ject of this paper, and of course far more besides, 
While on the subject of books that deal with the section that we are now 
considering, I may here mention two others, v7z., Mr. W. T. Blanford’s lately 
published volume on the Mammalia, forming one of the series of the “ Fauna 
of British India’’ that he is editing, and secondly Mr. G. P. Sanderson’s 
ini, Thirteen Years among the Wild Beasts of India?’ which will for many years 
.. yet remain a standard work of its kind, 
Apart, however, from the actual operation of removing the skin successfully, 
a few notes on its temporary preservation until it can be handed over to the 
‘dresser’ or taxidermist, may possibly be of some assistance to those who 
have not had the practical experience, and who have not by them some such 
book as ‘ Taxidermy’ referred to above, which treats of the subject at length. 
Before removing the skin, however, there is one operation to perform, and one 
