so 



THE NIDIOLOGIST. 



The rare old Great Auk, probably worth 

 in money some thousand dollars or more, 

 was consigned to Mr. Nelson R. Wood of 

 the taxidermical department of the Museum 

 — a most skilled expert in his profession. 



It was a very difficult task that was 

 placed in his hands, for owing to the age 

 of the specimen the skin had become hard 

 and brittle, and 

 the original posi- 

 tion given it, so 

 unnatural, that 

 all that could be 

 hoped for was to 

 at least, in part, 

 correct a few of 

 the worst feat- 

 ures it presented. 

 With great care, 

 however, the 

 tedious piece of 

 work was duly 

 undertaken, and 

 after remodeling 

 and re-taxider- 

 mizing, the 

 spec i m e n was 

 made to assume 

 the attitude it 

 has in Fig. 2. 

 This, it will be 

 .seen, is a vast 

 improvement 

 upon the origin- 

 al piece of work 

 as shown in our 

 first picture, and 

 the specimen as 

 now mounted is, 

 at least, a far 



FIG. 2— THE GREAT AUK AS RECENTLY REMODELED AND MOUNTED. 



museum skins. He opens them along the 

 original ventral incision, and by inserting 

 into it the nozzle of a kettle, or some similar 

 vessel, allows the vapor of steam to per- 

 meate their interior, or else actually in- 

 jects hot water, in some cases, instead, 

 which has the effect in a very short time 

 of rendering the skin almost as pliable as 



when it was first 

 removed from 

 the recently 

 killed bird. The 

 operation has 

 proved to have 

 been of value to 

 the expert taxi- 

 dermist, and no 

 doubt in the fu- 

 ture will be used 

 in not a few 

 cases. 



We find in 

 our museums, 

 however, some 

 mounted speci- 

 mens of birds 

 distorted beyond 

 all hope of re- 

 pair. The skins 

 have been so 

 stretched that it 

 is found impos- 

 sible to bring 

 them back to 

 their or iginal 

 size, and the 

 only thing left 

 to do, provided 

 the bird is not 

 an extinct one, 



more pleasing and natural object to behold. 

 Its legs have been properly placed, and 

 much of the stiffness formerly seen in the 

 head and neck corrected. 



Mr. Brewster, the distinguished ornith- 

 ologist of Cambridge, has suggested a very 

 valuable method of treating these old 

 "mounts" when it becomes desirable either 

 to remodel them or convert them into 



is to patiently wait until another one in the 

 flesh turns up. 



Not long ago, among numerous others, 

 a case of this nature presented itself at the 

 Smithsonian Institution. A single King 

 Penguin represented its kind in the mounted 

 collections. It is, for the terrible thing is 

 still there, one of the mo.st frightful frights 

 that you can well imagine. His picture I 



