THE OOLOGIST 



59 



THE PASSING OF A GREAT BIRD 



TAXIDERMIST 



Nelson Rush Wood 



By R. W. Shufeldt. 



AVe have but very few scientific taxi- 

 dermists of birds in the land — 'that is, 

 in proportion to our population; Nel- 

 ?on Wood, who died suddenly in Wash- 

 ington on the eighth of last November, 

 was one of them, and, as a taxidermist 

 of representatives of certain groups of 

 birds, as pigeons and fowls, domes- 

 tic and wild, he had not his equal 

 in this country. At the time of his 

 death he was the taxidermist employed 

 by the United States National 

 Museum — a position he held continu- 

 ously for over thirty years. During 

 this long service he mounted for the 

 exhibition series of that institution a 

 A ery large number of birds from all 

 parts of the world; they range all the 

 Avay from the hummers to the eagles 

 and big vultures, while he paid espe- 

 cial attention to the pigeons, the 

 pi easants, wild turkey, quails, grouse, 

 and their numerous allies. Parrots 

 and toucans were also favorite sub- 

 jects of his, as were certain passerine 

 forms and the hawks and owls. 



Mr. Wood, whom I knew personally 

 for over a quarter of a century and of 

 whose accomplishments I was a close 

 student, was a great observer of birds 

 in nature, and it was such schooling 

 that enabled him to imitate their at- 

 titudes so well in his mounted speci- 

 mens. He mounted pheasants from all 

 parts of the world, and an entire day 

 may be well spent in the United States 

 National Museum, studying his truly 

 marvelous productions in this family. 

 Some of them actually look like living 

 birds, so gracefully and accurately did 

 he pose them. 



It is needless to say that the 

 Museum has sustained a most la- 

 mentable loss in the death of this man, 



combining, as he did, so many accom- 

 plishments in the line of his work, 

 and so cultured in each and all of 

 them. 



He could imitate to perfection the 

 notes of hundreds of birds and domes- 

 tic fowls; and when in the woods, he 

 could call every bird within hearing 

 into the trees and shrubbery close to 

 vrhere he stood- — even hawks and 

 crows flying far over his head were 

 lured in the same way through his 

 wonderful imitations. So, too, with 

 the barnyard fowls; and he certainly 

 was a puzzle to peacocks, peafowls, 

 ducks, chickens, and geese, when 

 among some assembly of them in a 

 well-stocked barnyard. Without any 

 apparent effort, he could either silence 

 them all, or, by varying their several 

 calls or cacklings, he could have the 

 entire lot in an uproar. 



In the Museum there is a fine, 

 mounted specimen of the Honduras 

 Turkey. i^Jot long ago I photographed 

 this bird, and it is reproduced here as 

 a fair sample of Mr. Wood's work in 

 1he case of a gallinaceous fowl; it 

 has never been published heretofore. 



The California Shrike 



This member of the "batcher bird" 

 family is one of the familiar birds in 

 the vicinity of Benicia. This town is 

 on the upper Sati Francisco Bay about 

 thirty miles by water from San Fran- 

 cisco. Because of the scarcity of un- 

 derbrush many of the birds of the Bay 

 region are not commonly found here, 



however, this Shrike is not adverse 

 to the open country, and because of its 

 habit of perching on telephone wires 

 and posts along the country highways 

 it is familiar to all passers-by. From 

 a distance the gray and white colors 

 of the bird call to mind the Mocking- 

 bird; however, the Mockingbird has 

 never been observed by me this far 

 north, although it is common in fh.§ 



