lo TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



and analogous parts, throughout the animal kingdom — the eyes and 

 their surroundings, the nasal structures, the mouth of all vertebrates 

 and invertebrates. Indeed, there is not a point properly falling within 

 the range of topographical anatomy in its very widest sense that should 

 be beneath the special notice of the taxidermist 



Colours of parts should also receive marked attention ; and the 

 taxidermist should keep a notebook devoted to that one branch alone. 

 Never should an opportunity be lost to record by actual painted sketches 

 the colours of every external anatomical character presented on the 

 part of any animal whatsoever. Zoology itself would be far freer from 

 gross errors of the colour descriptions of animals were naturalists, as a 

 rule, more careful in such matters. This is markedly the case in 

 ichthyology and in the naked skin-tracts of mammals and birds. We, 

 then, are naturally led to the question of drawing and painting ; and no 

 one will doubt the necessity of a taxidermist being more or less pro- 

 ficient in all these branches. But none of them will be of any service 

 to him unless the power be supplemented by the more important 

 faculty of being a correct observer, and to be a correct observer is to 

 see and appreciate things as they really exist. Taxidermists should 

 have a knowledge of not only making correct sketches of all kinds of 

 animals and their haunts and of plants and colouring them correctly, 

 but they should be enabled to use such instruments as are demanded in 

 making reduced drawings correctly from large subjects. Colouring in 

 oil is also of great value in restoring the tints in some cases on the skins 

 of preserved animals, and the student in this art should constantly aim 

 to cultivate his sense of colour-appreciation, and of the matching of all 

 the various shades. 



While agreeing most thoroughly and heartily with the main 

 propositions concerned, there are yet two matters upon which 

 opinions may differ : one is the value of amateur photography, 

 and what may be called eccentric photography — such as some 

 of Muybridge's productions ; the other is a collegiate education. 



To take the first : amateur photography of animals is 

 usually a great mistake, especially if the ubiquitous " Kodaker " 

 is not an artist. Some of the photographs from living birds 

 in Dr. Shufeldt's own work bear out this contention, especially 



