INTRODUCTION—ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 13 



Stuffed by some incompetent hand ; and the artist, as artists 

 constantly do, failed to recognise the utter atrocity of the lines 

 of form. No longer ago than 8th December 1894, there 

 appeared on page 3 of the Supplement to the Graphic an 

 article on " Modern Falconry," illustrated by a woodcut called 

 by courtesy " A Peregrine Falcon,'' but which might well have 

 represented, and perhaps did, a female sparrow-hawk ; at all 

 events, the drawing was made from an exceedingly ill-stuffed and 

 very ragged hawk of the most pronounced " bird-stuffer's " type. 



If artists blunder in this way, slavishly copying ill-matured 

 creations, taxidermists should use every endeavour to more 

 thoroughly and conscientiously grapple with the difficulties 

 which surround them ; until they do, they mislead artists who 

 are " form-blind," and they live in a fool's paradise themselves. 

 When they are thoroughly trained, and appreciate the niceties 

 of contour and the " lines of beauty," they may spare their 

 more scientific friends — who may not, however, be artists — the 

 trouble and annoyance of publishing a work which, projected to 

 do them and their country honour, has resulted in merely 

 showing up their ignorance, or their disregard, of the most 

 elementary principles of their art. 



Indeed, such instances as the above show that taxidermy 

 is an art but little understood and appreciated even by its 

 votaries and critics, and probably, although of growing im- 

 portance, no real progress will be made until educated youths 

 are specially trained by artists and cultured men of wide 

 knowledge. Coming to a consideration of the nations who 

 have contributed most to the artistic side of taxidermy, there 

 is no doubt that the Italians, French, and Germans were the 

 pioneers in this, and probably some of the oldest groups now 

 extant would be, those mentioned by Dr. Shufeldt^ on the 

 authority of Professor Brown Goode : — 



^ Rep. Smithsonian Institution for 1892, footnote, p. 407. 



