TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



" half an inch, and in places one and a half inch." Its extreme 

 weight — 1538 lbs. — also proved that ; and why it should have 

 been taken off in three pieces was difficult to understand, whilst 

 the startling item of 74,000 nails and their aggregate weight 

 left the untechnical reader in doubt as to whether great weight 

 of wood, iron, and skin, in a taxidermic specimen, was the object 

 aimed at. 



After pointing out that the great weight of the model, 

 pedestal, wagon, and special car might have been obviated by 

 a little forethought, the writer concluded by saying that, until 

 tradition in such matters was discarded, the science of taxi- 

 dermy would never advance by its own merits. 



Soon afterwards, there appeared a full description of the 

 methods employed by Professor Ward in his taxidermic 

 establishment near New York.-^ 



The mannikins, now much affected by the best professional 

 taxidermists, are made in a variety of ways. Mr. Rowland 

 Ward was probably the first to publish a less complicated 

 system of making a wooden model for a tiger.^ A board being 

 primarily cut roughly to the shape of the skin, seven iron rods 

 are bolted to it, viz. two for the head, one for the tail, and 

 four for the limbs. These latter are bent to the position 

 required, and bolted or screwed firmly to a base. On the 

 upstanding model are now nailed segments of board to give the 

 idea of ribs and other parts of the body, and across these laths 

 are nailed. The artificial limb-bones are, by some taxidermists, 

 carved from soft wood, bored to the diameter of the leg-rods, 

 sawn down their lengths, and afterwards tied around the rods ; 

 but this is a roundabout way of getting effects which can be 

 much better and more quickly managed by other processes if the 

 actual bones cannot be used, and binding the rods with tow 



' Natural Science Bulletin, 1st May, 1886. 

 2 Tlie Sportsman^! Handbook, first edition, pp. 55-58 ; seventh edition, pp. 77-81. 



