382 TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



brass-filings, and sometimes outside that again another streak of 

 glittering galena. That such curiosities are found in museums 

 is attested by the fact that in the Leicester Museum is a col- 

 lection of British birds, nine-tenths of them exquisitely set up, 

 but all mounted on sanded brown paper picked out with lines 

 of brass-filirigs and galena The folly of accepting any donation 

 tied by certain restrictions is exemplified here. The beautiful 

 birds, bequeathed in 1865, may not be rearranged, and there- 

 fore take up space, and, by their mounting, outrage the sensi- 

 bilities of artists day by day. 



Another and better variety of the same fancy rockwork 

 occurs, when the artist sees a piece of living rock which he 

 would like to imitate, and, by sketches and by memory, attempts 

 to perpetuate it, or else when he gets as large a piece as 

 possible and, with this before him, attempts to reconcile his 

 lines with those of the rock. 



In either instance, supposing the design aimed at to be a 

 large wall case to hold several animals in various positions, a 

 convenient foundation is made by putting together some boards 

 to make a false bottom for the case ; at the back of this false 

 bottom are nailed several uprights of, say, 3 inches by ^ inch 

 board, and of the various heights which the rockwork will sub- 

 sequently attain. Pieces of various lengths of half-inch or, if 

 the specimens are weighty, thicker board are nailed on end 

 to the back supports at any height required, and may have a 

 cross-piece nailed on to them or from one to the other as an 

 extra support where necessary. 



From the back and over the supports, effectually hiding them, 

 are nailed pieces of old cardboard, milliners' boxes, hat-boxes, 

 paper boxes of all kinds broken up into suitable pieces, and 

 assimilating roughly to the shape or character of the rock which 

 is to be copied. When the whole is covered with cardboard, 

 brown paper is glued over all, and where there are rounded edges 



