PICTORIAL GROUPS OF MAMMALS, BIRDS, ETC. 397 



bears, lions, and other large carnivora. The case of fighting 

 tigers previously mentioned and figured may, perhaps, be con- 

 sidered somewhat sensational and out of place as a museum 

 object, but it was primarily executed to show that such things 

 could be set up, not on weighty " mannikins " loaded with 

 clay, but on light paper models, and also with some material 

 {not putty and paint) which should faithfully and naturally 

 imitate the flesh of the inside of the mouth. 



In America, however, the Government Museums are in 

 advance of ours, for the bisons in the National Museum are 

 mounted in a large case, with all accessories, as detailed by Mr. 

 Harry P. Godwin.^ 



Having warned the pupil not to commit errors of judgment, 

 it may be stated that instances sometimes occur of apparent 

 incongruity, which, though perfectly natural and often exceed- 

 ingly beautiful, require some courage and a great deal of 

 technical skill to reproduce with anything like an air of reality. 

 Such objects as thrift or sea-rockets in flower, with dead sea- 

 weeds and shells, around a group of ringed plover are common 

 enough, but even these are to be handled cautiously, for what 

 is apparently a small space out of doors is a very large 

 space indeed within the walls of a museum. What will be 

 said, however, of tall and handsome flowering plants, associated 

 in our minds with inland gardens, in close proximity to living 

 seaweeds and sea-molluscs, and tenanted by numberless birds 

 of many species ? 



Such a scene as this may be found in many parts along 

 the east coast, and a description of one such scene in Lincoln- 

 shire, observed by the writer, may be interesting to those who 

 are advanced enough to copy the idea now being carried out in 

 the Leicester Museum. 



' Washington Star, loth March 1888, also Smithsonian Report for 1887, pp. 

 546, 547- 



