104 FISH-TAXIDERMY. [PART I. 
perfection. So-called preserved specimens are 
almost invariably stuck straight up in the mid- 
dle of their cases—fins and tail stretched to the 
utmost possible limits—eyes, the largest that can 
be forced into the sockets, and guiltless of any 
attempt at speculation—body often stuffed out like 
a “rolly-polly” pudding, and the colour generally 
toned down to a rich deep mahogany: all this too 
very frequently without the slightest accessories 
of weed or stones to relieve the barren dreariness 
of the case. 
Conceive a portrait-painter representing his 
subject as standing, without fore or back-ground, 
“straight to the front,’ staring before him on 
vacancy with distended eyelids, his legs as wide 
apart as possible, his arms extended at right 
angles to his body, and the whole coloured 4 la 
Mulatio. Such a portrait would be deservedly 
treated as a caricature: yet it would probably 
convey about as faithful an idea of the man, as 
the other of the fish. It may not be easy to give 
much expression to the eye, but surely our Taxi- 
dermists, by devoting a little more attention to 
this branch of their art, might succeed in generally 
investing their fish with more life, truth, and cha- 
racter. 
