2 BIRDS AND MAN 



the floor of the glass case — sand, rock, clay, 

 chalk, or gravel ; whatever the material may be 

 it invariably has, like all " matter out of place," a 

 grimy and depressing appearance. On the floor 

 are planted grasses, sedges, and miniature bushes, 

 made of tin or zinc and then dipped in a bucket 

 of green paint. In the chapter referred to it was 

 said, "When the eye closes in death, the bird, 

 except to the naturalist, becomes a mere bundle 

 of dead feathers ; crystal globes may be put into 

 the empty sockets, and a bold life -imitating 

 attitude given to the stuffed specimen, but the 

 vitreous orbs shoot forth no lifelike glances : the 

 ' passion and the fire whose fountains are within ' 

 have vanished, and the best work of the taxider- 

 mist, who has given a life to his bastard art, 

 produces in the mind only sensations of irritation 

 and disgust." 



That, in the last clause, was wrongly writ. It 

 should have been my mind, and the minds of 

 those who, knowing hving birds intimately as I 

 do, have the same feeling about them. 



This, then, being my feeling about stuffed 

 birds, set up in their "natural surroundings," I 

 very naturally avoid the places where they are 



