TAXIDERMY 69 



a skeleton without disturbing the remainder. He 

 showed this by removing first the arm and then the 

 leg of the skeleton of a Pangolin ; restoring these 

 members, he then took out the vertebral column 

 entire, — in fact he took to pieces and then refitted 

 the whole skeleton." We are so used to-day to 

 seeing all the parts of natural objects or of whole tribes 

 and orders exquisitely arranged and set out, that we 

 are apt to forget that none of this analytic illustra- 

 tion of modifications of natural structure or of the 

 beauties of natural ornament then existed, and that 

 Flower, without having stated a programme, was 

 trying to convince the public as well as scientific 

 men, by very gentle persuasion and practical 

 example, that a change of teaching was needed and 

 was possible. That was not the time when half a 

 million people yearly would have visited a zoological 

 museum, as happened in the last year of his director- 

 ship of the Natural History Museum. In the 

 address mentioned above, he took occasion to say 

 a word or two on the great importance of such a 

 matter as the proper stuffing of skins, and especially 

 of bird's skins, so that they should be lifelike works 

 of art. He urged that taxidermy, or "stuffing," was 

 an art which deserved much more attention than it 

 received. A bird-stuffer then was little better than 

 a mechanic ; nor could it very well be otherwise 

 when he was so badly paid, even if he did good 

 work. He was often horrified to see the collections 

 of stuffed birds in local museums. He might 



