til THE ZOOLOGIST. 



TAXIDERMY— BE OMNIBUS REBUS. 



By Oxley Grabiiam, M.A., M.B.O.U. 



At my suggestion that a small portion of ' The Zoologist ' 

 should be devoted to the above science in all its branches, 

 whereby many who, like myself, are deeply interested in the 

 matter could exchange ideas and views to our mutual benefit, the 

 Editor has most courteously replied as follows : — " I am entirely 

 in sympathy with your views respecting the admittance of taxi- 

 dermal notes into ' The Zoologist.' I cannot imagine a science 

 of zoology which is not dependent more or less on some know- 

 ledge of animal preservation : now, as to method ! I will devote 

 a section of our Notes and Queries to Taxidermy and Preservation 

 of Animal Specimens, which will focus correspondence. . . . 

 The difficulties I see are possible lack of contributions on the 

 subject, and confining it in a purely non-professional area." 

 With regard to contributions, I venture to hope that these will 

 be ample, for most naturalists, be their speciality what it may, 

 are of necessity to a certain extent collectors also. Few dwellers 

 in the country have access to a well-stocked museum containing 

 all the types and varieties of whatever branch of zoology they 

 happen to be specially interested in, and therefore they either 

 preserve their own specimens, or get a professional to do it for 

 them. To many people the term collector is synonymous with 

 exterminator, and I am sorry to say that in numerous cases this 

 is only too true, and it is owing to the greed and the search after 

 £ s. d. of these so-called naturalists that many of our rarer 

 species, both of fauna and flora, are rapidly becoming exter- 

 minated ; but I am writing now of the naturalist in the truest 

 sense of the word, who only collects where there is the certainty 

 of an ample number of living specimens being left, and where, 

 through accident or otherwise, various rarities from time to time 

 fall into his hands. Surely in such cases as these no one can 

 find fault with the wish to preserve and save from decay any 



