TAXIDERMY— DE OMNIBUS REBUS. 413 



species of the animal world in the nearest approach to its original 

 form and beauty, for when so preserved they are a lifelong delight 

 to their owner and to others of a kindred spirit. Then with 

 regard to the professional taxidermist, of course it is only right 

 that as he has his living to make by the business he should be 

 chary of gratuitously imparting his skill and knowledge to others; 

 but the day has gone by when the knowledge of these things was 

 held only by a few, and every first-class professional man is 

 always ready and willing to give instruction for a reasonable 

 quid pro quo. I could name one or two, regular readers of * The 

 Zoologist,' who, if I mistake not, would gladly contribute on the 

 matter, as it is one thing to be told how to do it, and quite 

 another to do it. No one can hope to succeed who has not 

 infinite patience and a love for his work, and then indeed practice 

 makes perfect. In these days when Taxidermy has been raised to 

 a high art, as witness the beautiful cases in the national collection 

 at South Kensington, where every detail is made as true to nature 

 as possible, there is no room for bad work. It is as easy to be 

 accurate as the reverse, but many men who can set up a bird 

 passably well as regards form, fail lamentably in those niceties 

 of detail, inattention to which completely spoils a specimen. 

 How often does one see birds placed in impossible positions, legs 

 and beak painted the wrong colour, the tint of the iris completely 

 ignored, fearful and wonderful productions called rockwork covered 

 with all sorts of impossible leaves and plants and bits of variously 

 coloured glass, birds in winter plumage cased amidst summer 

 surroundings, and vice versa, and even the breasts of sea-birds 

 whitewashed ! Quot homines tot sententice, and so with Taxideimy : 

 one man opens his birds up the breast, another under the wing, 

 and another down the back; one uses soft stuffing entirely, 

 another a hard body exactly the size of the one he has removed 

 from the skin, and another uses a combination of the two, and as 

 in the hands of a past master each method is capable of producing 

 excellent results, everyone must choose for himself. With regard 

 to preservative powders, — liquids, soaps, &c, — their name is 

 legion, from the most deadly to the equally efficacious though 

 most harmless. Most professionals pin their faith on the deadly 

 ones ; one man that I knew had his finger-nails eaten away, suffered 

 from salivation, and the usual concomitants of mercurial poisoning, 



