6 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
it a more or less unyielding hide that does not conceal the 
defects of the model, but has defects of its own to be hidden. 
Probably no one who has had actual experience in mounting 
large mammals would question this, though probably few 
people realise the great progress that has been made in the 
mounting of animals, particularly large mammals. Not very 
many years ago animals were most literally stuffed—suspended 
head downwards and rammed full of straw, often till they 
could hold no more. These methods were followed by the 
making of a manikin of tow; next the manikin of wire-netting 
and papier-mache, and finally the modelling of the animal in 
clay, giving all detail of muscle contours, etc-—the modelling 
of this in plaster and the making of a light and durable frame 
upon which the skin is deftly placed, copyine the folds and 
wrinkles of life. 
So far as I can find out, the first to introduce group 
mounting was an enthusiastic private collector, Mr. H. T. 
Booth, of Brighton, who devoted a large part of his life to 
making a collection of British Birds, mounted in various 
attitudes, with accessories which copied more or less accurately 
the appearance of the spot where they were taken. As Mr. 
Booth wrote, “the chief object has been to represent the birds 
in situations somewhat similar to those in which they were 
obtained ; many of the cases indeed being copied from sketches 
taken on the actual spots where the birds themselves were 
shot.” These groups were intended to be viewed from the front 
only, and were arranged in cases of standard size, assembled 
along the side of a large hall. The collection, which was begun 
about 1858, was bequeathed to the town of Brighton in 1890, 
and hence did not appear in a Public Museum until that year. 
I cannot find out with certainty, but I believe the Liverpool 
Museum was the first Public Museum, not excepting South 
Kensington, to exhibit “ group” specimens. In the year 1865 
a group of the coot was prepared and was exhibited at the 
