14 PRACTICAL TAXIDERMY. 



eluding fhose before noted) were written on taxidermy, tlie most 

 notable being by Swalnson, Brown, and tbat eccentric genius 

 Waterton, wliom we may call tbe pioneer of our present system 

 of mounting, and who, in his usual caustic style, pointed out tbe 

 very inferior way in whicb. specimens were then mounted. At 

 the end of his "Wanderings in South America" appeared a 

 treatise on Taxidermy, but, as he decried the use of asenlcal 

 preparations, and mounted his birds without wires in a fashion 

 peculiar to himself, his system did not find favour In the eyes of 

 the school of rigid stuffing, who had not then worked out the 

 present happy compromise between his style and theirs. His 

 patience must have been inexhaustible ; indeed, the Rev. J. G. 

 Wood, who know him well, has told me of many instances In 

 which, he spent days In scraping out the hands and feet of the 

 larger apes until he got them as thin as paper, and also of his 

 delight when he invented the kid-glove substitute for a peacock's 

 face, much to the astonishment of the reverend gentleman. Of 

 course, all these works on the preservation of natural history 

 objects and the labours of collectors directed the public mind to 

 the contemplation of natural history. 



The British Museum at this time also — relieved of a few 

 of the restrictions on admission — became more popular, and 

 in 1836 we find the natural history collections were as follow : 

 Mammals, species 405; birds, species 2400; constituting alto- 

 gether in specimens the sum total of 4659. Of reptiles we 

 could boast — species 600, specimens 1300 ; fish 1000 specimens. 

 These figures did not contrast favourably with the Paris 

 Museum as in the days of old for now Paris stood : Mammals, 

 species 500 ; birds, species 2300 ; grand total of specimens 6000. 

 Of fish the French had four times as many as we (and beat 

 us, proportionately, in other sections), while we were far in 

 advance in this class of the Vienna and Berlin Museums. 

 In shells (not fossils), London and Paris were equal and much 

 superior to Berlin and Leyden. In 1848 an extraordinary 

 Increase (marking the great interest taken in taxidermlcal 

 science) bad taken place; we now had added to the British 

 Museum since 1836, 29,595 specimens, comprising 5797 mammals, 

 13,414 birds, 4112 reptiles, 6272 fish. 



In mammals and birds we held the proud position of having 



