BOOKS OP REFERENCE FOR ATTITUDES. 251 



as to a^ttitudes, but ou one point I miglit advise, in order 

 to save tlie many inquiries addressed to me, from time to 

 tim.e, upon the subject of the straightness or otherwise of gulls' 

 legs. The fact is — gulls, when standing, tuck the tibia quite close 

 to the abdomen, apparently under the wing, and reveal only a 

 very little portion of the tibio-tarsal joint, keeping the 

 metatarse perfectly straight, or, as someone wrote to me once, 

 *' like two arrows or sticks." (For explanation of these parts 

 named, see Plate II., (N, q, P.) 



Although most works on taxidermy profess to give descrip- 

 tions of the attitudes of animals, I cannot do so for the 

 simple reason that I consider the acquirement a speciality 

 and purely a matter of experience. Nature must be closely 

 studied ; failing this, reference must be made to illustrated works 

 on natural history. All of Gould's works are grand guides to 

 attitudes of specimens and accessories, as also that beautiful 

 work of my friend H. E, Dresser, P.L.S., &c., on the "Birds of 

 Europe;" bat as the price of these magnificent works places 

 them beyond the reach of any but rich people, the amateur may 

 fall back on Morris's "British Birds" and Bree's "Birds of 

 Europe " for coloured plates, and Routledge's " Wood's Natural 

 History " for uncoloured plates of many mammals, birds, and 

 fishes; those signed by Coleman being especially artistic and 

 natural. Add to these Cassell's new " Natural History," edited 

 by Dr. Duncan, F.R.S. — really the best book on popular natural 

 history we have. 



Other works, perhaps not so easily accessible, are the " Pro- 

 ceedings of the Zoological Society," and the " Ibis," for coloured 

 illustrations of animals — often in characteristic attitudes, and 

 which, with the above-named works, fitly replace the more ancient 

 *' pictures" of animals, arranged on the "fore and aft" system, 

 and from which instead of nature, our taxidermists took their 

 original ideas; indeed, the English school, with true British 

 insularity, would, I presume, have continued the mounting of 

 animals by this "fore and aft" method,* had not the Germans and 

 French broken rudely in on our slumbering taxidermists at the 

 Oreat Exhibition of 1851. 



* Is it not singular that even now anything stiff, inartistic, "solidly " (?.''. clumsily) made, 

 or behind the a?e, is cherished with the utmost veneration, as being a proof of the solidity 

 of our " Old English Methods" (and skulls) 1 



