12 
WARD’S NATURAL SCIENCE BULLETIN. 
tain outlay of physical strength. Some animals 
— as the Manatee — have bones so hard that it is 
a difficult matter to pierce them, while in others 
the bone is so soft as to give way under the 
tightening of the wires. All these obstacles 
must be overcome. Truly an osteologist’s lot 
is not a happy one, and there are moments when 
even the best tempered individual is filled with 
a wild desire to throw the offending specimen on 
the floor and perform a war dance not only 
around but upon it. Skeletons, however, are 
valuable, and the osteologist is obliged to prac- 
tice a moderation he does not always feel. After 
the articulator — to borrow a word from Prof. 
Flower — has completed his work, the blacksmith 
makes the supports, the carpenter the pedestal, 
the painter finishes both, an assistant pastes on 
the bottom a label bearing the name, number 
and locality, and finally the skeleton is carried 
to the “ Large Museum.” Here in a large and 
lofty room the skeletons are arranged in zoolog- 
ical sequence, or as near it as the problem of 
utilizing space to the best advantage will allow, 
and here, should the visitor so desire, he can 
select a good anatomical collection, or for that 
matter, half a dozen of them. Man, the Orang, 
Gibbons, Dog-faced Babboons, Howler, Marmo- 
zet and Slow Lemur, representing the principal 
families of Primates, give a very good synopsis 
of the osteology of the order, and the other orders 
of Vertebrata are represented with equal fulness. 
Among the numerous species represented by 
these many hundred skeletons, both the young 
student and the specialist can find material for 
study. The Cat, Duck and Codfish are there for 
the former, and for the latter such forms as the 
Hyrax, Ornithorhyncus, Opisthocomus, Apteryx, 
Hatteria and Ceratodus. From here they are 
called by frequent orders to every part of the 
United States, as well as to many foreign coun- 
tries; and, as in the storeroom, the stock is con- 
stantly changing. 
The packing of these same skeletons is no easy 
matter, and the osteological corps looks with 
envy and exasperation upon the mineralogists 
whose packing is usually of the simplest. Large 
pieces are usually dismounted, the pedestal se- 
cured to the bottom of a box, and the body, skull 
and limbs lashed securely to numerous cross-bars. 
A box of small skeletons, however, presents a 
more difficult problem, and when finished is a 
perfect maze of cross-bars and strings, fifiie 
skulls of the mammals are detached and fasten- 
ed inside the chest cavity, and twine passed 
around the legs and tied to the standards. The 
skulls of birds are so secured that even if loos- 
ened they cannot fall, while the smallest pieces 
are completely enveloped in soft paper. All 
being thus prepared, the pedestals are secured to 
the sides of the box by screws from without, and 
a general view taken of the situation. Here a 
dog is weak in the knees and must be supported 
by bars at the neck and pelvis. One of these 
bars runs under the back of a Turtle, and a cord 
passed around his body prevents all vibration, 
while to the other is secured the neck and bill of 
a Heron, whose long legs are sustained by still 
another brace. There a fish’s skull has to be 
held up by cords passing diagonally to the sides 
of the box, and a duck's bill is “guyed” in a 
similar manner. So one after another all are 
secured, an occasional shake of the box showing 
that all undue vibration of its contents has been 
guarded against. We must plead guilty to a 
certain amount of pride in our skilled packers, 
for fragile as skeletons are, breakages but seldom 
occur, and besides to all parts of the United 
States, we have sent them safely to Europe, 
Japan and Australia. A few words about some 
of our more noteworthy pieces will serve as an 
appropriate ending Our largest mammal was a 
sixty-five foot Finback Whale, the smallest a 
mouse, with all intermediate sizes, including sev- 
eral elephants. In birds, the extreme are the 
Ostrich and the Wren, while among reptiles the 
honors are prettily evenly divided between a 
thousand pound Lyre Turtle, a fifteen foot Croco- 
dile, and a Python twenty-one feet in length. 
To us came the well known Elephant Tippoo 
Saib, after the bones had literally served as 
bones of contention between the claimants of 
them. The race horses Lexington and Henry 
Clay were mounted at our establishment, the lat- 
ter having lain buried for twenty years. Among 
other noted horses were General Sherman’s and 
General Lee’s, while the skeleton that figured in 
Leland Stanford’s “The Horse in Motion,” was 
furnished by us. But the list is becoming long 
and so we will take the reader through the gothic 
arch formed by the jaws of a Right Whale, and 
bid him farewell. F. A. L. 
A GROUP OF HOGS. 
We lately shipped to one of our clients, Mr. J. 
Z. Davis, of San Francisco, an interesting group 
illustrative of the Hog family. 
They were led by a monster domestic Hog 
from Western Virginia. This colopus measures 
eight feet in length, stands four feet high (!) and 
is said to have weighed when alive, 1,400 lbs. Its 
face bore an expression of happy content and 
satisfaction with its bodily greatness, while its 
jaws were adorned with a pair of tusks which 
swept out laterally in a great curve, and then re- 
turned into the mouth, sadly impeding mastica- 
tion, and ultimately causing the animal’s death. 
The next in the group was a Wild Boar ( Sus 
scrophavnr. —ferus) from the Park of Campaigne, 
north of Paris. In former times, under the Im- 
perial regime, these beasts were carefully protect- 
ed and preserved for shooting at the yearly meeting 
there of the Emperor, with his Court and invited 
guests. The soldiers of the German army of oc- 
cupation in 1871, made rude havoc with the 
game— Boars, Deer, Pheasants, etc. — in all these 
preserves, and we are told that the Boars have 
never since attained such dimensions as before. 
Our individual was one of the very largest. 
The third specimen was a Peccary from 
Texas — Dicotyles torquatus. This is the most 
slender limbed and compact bodied of all the 
Hog race. It is . an interesting fact that while 
this species— the only wild hog of the United 
States — is now limited to Texas, it had formerly 
a wide spread over our whole country, abundant 
remains of the fossil Peccary having been found 
in New York and Ohio, and many of the West- 
ern States. 
The fourth and final specimen of our group 
was the Wart Hog ( Phacochairus aethiopicus) of 
Abyssinia. This has scant hair on its body, but 
something of a mane; tufts on its ears, and a sort 
of side whiskers. Its canines or tusks are curi- 
ously developed, those of the upper jaw turning 
short upwards, and met on their outer side by 
the inside surface of the lower pair. This indi- 
vidual was small, not two feet long, and thus 
well closed the lower end of our series of the 
family of tiuidae. 
BULLETIN OF THE 
NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 
A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY. 
EIGHTH YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 
Though intended, primarily, as a medium of 
communication between working ornithologists, 
and, consequently, maintaining a high technical 
character, this Bulletin aims to be entertaining 
as well as instructive, and contains a fair portion 
of sufficiently popular matter to suit all those 
who are interested in birds. It is mainly devoted 
to the Ornithology of North America. Be- 
ing a general Magazine op Ornithology, its 
review department promptly gives critical 
notes, not only of all American works and 
papers, but of the more important publications 
relating to Ornithology at large; while its de- 
partment of General notes is rich in the ex- 
periences of the working Ornithologists of this 
country. Mr. J. A. ALLEN, Editor: 
Assisted by Prof. S. F. Baird, and Dr. Elliott 
Coues. 
Terms, $2 a year, including postage, strictly 
in advance. Back volumes at the same price. 
Single numbers 50 cents. Remittances by mail 
at the risk of the sender, unless sent by postal 
order or draft on Boston or New York. 
Address Charles F. Baciielder, Cambridge, 
Mass. Foreign subscribers may obtain the Bul- 
letin of J. Van Voorst & Co., Paternoster 
Row, London. 
A NOTABLE BOOK ON BIRDS.* 
It is impossible for any intelligent person to 
turn the pages of the superb volume before us 
and not be stirred with a deeper interest in the 
beautiful forms so graphically represented. 
Even those who never felt any especial interest 
in the subject must find their attention fixed by 
such a tempting array of plates and descriptions 
as we find in Studer's Birds of North America. 
The appearance of such a work is an event wor- 
thy of note, especially to the general public, for 
whom it is more particularly designed; and al- 
though it has reached its fourth edition, it is 
still, to most people, a new book. 
As the title unmistakably announces, this is a 
popular work on the birds of our continent, and 
has been prepared to meet the wants of the gen- 
eral reader rather than the scientist. The text 
is studiously free from the perplexing technical- 
ities which abound in all works intended for the 
professional naturalist, all of which is of the 
highest scientific value to the few; but of neces- 
sity^ a work increases in value to the scientist, 
it lessens its interest to the unscientific reader. 
Studer’s Birds of North America is a book for 
both the student and the scholar, the man of 
business and the intelligent mechanic, for the 
farmer, the sportsman, and lovers of animated 
nature generally; and above all, it is a book for 
the family. 
The text is highly reliable, entirely readable, 
and scientifically accurate as far as it goes. Each 
species is designated by both its common and 
scientific name, which in nearly every case will 
be found in strict accordance with the latest 
authorities, and therefore reliable. The author 
does not attempt to describe the species, but 
devotes the space allotted to each to a history of 
its habits and habitat. 
As may readily be inferred, the hundred and 
nineteen plates are the leading features of the 
book. Dr. Jasper's strong point is his accuracy. 
The coloring, although not so finely wrought 
as it could have been had it been the intention 
to sell the work at double the present price, is 
faithful to nature in nearly every case, which 
after all is the important feature to be considered. 
Here and there a bird has upon some part of its 
body a faint shade not quite its own, as for ex- 
ample, the bluish tinge on the back of the great 
horned owl, and the yellow tinge on the back of 
the common quail, both faults undoubtedly due 
to the lithographer. We notice other little slips 
of a similar nature, no doubt due to the same 
cause. With a few exceptions similar to the 
above, the coloring is very accurate and in most 
cases the treatment of the plumage is satisfactory. 
If any additional feature were needed to en- 
hance tlie attractiveness of the work, it is found 
in the beautiful landscape background which 
adorns each plate. Each large bird or group of 
birds is represented in its favorits haunts: the 
eagle in his eyrie, the sea-birds by the sea, the 
hawks in their native tree-tops, the herons wad- 
ing in the still lagoon. Like the birds them- 
selves, the landscapes are drawn and colored 
with artistic skill and taste. Very many of them 
taken with the birds are pictures of real beauty, 
prominent among which are the plates showing 
the sea eagle, meadow lark, loon, and wood 
duck. 
But it is quite impossible to do more than 
merely call attention to the more important fea- 
tures of the work. The typography is good, the 
binding elegant and substantial, and taken alto- 
gether, the book is an ornithological treasure 
which no one interested in birds can afford to be 
without. 
*Studer’s Popular Ornithology : The Birds of North 
America. Upwards of 700 different species and varie- 
ties, comprising' all that are known to exist on this 
continent. Represented on 119 colored plates drawn 
from nature by Theodore Jasper, A. M., M. D., with a 
letter press devoted to giving a popular account of 
their habits and characteristics. Edited and published 
by Jacob H. Studer & Go., Tribune Building, New York. 
Large royal quarto, Fourth Edition. 1883. 
