56 
SOO. OF AM. TAXIDERMISTS, ANNEAL REPORT. 
a soiled skin, while those who realize the importance of thoroughly 
relaxing a dried skin, or who can correctly make the neck of a 
Heron, may be counted on one’s fingers. With this ignorance, 
both of artistic and mechanical principles, it is not to be won- 
dered at that our birds and mammals are so deficient in form and 
feature, and to change this unhappy state of affairs is one of the 
great objects of this Society. First and foremost, reform, like 
charity, must begin at home, and if we can chtnge the taxider- 
mist somewhat the work will change itself. Let ns to begin v\dth 
study carefully the forms of the animals we work upon. I know 
that this advice seems almost superfluous, and yet too often our 
finished specimens are creatures of our imagination. This false 
method of constructing an animal to fit our theories and evolving 
him from our inner consciousness can but be productive of equally 
false results. Animals have a perverse and unhappy habit of as- 
suming impossible attitudes, and doing exactly those things which 
theory tells us they can not do, and I have been tripped so often 
myself that I feel quite at liberty to say that we should be care- 
ful how we condemn a piece of work simply because it does not 
correspond to our ideas. The greatest aid to a proper rendition 
of an animal’s form is a knowledge — if but a slight one — of the 
construction of its skeleton. Hor is this nearly so‘ difficult to ac- 
•/ 
quire as might be thought. A careful study of a few skeletons 
will teach the fundamental principles of osteology, and show to 
a great extent what attitudes are and what are not possible. 
Take for example long-necked birds, like the Herons, and a very 
brief study of the bones of the neck would prevent the unnatural 
and impossible poses so often given them, Ho sculptor would 
dream his education complete without a thorough knowledge of 
the skeleton, and if we would secure the best results we too must 
devote our attention to the subject also. My word for it, a little 
time devoted to anatomy would be well repaid. Good photo- 
graphs, too, are something we greatly need ; and now that it is 
comparatively easy to photograph animals in motion, we trust 
that ere long some enterprising individual will give us a series of 
views taken from living specimens. Such views are invaluable, 
and a taxidermist who is striving to do correct work should lose 
no opportunity to procure them. 
