800. OF AM. TAXIDERMISTS, ANNEAL REPORT. 
form of a live deer of the same size that there is between a painted 
cow on a butcher’s sign and one byKosa Bonheur ; and yet I had 
very little trouble in mounting my first deer, far less than I would 
have now with another of the same size. I looked upon it then 
and called it good. To-day, were it not my first large mammal, 
I would blush to own it. 
If there is an intelligent person who believes that taxidermy 
is easy, or that it is not, when successfully prosecuted one of the 
most difficult of the fine arts, let him come to my work-room and 
I will point out where the difficulties lie. Bad taxidermy is 
easy, I grant, but we are not discussing stuffed monstrosities of 
any kind. 
It is impossible for any one to give in one short paper general 
directions by which animals may be more correctly mounted than 
they now are. Each worker has his own methods, and it is not 
to be expected that these could be easily abandoned and others 
substituted. I care not what a man’s methods may be so long as 
they produce proper results. But there are certain faults com- 
mon to nearly all mounted animals, beasts, birds, reptiles, and 
fishes, which should be pointed out and avoided hereafter. Hav- 
ing studied one class of animals with particular interest and un- 
der circumstances very favorable to comparison of the inanimate 
with the animate forms, I consider it my duty to point out what 
I conceive to be common faults in the mounting of mammals. 
It is somewhat difficult to classify them in the order of their 
importance ; but it would be still more difficult to explain fully 
how' each may be remedied without filling a small volume. To 
the active and progressive workers of the Society of American 
Taxidermists I believe it is only necessary to point out common 
faults and leave them to find their own remedies. 
The most common and most serious fault with about ninety 
per cent, of all quadrupeds that pass through the hands of the 
taxidermist is that they are stuffed too full. This is quite as true 
of European as American work ; and if we improve in this direc- 
tion we will, to that extent at least, surpass the work of all other 
countries. It is easy to fill a skin too full ; it is difficult — very 
difficult — to keep it down to its natural size and shape. The 
tendency of loose or fibrous filling is to distend the skin and 
