626 
FOREST AND STREAM 
BIRD CONSERVATION. 
The Rockefeller Foundation has accomplished 
a fine piece of conservation strategy in buying a 
tract of 85,000 acres in Louisiana, with a front¬ 
age of 75 miles on the Gulf coast, for a winter 
refuge for migratory birds. The birds will pre¬ 
sumably find out after a season or two that these 
500 square miles of land and water constitute a 
safe haven, just as the animals have found it out 
in Yellowstone Park. And they will doubtless 
appreciate the benefaction. 
There is plenty of economic as well as senti¬ 
mental justification for the venture. The safe¬ 
guarding of game birds means the increase or 
preservation of a valuable part of the nation’s 
food supply. More important than that, however, 
is the fact that anything which preserves against 
destructive insects and the safeguarding of the 
country’s crops, is worthy of careful attention. 
In that respect alone the investment of the 
Rockefeller Foundation’s $225,000 in Louisiana 
may bear fruit a thousand fold. 
ART IN TAXIDERMY. 
An interesting feature of taxidermy is soon to 
be exhibited in the National Museum. In con¬ 
nection with the rearranging of the scenic effect 
of one of the Roosevelt animal groups, actual 
African plants and grasses are to be filled with 
plaster and preserved in their natural state to 
give the animal specimens local color. 
In the art of modern taxidermy, the old system 
of simply “stuffing” the skins of animals has 
been done away with, and a standard method of 
accurate life-size modelling established. Over a 
carefully made plaster-cast of this model, the 
skin is stretched, glued, and sewed, so that it is 
difficult to see how it was accomplished; for the 
moment, it is easy to believe that the animal itself 
has been preserved intact in some marvellous 
manner. 
For many years past the National Museum has 
been employing natural scenery—real grass, foli¬ 
age and soil—in its biologic and ethnographic 
groups, much as in theatrical effects, to create a 
natural atmosphere. Nowadays, museums do 
not simply mount individual animals on a plat¬ 
form and place them in a case. They are mounted 
in natural attitudes, and ground work, suitable 
to both the environment and the posture of the 
figures, is prepared. 
The animals are often arranged in family or 
social groups that the student or spectator can 
glean something more than an impression of how 
an isolated specimen looks. Physical geography, 
geology, botany and other studies now enter the 
field of taxidermy. 
In preparing a new setting for the African 
buffalo group, built in the National Museum abou: 
a year ago, the three animals are to be left in 
their original positions, which indicate alarm, 
just as they were first discovered by the hunters, 
but in addition they are to be represented as 
standing on the edge of an African papyrus 
swamp. The ground-work of the group will pre¬ 
sent the effect of the marsh-land where the 
buffalo live, the grasses and plants being added, 
that a complete picture of the African swamp 
may be effected. 
Since nearly all grasses and foliage are sub¬ 
ject to decay and shrinkage, with consequent 
loss of original form and color, they, like the 
skins of the animals, are especially prepared. 
Few grasses, as a rule, can be dyed or preserved 
in anything like their natural form, but, for¬ 
tunately, to this end the papyrus lends itself very 
well. The plants having thick stems, are opened, 
and the pithy inner removed; they are then bent 
or curved and secured in the position desired, 
wired, and filled with plaster. 
When the plaster is set, the plants are painted 
to represent their colors in life, and grouped to¬ 
gether with other grasses to form a setting for 
the animals. 
When the African buffalo group was first as¬ 
sembled, as no African material was yet at hanc, 
it was decided to use temporarily cosmopolitan 
foliage which was to be found here as well as in 
Africa. Although the artistic effect proved very 
satisfactory, the Museum officials determined to 
have this group as technically correct in every 
detail as the lion, the hartebeest, and the rhinoc¬ 
eros groups already on exhibition, and finally ar¬ 
rangements were made whereby the native 
African material was obtained. Several cases 
of papyrus plants and arundo grass were secured 
from the natural habitat of these buffalo, and the 
animals, set in their true environment, will soon 
be placed on exhibition again. 
This process makes for keener interest to the 
general observer as well as the special student in 
mammalogy, and forms one of the latest develop¬ 
ments in museum exhibition work. 
MAN’S DUTY TO THE BIRDS. 
Utica, N. Y., Oct. 28. 
An instructive lecture, with a strong appeal 
for the protection of the birds, was given with 
lantern slides at the New Century Club Audi¬ 
torium last evening, under the auspices of the 
science department of the club and the Burroughs 
Club. Albert H. Pratt, M. A., president of the 
National Burroughs Club and a specialist in bird 
study, gave the lecture, and his thorough knowl¬ 
edge of his subject made his remarks interesting 
and his appeal for the little songsters powerful. 
The pictures were of the birds that destroy 
insects, the seed eating birds that reduce the num¬ 
ber of weeds, and bird homes. Beautiful indeed 
were the pictures of the little workers in their 
natural coloring, and most marvelous were the 
works cited. The work of the gulls in saving 
Utah at the time of the destructive work of the 
crickets was a story in itself. The monument 
erected by the grateful Mormons is a fitting ex¬ 
ample of the appreciation others might show for 
the wonderful work of the birds which they are 
doing for the people in all parts of the country 
every day. The shore birds and their work 
against the locust, the robin and his extermina- 
Record Catch of Striped Bass. 
Editor W. M. Hyde of the Port Washington 
(Long Island) News, whose “An Ode to a 
Hungry Bass” appeared in one of our September 
numbers, has been envied by more than one 
striped bass fisherman during the past three 
months. Mr. Hyde landed as high as seventeen 
bass in one afternoon’s fishing. The above pic¬ 
ture shows the editor with his light steel rod in 
hand and his two guides holding a string of eight 
fine fish, one of the prettiest catches of the sea¬ 
son. Mr. Hyde does all his fishing in Port 
Washington Bay or at Old Hen Point, in the 
Sound. Bait ordinary spinner and spearing, 
Bristol steel rod, Meisselbach reel. 
