March 16, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
413 
The warm days which now come more and 
more, often call forth from their hidden re¬ 
treats the early moths, which flutter aimlessly 
here and there, and then fall wearied to the 
ground. Over the snow drift a spider may be 
seen to crawl. In the garret about the windows 
where the sun shines strong and warm, the few 
wasps and a house fly or two have crawled out 
of the crevices in which they have spent the 
winter, and are creeping slowly about on the 
grass, awaiting the more genial warmth which 
shall stir them into real activity. In New Eng¬ 
land, if one merely looks out the window or 
ventures blindly into the woods, it still seems 
the dead of winter, but it is not so. Spring is 
at hand. 
To Save Wood Buffalo. 
Increase in the bounty to be paid on wolves 
is one of the suggestions made looking toward 
the putting an end to destruction by wolves of 
the wood buffalo, which still range on Peace 
River and Slave River, and about which the 
feeling in the United States as well as in 
Canada is becoming very strong. It is thought 
by some people that such action might induce 
more people to engage in the pursuit of killing 
them. 
As has been more than once shown, bounties 
fail to accomplish the object for which they 
are established. We recently heard of a case 
where a club in Michigan, in order to protect 
the deer on its preserves, had offered a bounty 
of not less than $50 on wolves, but the net re¬ 
sults in two years was only the killing of six¬ 
teen wolves; an absurdly small number. It is 
quite clear that something more radical than 
this must be undertaken, and that something 
is likely to be in the line of Mr. Vernon Bailey’s 
recommendation to destroy the wolves old and 
young at the time when the young are born. 
At present in the Canadian northwest a bounty 
of $5 a head is paid for each wolf. Persons 
killing wolves must present their claims to the 
officials of the Mounted Police and often have 
to wait a considerable time before they can 
collect their money. This delay tends to dis¬ 
courage those who might otherwise make a 
business of wolf killing. The traders in the 
north wish the Government to make the bounty 
on wolves $10 each and to give authority to 
any recognized trader or Hudson’s Bay official 
to pay this amount when the specified part of 
the anitnal is produced. Mr. E, Nagal, now in 
Edmonton, who has recently come in from the 
north, declares that prompt action is necessary 
if the Peace River herd is to be protected. He 
estimates the herd at slightly over 400 indi¬ 
viduals. He declares that wolves are becoming 
more numerous in the province. 
Mr. Nagel is reported as saying that the 
game laws are respected, and that practically no 
buffalo are killed by man. He does not beleive 
that the depth of snow has anything to do 
with the reduction of the buffalo; nor does 
any one else who thinks about the subject. 
These buffalo have always lived in a region of 
deep snows, and must long ago have adapted 
themselves to those conditions. If white men 
; do not kill the buffalo, if the herd is decreasing 
and if there are no young animals in the herd, 
the wolves are surely responsible for the de¬ 
struction. Mr*. Nagel believes that the increased 
bounty would tempt the Indians to try to kill 
wolves. It is the business of the Government, 
and should be the business of the people of 
Edmonton, and the north, to devise effective 
j measures to protect this herd. 
_ 
North Carolina Audubon Society. 
The fifth annual meeting of the State Audu¬ 
bon Society will be held in the hall of the Ben- 
bow Hotel, Greensboro, N. C., at 3 o’clock P. 
1 M., Saturday afternoon, March 16. All mem- 
j hers and others interested in the work of bird 
and game protection are urged to be present. 
T. Gilbert Pearson, Secretary. 
Modern Taxidermy at the American 
Museum of Natural History. 
Years ago a few far-seeing men predicted that 
the immense herds of buffalo which then roamed 
bur western plains in countless thousands, 
would, with the advance of civilization, eventu¬ 
ally become extinct. To-day that prediction has 
become a realization, and many of our most 
beautiful animals are, with the bison, being 
forced to follow the path which leads to total 
extermination. Happily, however, the present 
generation has gradually awakened to this 
fact, and increasing interest is being taken in 
the development of our zoological parks and in 
the work of animal painters and sculptors. 
Side by side with this renaissance in game 
preservation has come a wonderful develop¬ 
ment in scientific taxidermy. Few people know 
of the progress which is being made in our best 
museums along this line, or realize that now 
taxidermy may justly lay claim to being classed 
as a high art. Like all other arts, taxidermy 
has had its evolution—the stuffed animals of 
fifty years ago are as little like the beautiful 
specimens which are produced to-day, as the 
rude sign painting of an Indian is like the im¬ 
mortal creations of Raphael. Then the taxi¬ 
dermist need be merely a mechanic—now he 
must be an artist. 
When an animal is received at the Museum 
of Natural History, an elaborate series of 
measurements are at once taken from it in 
the flesh. These are of invaluable assistance 
in the final work of mounting. Next the taxi¬ 
dermist, equipped with modeling wax and tools, 
goes to the Zoological Park and makes a 
miniature model of the animal from the living 
specimen there. This small model is prepared 
with great care, and the anatomy of each part 
is worked out to the minutest detail. It is here 
that the real genius of the modeler is shown— 
if he be an artist worthy of the name, he can 
put into the animal the result of his study and 
observation, and give it all the grace and beauty 
of life, with none of the stiffness of a mechanical 
structure. After the small model has been com¬ 
pleted, the leg-bones and skull of the specimen 
FINISHING THE CLAY MODEL. 
to be mounted are placed in position and wired; 
thus the general outline of the animal is given, 
and the basis of the life-sized model formed, 
exactly as a sculptor makes an armature for a 
large figure. On this framework or skeleton 
wet clay is piled, until the mass corresponds in 
some degree to the measurements taken from 
the animal in the flesh, and then the artist be¬ 
gins with his modeling tools to bring order 
out of chaos. Every part of the body is studied 
with the utmost care, and every layer of muscle, 
every cord and tendon is reproduced exactly as 
it lies in a living animal. The sculptor has the 
whole body under his control at once, for the 
legs and neck are wired tightly and can be 
moved at will. From time to time the skin of 
the animal is tried on over the clay body to in¬ 
sure an exact fit, and any imperfections in the 
model are corrected. When the manikin fits 
exactly, the last touches are given, and there 
stands on the pedestal a perfect animal minus 
the skin, for every layer of muscle and every 
cord is there, placed with the knowledge of a 
scientist and the skill of an artist. A plaster 
mould is then taken of the clay model, from 
which a cast is made. This cast is very thin, 
and is lined with burlap, to combine strength 
and durability with the minimum of weight. 
The clay model is now discarded and the cast 
allowed to dry, after which it is dressed with 
shellac to make it waterproof, and finally given 
a coat of glue. Then the skin is adjusted and 
the seams neatly sewed up with strong waxed 
twine. Contrary to the general idea, the ears, 
nose and eyes are left until the last, and are 
carefully worked out in panier-mache. This 
is at once one of the most difficult and interest¬ 
ing parts of the work, for the delicate lines of 
the nostrils and the modeling of the eyes, re¬ 
quires the utmost skill and closest study. In 
the eye lies the whole expression of the face, 
and the animal is made or marred by this one 
detail. After the finishing touches have been 
given, the specimen is set away to dry pre¬ 
paratory to being placed in the particular group 
for which it may have been designed. 
At the American Museum of Natural History 
in New York city, Mr. James L. Clark, ani¬ 
mal sculptor, who studied for some time under 
