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Mason

a well-known naturalist, states that the natives assert that, when taking to the water, the tapir plunges in and walks along the bottom instead of swimming.

It has only one calf at a birth, but very little is known as to its breeding habits. The newly born young are velvety black, marked with spots and longitudinal streaks of brownish yellow on the sides, and of white beneath; the change from the young to the adult coloration takes place between four and six months after birth. The chief sound uttered by the tapir is a shrill whistle of but little volume in comparison to the size of the animal.

F. T. POLLOK.

Revised by R. LYDEKKER.

TARPON. - Habitat. - The Tarpon (Megalops thrissoides), one of the Herring family, is a large sporting fish found in the Gulf of Mexico and its neighbouring waters.

Its usual range is from Northern Florida down along the coast of South America.

In summer it is sometimes caught in nets, even so far north as New York. It is, however, distinctly a warm-water fish and prefers southern latitudes. It is known under various names, such as "Silver King," or "Grand Ecaille," along the Texas and Louisiana coasts; "Savalo" and "Sevanilla" in Cuba and along the Central American States to Venezuela.

Description. The tarpon ranges in size from the baby tarpon of 18 inches in length and 4 lb. in weight, which can be caught on a fly, to the full-grown fish of over 200 lb. in weight and 7 feet and more in length.

Roughly speaking, the average size caught by sportsmen is about 6 feet in length and 100 lb. in weight. The scales on a 6 feet specimen are about 3 inches in diameter, and on larger fish as much as five inches.

These scales are tough, like thin horn, and are covered with a brilliant silver skin. In addition to gills, it has two small blow holes on the top of the head, connected with what has been compared with a set of lungs.

The tarpon is a fish that spends a great deal of its time near the surface of the water, coming up often to blow, somewhat like a porpoise, but with less noise, although on calm days, or at night, this puff can be heard a considerable distance away. Behind the dorsal fin, and forming part of it, is a long narrow fin, triangular in section, and about a foot long, looking like a bayonet, and so named. It would seem as if this long fin were meant for some special use, but no satisfactory explanation for it has yet been advanced. Tarpon are supposed to run over 8 feet in length, but one of 7 feet 4 inches is the longest to my knowledge out of some 2,000 caught in the last ten years on rod and reel. I should think that 7 feet 6 inches or 7 feet 8 inches would be nearer the limit in size. A male fish is a fine gamey-looking brute, with large tail and fins. The female is somewhat deeper and heavier in proportion to length, and when in roe becomes somewhat pot-bellied.

When freshly caught, the tarpon is most beautiful fish in appearance. The belly and sides are of a most brilliant silver.

Along the back, the scales become dark green, showing purple iridescent colours, like mother of pearl. A specimen properly preserved and mounted will retain a great deal of its natural silveriness if the fat has been entirely removed from the inside of the skin. a Habits. The gameness of a tarpon varies a great deal, according as it is caught in salt or brackish water, and hooked in the mouth or throat. Those that frequent the brackish water of the creeks become rather dull in colouring and seem to lose a great deal of their fighting quality. A tarpon in good condition, on the other hand, will, if hooked in the throat, give a strong angler a hard time, for from half an hour to an hour and a half; the time depending a great deal on the strength of the angler and on how often the fish jumps. If hooked in the mouth or jaws, as the fish always is when caught trolling in the passes, he is not apt to jump so often, for he feels very little pain, but, as he does not bleed, he lasts longer.

A tarpon may jump only once or twice and then devote himself to rushing, sulking, and towing. Such a fish may last anywhere from one to four hours. A good and strong angler has been known to give up such a fish from sheer exhaustion after three hours of hard fight. A tarpon that will not jump is a very difficult customer to handle, and can easily tire out the average angler. As a rule, though, fortunately for the tarpon fisherman, the fish as soon as hooked will jump five or six times or more, and before he is landed may have jumped over twenty times. Of course the last jumps are not clear of the water; sometimes only the head appears, as the fish becomes exhausted. There is no fixed rule for the way a tarpon will behave when hooked; as no two in succession ever behave in exactly the same way, the sport is all the more interesting. Tarpon of 150 lb. in weight have jumped twenty times inside of ten minutes and have been brought to gaff in twelve minutes all told; on the other hand, tarpon have been on the line for ten minutes without appearing once to let the angler know what he had hooked. It may take over an hour to land a fish, although he only weighs about 100 lb. As a rule the tarpon, [TARPON but any line can be strengthened by simply pulling out about 100 feet off the reel, doubling it up, and winding the end on to the line with a small linen thread. This can be done rapidly and answers the purpose well. The hooks used in still fishing and in trolling are quite different. That for still fishing is about the size of a large cod hook, the point turned slightly outward so as to catch in the throat. For trolling, a somewhat larger hook is used. In this case the point of the hook should turn in towards the top of the shank, so that when a strong strike is made the point may be driven in straight and not pulled sideways, and thus be either broken or bent. The barbed part of the hook should be short from point to barb. The point of the hook should be sharp and strong. The reel should be of the multiplying type, large TARPON. as soon as hooked, comes out of the water with a great rush, jump, and tumble, and continues to jump four or five times, generally clear of the water, after which he settles down to some long rushes.

Tackle. There are two ways of angling for tarpon, one called "still" or "bottom" fishing, the other "trolling" or "pass" fishing. For "still" fishing a rod about 7 feet to 7 feet 6 inches long is the proper thing.

The tip should be in one piece, the butt or handle being about 18 inches long, the tip from 5 to 6 feet long. Greenheart, lancewood, or split bamboo is the best material. The rod should be pretty stiff. For pass fishing, or trolling, a still stiffer and shorter rod from 6 feet 3 inches to 6 feet 6 inches is necessary. Stiffness is essential, for the hook has to be driven with a strong, heavy stroke into the hard cartilage and the bony parts of the jaw of the fish as soon as he seizes the bait.

The line used in still fishing may be 12 to 18 thread linen line; 12 is quite strong enough, but as the strength deteriorates rapidly when in use through chafing and damp-rot, it is safer to use an 18 thread line. In pass fishing it is a good plan to double the end of the line for about 50 feet.

There are special lines, of which the last 50 or 80 feet are made double thickness, enough to hold 200 yards of line. A strong gaff is also very essential.

Even with the hook now especially made for pass fishing, with a strong point and a short barb, it is rare that the point of the hook is driven in far enough to cover the barb. Many a fish has to be played and caught on a taut line with not over an eighth of an inch of the point of the hook buried in the jaw.

In pass fishing, on an average, about one out of four fish that strike is hooked, and one out of four fish hooked is landed. In a month's trolling a man will not average more than one fish landed out of ten that strike at the bait. By hooked" is meant a fish that has to jump several times to get rid of the hook. Of course, an improved hook that could be driven into the jaw with more certainty would greatly improve this average, but such a hook seems hard to devise.

In still fishing, a snell, snood, or trace of cotton, wound with thin nickel piano wire, is used. This piano wire is not wound around in close coils, but in spirals about an eighth of an inch apart. Some such arrangement is rendered necessary by the rough and file-like jaws of the tarpon, which wear through any unprotected line.

This snell works well. Leather and raw TARPON] hide are also good. Snells should be about 3 feet long. In pass fishing, no snell is used, but a piece of strong steel wire about 4 feet long is substituted. The reason is TARPON LEAPING (i). that the water where trolling is possible is generally clear, and the thick cotton snells are seen by the fish. Several swivels should be used on this 4 foot length of wire to prevent kinking.

The following is the usual method of making up a wired pass hook:-First the swivel is put through the eye of the hook; on to this a piece of steel wire about a foot long is fastened, and another swivel is put on; then a piece of wire about 3 feet long is fixed on, and then a third swivel to which the regular linen line is tied. Some anglers use more than three swivels on the length, and some only use a wire two feet long.

The long length of wire is chiefly of use in preventing the linen line from chafing on the scales of the fish. A better method is to use a strong German silver chain with fine soldered links. About 6 inches of this chain is fastened to the eye of the hook, then a swivel, then 3 to 6 feet of steel wire, which may be divided into two pieces by another swivel. The chain should be tested to 50 or 60 lb. strain.

Still fishing, or "ground" fishing, is carried on from a boat at anchor with cut mullet bait resting on the bottom. The fish is allowed to gorge the bait. This sort of fishing is generally done in the lagoons and up the estuaries and creeks. Until 1895 this was the usual way of taking tarpon, as it was supposed to be impossible to get a hook to penetrate into the hard bony cartilage of the jaws and inner lining of the mouth.

For years in most of the Florida Passes (the narrow inlets from the Gulf of Mexico into the interior lagoons) large schools of tarpon could be found at times playing about and chasing small fish. The first tarpon ever taken was accidentally caught by a man who happened to be trolling in the Indian River Pass for channel bass, cravelle, or other fish. After losing large quantities of tackle, through tarpon taking the bait, he managed to hook and land one of them, much to his own amazement and delight. Although tarpon were often seen in the Passes, and for years continued to walk off with spoons and other baits intended for small fish, no regular systematic pass fishing or trolling for them as a sport was known until 1895, when a couple of energetic anglers settled down at Captiva Pass with a large collection of different sorts of hooks and tackle and proceeded to experiment on the best method of hooking these big brutes in the mouth.

It is largely owing to their experiments and perseverance that Pass fishing for tarpon has become practicable.

Pass fishing is far more exciting than still fishing, and much more of a sport. The excitement begins from the moment the bait is dropped over, and, as the fish has ten times the chance of escaping that he has in still fishing, the excitement lasts to the end. Still fishing is nevertheless much practised even now.

The Caloosahatchie River, in the neighfar bourhood of Myers, Florida, has so proved to be the best tarpon fishing ground for bottom fishing, and it is the most convenient to reach. It is forty-eight hours from New York; by rail to Punta Gorda, thence sixty miles by a small steamer.

There are several hotels at Myers where good guides may be engaged. The guide generally has his own rowing boat in which he rows to the fishing grounds. These are from two to six miles off. Most guides have a small sailing boat or sloop with which to tow the rowing boat backwards and forwards; this is the better way, as TARPON LEAPING (ii). even an energetic angler becomes cramped after spending the day in a small rowing boat. During the tarpon fishing season, which at Myers is March, April, and part of May, there are regular bait men who catch mullet for anglers. A dozen to twenty mullet are sufficient for a day's bottom fishing. Tarpon grounds range along some fifteen miles of river, and the fish, as a rule, never stay more than two or three days in the same place.

Still fishing. The angler should have two rods and two reels, and use both when still fishing. Some use more, when tarpon are scarce, so as to increase their chance of a strike. Two rods are, however, all that one man should handle. If a strike is made the guide should immediately reel in the second line. Jointed rods should never TARPON LEAPING (iii). THE GREAT STRENGTH OF THE FISH IS SEEN BY THE WHIP GIVEN TO THE LINE. be used. An extra tip or two should be taken, as they are very apt to be broken when playing a jew fish, a saw fish, a shark, or any other of the brutes that may run to five or six hundred pounds in weight and often interfere with tarpon fishing. The quantity of tackle necessary depends upon the time the angler intends to devote to the sport. For a month's "still" fishing, eight 200 yard linen lines, two gaffs, and eight to ten dozen hooks and snells are none too many, as the sharks and crabs cut off a lot of hooks and lines.

A start is made early in the morning.

As a rule the guide will sail about for a while keeping a look-out for tarpon "signs," such as the blowing of the fish, and the swirl they make when seizing food on the bottom, or when scared by the boat passing near them. On a bright day one may see a tarpon sometimes a mile off, as he jumps clear of the water, his scales shining in the sun. When a favourable position is reached the sloop is anchored. If the angler is not particularly energetic he may try fishing off the stern of the sloop, but generally the boat swings about a great deal. It is far preferable to get into the rowing boat and row off some distance from the sloop, until the [TARPON water around is clear of any impediment, such as anchor ropes, which may interfere in playing a tarpon. If the water is not over 8 feet deep, the guide will probably drive a pole into the soft bottom, which is generally sand, or mud mixed with sand, and fasten the boat to it; if deeper he puts out an anchor. The bait is the tail half of a mullet, and the hook is passed through the skin until the point emerges from the bait. The angler then casts out from one rod about 60 feet to the right of the boat, and from the second rod about the same distance to the left. Next he should from the tip of his rod pull off some 15 feet of line, which he can coil up on the stern seat, a small board placed across the stern of the boat; then he has nothing to do but wait.

The waiting may last from ten minutes to ten days.

Were not every angler always confident that the next moment is going to be the critical one, this sort of fishing would be terribly slow. The excitement of expectation makes the time pass rapidly, especially if tarpon are blowing or swirling in the immediate neighbourhood. Then the cat fish, which in these creeks abound by thousands, and the crabs, which are there by hundreds, keep him busy renewing his baits and examining the line from time to time to see that it has not been bitten through.

As a rule sharks do not interfere so much up the creeks. From time to time a jew take the bait. Saw fish 14 feet long and fish or a bass, or even a large saw fish, may 600 pounds in weight have been caught on tarpon rods and lines.

If it is good tarpon weather and the water is warm, and tarpon show themselves about, the angler may expect to get from four to ten strikes a day, sometimes even more. As a rule a tarpon, unless scared by some noise from the boat, takes the bait quite leisurely and swims off swallowing it.

The angler should at once seize the rod, and as soon as the fifteen feet of slack have been taken out, and he feels the line grow taut, give a long steady strike. The coiled up slack is used to give the tarpon time to swallow the bait, as he is apt to hold it in his mouth and swim off some feet before doing so. With the ordinary cut mullet bait and the hook used for bottom fishing, it is absolutely impossible to hook a tarpon in the mouth so as to hold. When the fish feels the hook in his throat he will at once rush the line off the reel at a great rate, and jump clear out of the water, fall back clumsily and continue to rush and jump for some time. A cool head is all that is necessary for landing a tarpon in "still" fishing, as once hooked in the throat it is almost impossible for him to shake the hook out, TARPON] and his only chance of escape is by breaking the line.

Trolling for Tarpon is quite another matter from bottom fishing, and is in every way far more exciting and sportsmanlike.

The Florida Coast is surrounded by a continuous line of long narrow coral islands covered with mangrove trees and scrub growth. Inside these islands lie long lagoons connected with the waters of the open gulf and Atlantic by channels called passes, varying from 100 feet in width to a mile or more. These passes as a rule have, at certain times of the tide, a very swift current, sometimes over six miles an hour.

Tarpon are found to some extent in most of the passes. The best so far known in Florida is Captiva Pass, lying about half way between Myers and Punta Gorda. Undoubtedly there may be others quite as good or better along the Florida or Texas Coast, but they are somewhat out of the way and difficult to get at, and Captiva Pass remains the most convenient. The modus operandi is the same in all cases of pass fishing. A good stiff round bottom boat from 13 to 14 feet long is necessary. When the tide runs in or out strongly, the angler simply anchors his boat in the pass, for the tide runs swiftly enough to keep the small fish used for bait wriggling in the water as if swimming. As a rule the tarpon are not all over the pass, but in certain fixed localities, either on the edges of eddies, or where the current sweeping in or out seems to carry the greatest amount of the small fish, crabs, &c., that float in and out with the tide. At Captiva Pass, which is about half a mile or more in width, the best fishing is had in one channel, not over 200 feet wide, so that there is generally a rush for this TARPON LEAPING (iv). place. An angler anchored over this stretch of water is apt to get ten strikes to an outsider's one, although the outsider may only be 50 feet off. A long anchor rope about 70 feet long is necessary, as the water is deep, varying from 20 to 40 feet. The bottom being coral rock, a heavy weight is used in preference to an anchor, which is apt to catch in the rocks and stay there.

A small buoy should be attached to the end TARPON LEAPING (V). of the anchor line so that, once a tarpon is hooked, the rope may be thrown overboard, as there is no time to haul it in. The bait generally used is a small bright silvery fish. A small mesh net about 150 feet long should be brought to the pass for catching these small fish for bait. When small fish cannot be had, strips of larger fish, cut to imitate small fish, do very well.

The white belly-skin of a small shark makes excellent bait. If a small fish be used, the hook is passed through the end of the jaw and out at the top of the head. The weight of the shank of the hook will keep the fish swimming, belly down, in a natural position.

If the bait show a tendency to spin around, like a spoon bait, it should be stopped, for the tarpon will not strike such a bait so readily as a bait that merely wriggles steadily like a small fish swimming. The best way to stop the spinning of the bait, which is generally caused by the fish getting stiff, is to cut the backbone in four or five places, then bend the fish backwards and forwards until it grows limp and will swim without revolving.

If the tarpon are seen swimming much below the surface, and if the current is very strong, it is a good plan to weight the end of the line with small strips of lead.

Having anchored the boat, the angler drops his bait over the stern and allows it to fall back slowly with the tide. If tarpon are plentiful, he is apt to get a strike before the bait has gone ten feet, if not, he should allow about 30 to 40 feet of line out, and then, with a firm hold on the rod, and his thumb on the break of the reel, he should be ready for the strike; this may come at any moment, and is sudden and strong.

Tarpon taking the bait give a sensation like a giant hand seizing the line and giving it a long, hard pull. The angler must be ready to strike at the exact second that the tarpon touches the bait, and to strike hard, even at the risk of breaking his rod. Unless he strike at the identical moment the fish bites, his chance is gone. Often even a good stroke will not drive the point of the hook up to the barb. It is possible with careful playing, combined with good luck, to land a tarpon with only the point of the hook in, but as a rule the fish after a few jumps throws out hook and bait. For this reason pass fishing is exciting and exasperating work. The angler never knows how his fish is hooked, and always feels that in the first minute or in the last minute the fish may throw hook and bait into the air, TARPON LEAPING (vi). without the least effort apparently. One is never sure of a tarpon in pass fishing until it is gaffed and hauled up on the beach.

As soon as the fish is securely struck, the guide should head the boat for the beach and row cautiously. There the angler lands and works the fish into the shallow water while the guide stands ready to gaff.

Tarpon may be on for forty minutes and during that time jump a dozen times or more, and may be got within a few feet of the beach several times, and after all the hook finally pull out as easily as if it had not a hold anywhere at all. Of course this uncertainty adds greatly to the excitement of the sport. There are generally some pretty good-sized sharks on the look-out for tired tarpon, so that the angler even when he hooks his fish firmly, and plays him in the best of form, may end by supplying his quarry as lunch to a hungry shark. Sometimes the point of the hook is driven right through the jaw of the fish, or works through it after playing him for [TARPON a while. Often, just as a tarpon is hauled up on the beach, the hook drops out as he begins flopping about, showing that only the point of the hook had entered and not the barbed part.

The best time of the day for fishing in the passes is somewhat hard to decide upon.

Tarpon seem very erratic in their habits.

They have been known to stay in the pass and bite all day at both ebb and flood, and during slack tides. The best hours, though, for fishing at anchor in the pass seem to be the last three hours of the ebb. After that, as the tide slows down, trolling outside the pass at low slack water is good; then gradually working in as the flood begins, finally anchor again as soon as the current is strong enough to hold up the bait. After the first hour or two of the flood, tarpon leave the pass and spread over the flats in the lagoons, coming back again towards the middle of the ebb tide. This seems to be the general rule. There are days, though, when the tarpon stay all day and night in the passes, and days also when none at all are seen there.

The best rods and tackle for tarpon fishing are to be obtained in New York. Some of the principal makers there have made a special study of the requirements of the sport, and their advice may be safely taken.

OTIS MYGATT.

TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING Many people seem to think that taxidermy is but a higher sounding synonym of "birdstuffing," but it has a far wider scope and includes the whole art of preparing or conserving skins throughout the vertebrate subkingdom. The word "bird-stuffing" is, or should be, a degrading libel on what is now an art which only the skilled modeller should attempt.

The origin of taxidermy-i.e., the art of skin-preserving-lies in the very distant past. The earliest and most savage nations practised, and still practise it for purposes of clothing or adornment.

To quote from an article in the Encyclopædia Britannica by the present writer, "Little is known of the beginning of the practice of the 'stuffing' or 'settingup' of animals for ornament or for scientific purposes, and it is highly probable, from what we gather from old works of travel or natural history, that the art is not more than some three hundred years old. It was practised in England towards the end of the seventeenth century, as is proved by the Sloane collection, which in 1725, formed the nucleus of the collection of natural history now lodged in the galleries at South Kensington." It may be that a rhinoceros, originally set TAXIDERMY] up for the museum of Ulysses Aldrovandus, removed from the Medicean, and still preserved in the Royal Museum at Florence, is the oldest specimen known, as it dates from the sixteenth century. Early in that century, about 1517-18, according to a French work of later date, some tropical birds were set up at Amsterdam.

In the University Museum at Pisa there are still preserved some fine groups of mammals, the work of Professor Paolo Savi in the beginning of the nineteenth century, which are as well executed as may be, and which have been commented on by English and other writers upon the subject. These are probably the first groups of animals portrayed in action which will bear criticism. After these came the work of Ploucquet, of Stuttgart, who contributed to the Great Exhibition of 1851 some finely-modelled groups of animals in action, which are still preserved in the Crystal Palace, but covered with dust through lack of proper glass protection. At the same time Ploucquet exhibited comic groups of animals engaged in impossible feats. This, however, is not the province of taxidermy.

Contemporary with Ploucquet were Jules Verreaux, John Wallace, and Edwin Ward, whose "Arab Courier attacked by Lions," "A Horseman attacked by Tigers," and "Lion and Tiger Struggle," were the first especially-fine pieces of work, which vied with Ploucquet's in execution. Later came Rowland Ward's "Jungle" at the Colonial Exhibition, a large and ambitious work; and then museums awakened slowly to the need for more artistic and pictorial representations of natural objects. In these days, when, as is shown, the Italians first, next the French, and then the Germans have tried to teach the stupid and inartistic British taxidermist (with his American cousin) the way to be wise, when one takes into consideration the example of foreign museums and the tardy yet thorough awakening of our own State museum to the principles which should underlie the presentation to the public eye of all natural objects, it will hardly be believed that any museums exist in which illmade skins are fatuously wired bolt upright, and offered up in long rows of dreary monotony to a long-suffering people.

The literature of the subject is by no means meagre. In a work by the present writer of some 450 pages, foolscap quarto, over thirty pages are devoted to an enumeration of the abridged titles of works in almost every language, ranging in date through more than two and a quarter centuries, the earliest, by Bolnest, having been published in 1672. They are written from all points of view; from that of the man who knows nothing at all of any art or science, to that of the man who knows a great deal, but who either cannot or will not tell it. Intermediate are those who write up common or obsolete methods in a common and misleading style: the greatest offenders in this particular line of taxidermic infamy being our own countrymen and their American imitators.

A remedy for this state of things has engaged the attention of educated naturalists from the days of Charles Waterton to those of the present. Early in the century Waterton wrote words of weighty warning and of import. "Twenty years have now rolled away since I first began to examine the specimens of zoology in our museums. As the system of preparation is founded in error, nothing but deformity, distortion, and disproportion will be the result of the best intentions and utmost exertions of the workman. Canova's education, taste, and genius enabled him to present to the world statues so correct and beautiful that they are worthy of universal a admiration. Had a common stone-cutter tried his hand upon the block out of which these statues were sculptured, what lamentable want of symmetry and fine countenance there would have been. Now, when we reflect that the preserved specimens in our museums and private collections are always done upon a wrong principle, and generally by low and illiterate people, whose daily bread depends upon the shortness of time in which they can get through their work, and whose opposition to the true way of preparing specimens can only be surpassed by their obstinacy in adhering to the old method; can we any longer wonder at their want of success; or hope to see a single specimen produced that will be worth looking at?"

Years have passed, and the sting of his remarks is not blunted one wit by any special efforts which the Anglo-Saxon races have made to shake off the odium attaching to slovenly and unskilled work, and to justify themselves in the eyes of the nations. Indeed, how can this state of things be avoided, when our national museum, so careful and so worthy of imitation in other matters, has no efficient taxidermic staff employed, and is content to "put out" its work to be botched up by cheap and inartistic men, so that, on going around the galleries, one is impressed by the fact that the taxidermic work is uneven and the work of many hands, and that for every good man who has made his mark there are nine others who have egregiously failed? It is not too much to say that many of the groups are only redeemed from the contempt which their amateurish and careless handling calls forth, by the beautiful modelling of the flower and foliage accessories, although, without being hypercritical, one might suggest that some of these accessories are more conventional than natural.

In these pages an attempt will be made to condense all that is known of the present state of taxidermy, with its little-known but indispensable ally-modelling. Needless to say, the future of the art will not be in the hands of the ignorant or pretentious, but will tax the fullest powers of a trained intellect, to which is wedded the manual dexterity of the artist and modeller.

Methods of Setting-up and Mounting Mammals. In an article of this nature, it is a matter of grave consideration where to condense and where to expand, and at which end of the vertebrates to commence.

For the purposes of convenience let the strict biological rule be ignored, and a beginning be made with the mammals, which are, after all, or rather before all, the most dear to the sportsman's heart. Lovely and lithe as most of them are in life, and graceful even in death, great skill is required to give even a semblance of life's vigorous reality to a skin by ordinary methods; so difficult, indeed, is it, that there are probably not more than six men, of various nationalities, who could satisfy a really competent and critical judge of the proper contours and finer shades of expression peculiar to any given mammal. Even the very best of those selected six will fail in some particular, or in some mammal not his forte; for one man may excel in the treatment of the Carnivora, and fail, say, in that of the Ungulata, whilst another may reverse those conditions, and so on. The secret, perhaps, of the success of the few and the failure of the many is two-fold.

The first element is the undoubted fact that taxidermists are not usually well educated, and are usually very jealous and secretive: with no esprit de corps, and with no intercommunication for purposes of teaching or criticism, as in the case of pictorial artists, their art must suffer. The second disturbing factor is that the general public is quite hopeless in artistic matters, and is inanely content with the crudest absurdities.

Failures in the treatment of mammals result from several causes, the most fruitful being the ignorance or want of special training of the operator. One need not imagine that, when one can set up a bird which is not absolutely a ragged bundle of feathered incongruity, and which may indeed be fairly natural in pose, that such slight knowledge assists with a mammal, which is, unfortunately for the student, not provided with a mass of comfortable fault- [TAXIDERMY hiding feathers, but which has "points" all over its anatomy, and has a certain facial expression to be correctly represented.

Anatomy is the great stumbling-block.

The ordinary "bird-stuffer" will not learn his bones, nor their relation to soft parts.

The very rough and ready traditional methods of "setting up"-copied or translated ad nauseam from one old tome to another-have not smoothed the path, and the unfortunate student who attempts to put these directions into practice, very soon finds a skin far too long and wide, and wonders what he is to do with sundry flaps and bags of tegument which he had not previously noticed, and which do not appear to belong to the carcase before him.

Perhaps something can be done for him in the following pages, and the preliminary is correct skinning, and by skinning is meant something in contradistinction to flaying.

This latter is a butcher's method of removing the skin, and with some slight modifications its practice is good enough for those big-game hunters who wish merely to preserve skins as trophies, without reference to their subsequent "setting-up."

To skin a lion, tiger, or any big-game specimen, strong knives of suitable lengths and shapes, with a pair of strong shears, are all the tools absolutely necessary; but if a rope, pulley, and beam can be provided in the case of weighty mammals, so much the better. In the field even, these may form a part of the outfit, but the comfort of a dissecting table must in most instances be dispensed with.

The subject if it be impossible to skin it whilst warm, which is the easiest should, as soon as rigor mortis has disappeared, be laid upon its back, the point of a knife should be inserted at the throat, and a cut be made extending in a straight line to the tail, care being taken not to cut into the flesh too deeply, if at all, and certainly not into the bowels.

As the operation of skinning a large mammal-when properly performed-adds no little to the subsequent correct setting up, some little detail will be necessary.

Commence, therefore, by getting the carcase, when possible, upon a dissecting table, and let a beam, pulley, and rope be provided, and fixed in a suitable position above. The subject being laid upon its back, a cut should be made, extending on the median line from the throat to the tail; another incision must be made from the chest to the arm-pit of each of the fore-limbs, and thence nearly to the end of the humerus, exactly following the course of the forelimbs and running along just inside (in order to hide the finishing stitches) down to the manus, splitting the large central TAXIDERMY] pad. At the hind-limbs the cut must follow the inner line of the limb, and divide the central pad. A rope tied to each fore-limb helps to stretch it out, and the first step towards the removal of the skin is made by flaying it back, and by carefully working around-cutting towards the body, to prevent the slipping of the knife and consequent cutting of the skin. When the skin is loose enough underneath, the foot of one side is disjointed at the second joint of the toes, the body. The hind-quarters should next be slung by a rope, and, the skin having been pulled from underneath them, the rope should be shifted to the fore-quarters, in order to raise the head from the ground or table. Skin the neck and throat, and, if there be reason why the skull should subsequently remain within the skin, which is not necessary with the skilled operator, disjoint it at the atlas vertebra; otherwise let it remain attached to the trunk. In either 18 19 2 3 4 5 23 25 6 8 10 12 14 7 27 20 28 21 22 24 26 29 13 16 16 17 35 30 34 33 32 36 37 38 39 TAXIDERMIC AND MODELLING TOOLS.

Steel rule, on extreme left. Figs. I to 6.-Different forms of skinning knives and scalpels. Fig. 7-Brain extractor. Fig. 8.-Cutting shears. Fig. 9.-Blunt-nosed scissors. Fig. 1C.-Compound, or bell-hanger's pliers. Fig. 11. -Small cutting pliers. Fig. 12.-Large cutting nippers. Fig. 13.-Small side-cutting nippers. Fig. 14.-Broad-nosed, or spatulate, pliers, for feathers. Fig. 15.-Longnosed pliers. Figs. 16 and 17 Crowders, in brass, for inserting tow into skins. Fig. 18.-Calipers. Fig. Mop brush, for ers. Figs. 16 and 17" Crowders," in brass, for inserting tow into skins. Fig. 18.-Calipers. Fig. 19. "Mop" brush, for feathers. Figs. 20 and 21. -Steel piercers, for leg-bones or feet. Fig. 22.-Twist drill, for use with brace. Fig. 23.-Triangular skinneedle. Figs. 24 to 27-Different forms of awls. Fig. 28.-Triangular file. Figs. 29 to 36.-Different forms of steel modelling tools. Figs. 37 to 39.-Three useful gouges for plaster-work or carving. as also is the fore-limb, the innermost toe being first detached. When skinned on one side, the operator continues the process on the other, extreme care being required in the management of the skin at the thin part of the flank.

When the skin is loosened sufficiently along both sides, and has been considerably relieved on the back, the lower parts, and the tail itself, must be carefully skinned around. In the case of small mammals, it may be pulled out without any cutting; if it should refuse to come out clearly, cut it near the tip, underneath, and flay towards case, the ears, after being skinned a little distance towards their tips, should be detached close to the skull, leaving only small orifices, and one should be careful not to cut to their outsides.

One rule must be stringently observed, that, as there are many attachments in the region of the ear, the pupil must not cut on to the skin, but on the flesh, for any superfluous flesh left on the skin is very easy to remove, but holes are not so easily remedied. The same care must be used when skinning down to the eyes; the lefthand fingers must feel for the eye, and the skinning around the orbit of the eye must be done close to the bone, so as not to sever the membranous coats; that under the eye must be cut quite close to the eyeball, on the bone of the opposite ridge of the orbit.

When this skin is freed, the next point is the loosening of that along the face underneath.

The other eye having been attended to in the same manner, the upper lip must be severed quite close to the teeth and the MODEL IN CARTON-PIERRE, OF THE BODY OF A TIGER, OVER WHICH THE PREPARED SKIN IS SUBSEQUENTLY DRAWN. skinning carried on as far as the cartilage of the nose, which must be completely severed, causing the skin to drop and leave the front teeth uncovered. There now remain only the lower jaw and its large mass of muscles around the canine teeth, to be detached.

This being done, the skin falls entirely off, taking with it some of the inner skin of the lips, nose, and eyes. The carcase being removed, and the skin replaced on the table, the lips should be "split." This operation must be commenced either at the side or under the nostrils, where the membrane of the lips reveals itself as a shiny skin, as the two skins meet. One must be skinned away from the other, quite close to the edges of the lips, until they are attached only by a thin edge and form a perfect bag. The under-jaw, nostrils, and eyes are split" in the same way, also the middle cartilage of the nose, to make less difficult the process of skinning out. Lastly the ears, on which some flesh was left as a safeguard, must be relieved of it, and must be skinned along the edges until they are turned completely inside out.

With regard to the skinning of other and smaller mammals and horned heads, with their attendant differences, suffice it to say here that lesser mammals are not split up the limbs, and that their skulls are usually, [TAXIDERMY although properly "trimmed," left attached at certain points to their skins.

Avoiding a poisonous preservativeusually inefficient perhaps the best is that adopted by the present writer, viz.:

Burnt alum Saltpetre 4 parts I part mixed and used dry or made into a paste with warm water, and in either case well rubbed into all the inside of the skin, and on all soft parts of the outside. The addition of a small quantity of carbolic acid, and also a small quantity of bichromate of potassa for very thick skins and in hot countries, is often beneficial. In all cases, the washing of the skin, if quite fresh, in strong salt and water (a saturated solution) to remove the blood, inside and out. before rubbing in the preservative, is of the highest importance. When not quite fresh, acetic acid (vinegar is a weak form of this) in varying strengths should be used with the salt and water.

The setting-up and mounting of mammals is, as may be conceived, determined by circumstances, and is varied in its methods. are 66 To keep to the lion or tiger; such subjects often mounted upon mannikins," which are structures built up of board and iron rods covered with tow or with wood shavings (not hay nor straw, which probably mildew) worked into some resemblance of the carcase and finished up with modelling clay. The present writer invented what has been considered a more scientific and more correct method of getting the contours of all animals, by arranging the hardened carcase into the required attitude and casting therefrom, either as a whole or in parts, in plaster of Paris, and from the resulting moulds making paper models, upon which, when joined together, the skin is placed. These processes are substantially the same as those described in the following pages, dealing with the setting-up of an ostrich; but those who desire fuller information about the various processes connected with the modelling of mammals are referred to pages 116-160 of the work previously mentioned. When the mammal's skin is sewn and pinned (with pointed wires) upon the model. the finer work of the colouring and insertion of the glass-spheres which replace the staring glass eyes-sold at so much a grossand, after that, the filling and waxing of the soft parts takes place, and finally comes the question as to the "mounting," whether the animal shall be upon "rock-work" or what not.

Methods of Setting-up and Mounting TAXIDERMY] Birds. Of all animated beings, birds have been the most hardly dealt with.

In five years, if the student works hard, he will recognise how little he knows, and in fifty he will know no more, unless he learns how to draw birds in any position correctly.

That is the great secret, and the pupil, if he will not, or cannot, go to nature and draw creditably, will be a "bird-stuffer" all his life. In a greater degree, perhaps, this dictum applies to mammals, although with them there are the aids of casting and pointing to the right, and open it, not on the breast as most teachers and books recommend, but under the wing. Skinning on the old lines is utterly incorrect both in theory and in practice, and is without one single recommendation, the disadvantages being that the bowels may be cut into by the learner, and so soil a white breast, and usually the skin is torn at the edges and stretched; afterwards comes the greater difficulty of shaping, and then the cut must be sewn up. After a time a rusty TIGERS FIGHTING OVER A YOUNG ELEPHANT.

The whole group modelled in carton-pierre, with the prepared skins drawn over the models; the teeth and claws being the only part not modelled. (See opposite page for headless model.) moulding which, except in the instances of large birds such as the ostrich, are unattainable.

As with mammals, so with birds-correct skinning is of the highest importance. Let a starling or a rook (both tough birds) be procured, or, if neither of these can be obtained, let a pigeon, which is easily purchased, take its place, the only drawback being that this latter bird is by no means so suitable for untrained fingers, and is indeed, distinctly tender in such parts as those over the back and tail. Now, provided with the necessary scalpel, knives, and scissors, get to work by plugging the nostrils and mouth of the specimen with cotton wool.

Lay the bird upon its side, with the head line of grease, drawn out of the skin by capillary attraction, declares itself.

With a pair of pliers in the right hand, take hold of the quill feathers with the left, draw out the wing as far as it will come, and, where it joins the body, put the nose of the pliers and break the bone. Do likewise with the other wing. Pick out that side of the bird which is the most badly mutilated and on it make the first cut (the state of the head should first be taken into account, as the head gives the bird nearly all its character). Turn the head diagonally toward the front, and, with the knife in the right hand, divide the feathers under the wing at the side of the breast and make a cut about half an inch long, through which the flesh of the body may be seen. Turn the body round in an exactly opposite direction, so that the tail points away, slip the point of the knife between the skin and the flesh, and cut as far as the femur, taking care to cut upwards, for fear that the skin may be damaged. With the knife-edge directed towards the flesh, relieve the skin over the back for about half an inch, do likewise along the opposite edge of the wing, breast, and femur, and place some wadding between the skin and the flesh to keep the feathers clean. Loosen the skin around the broken wing bone, and detach it. If a little flesh still remain on the bone and skin in spite of all the care bestowed on it, it must be carefully removed to avoid making any holes. Leaving the wing, disarticulate the leg or cut the bone through at the junction of the femur and the tibio-tarsus; in the latter case the femur will remain joined to the body, and the tibio-tarsus will fall away with the skin. Pull the crop-membrane carefully back towards the body, take hold of it with the right hand, and with the left push the neck within the skin. Cut through the neck and windpipe, at the same time holding away the skin and feathers from the flesh. Let the head fall out of the fingers of the left hand and put a little wadding around the neck, or push a wire through it, in order that it may be the more firmly grasped. The skin is still attached to the wing, leg, and tail. Take hold of the body with the left hand, and, while keeping the feathers from contact with the flesh, relieve the skin on the uncut wing and back.

The student should notice that the skin on the back is exceptionally thin, and therefore must be scraped away and not pulled. This done, that on the breast or side may be loosened so as to come away easily from under the wing; and the knife being slipped in, the upward cut may be made which detaches the bone where broken. When the femur is exposed, push it up from the outside and cut through with the shears, being careful to exclude any skin.

The skinning of this part is a tiresome task until the tail is reached, as the skin is so very thin that, to detach it, it must be scraped from the bones. At the abdomen also it clings very tightly, and the knife must be used very sparingly, or the membrane over the bowels may be damaged, thereby endangering the feathers.

All this scraping and scarcely appreciable cutting over these parts will probably take a quarter of an hour, and must be continued until the pubes are passed. At this point it will be wise to let the bird lie supine on the table, merely supporting the tail above and below, and scraping until, in front, the vent is reached, and the oil-gland at the tail. [TAXIDERMY Slipping the knife underneath, and around, the final cut may be made which completely severs the skin from the body.

Before the body is finally disposed of, it will be as well, of course, to take all the usual measurements and also determine the sex.

The skin being entirely detached from the body, it is necessary to start with the trimming of all flesh from the legs, wings, head, and tail; the last, being already in the hand, may be operated upon first.

Take Carefully take away all flesh and fat with the scissors from both the tail and the skin which surrounds it. Now free the legs from skin down to the junction of the tibiotarsus and the tarso-meta-tarsus. care not to pierce through to the outside when cutting away the ligaments; after the latter are cut away with a knife-point, the flesh may be removed from the bones with the finger and thumb.

The wings have now to be considered, and are decidedly the most troublesome.

The flesh and pieces of broken bone must be removed, but the part still attached to the wing must be left untouched, as it furnishes something to take hold of. The skin on the under side of the wing must be loosened until the flesh can be seen around the radius and ulna. Take away the broken bone, and remove all the flesh from the radius and ulna by cutting and scraping with scissors and knife. The head and neck now remain. Take the latter in one hand and press the skin over it, towards the beak, with the other, until coming to the place where the skin is found to adhere firmly to the ears, dip the finger and thumb in plaster or sand, and preferably-pull the ears right out from their attachments, or, if they will not be persuaded, trim them out.

The skin around the eyeballs must be very carefully detached by cutting towards the back of the head, and when it is quite free a brainscoop may be put into the orbit, pushed under the eyeball, and the latter pulled out without being burst. A plug of wool must be pushed into the orbit to clean it. The skin on the top of the skull must be loosened with a knife or the brain-scoop, well up to the base of the beak. Under and in front of the orbits, and at the side of the face, a little more skinning is required, to free the head from skin to the base of the beak.

If the tongue be not wanted within the beak, put the knife between it and the skull, then pull forward, when tongue and windpipe will come away. Where the neck joins the head disconnect it, but do not cut away the back of the skull, as the brains may be easily removed from the back of the eyesockets.

TAXIDERMY] Now take a preservative, and, if the student be wise, he will use a non-poisonous preservative in those initial stages which necessitate the handling of the skin, and afterwards follow with a mercurial solution.

This is highly poisonous, but the only efficient protection known against the ravages of insects. It is applied with a brush after the specimen is "set-up," and permeates the skin, but must not be handled by the operator.

The first is :- Non-poisonous preservative soap- ........

Whiting or chalk White Windsor soap (common curd soap) Chloride of lime Tincture of musk... ......

I lbs. lb. 121212 with tow, and a threaded needle is passed through between the radius and ulna, and around the radius of each wing, the ends of the thread being drawn until the wings are at their proper distance apart.

Around the leg-bones (tibio-tarsi) wrap tow to replace the flesh, and then pull them back into their proper places.

The next process is to make a false body -preferably of tow about the size of, or a little less than, the natural one. This is SKULL.

CERVICAL VERTEBRE.

DORSAL VERTEBR HUMERUS.

RADIUS ULNA.

ACOID.

OZ.

OZ.

The price of musk of late years is so prohibitive that unless it becomes cheaper it must be replaced by Eucalyptus oil. The finishing wash, to be labelled "Deadly Poison," is :- Alcoholic solution of mercury- Methylated spirits of wine 90 per cent. I pint. ..

Bichloride of mercury 50 grains ........ 2½ scruples.

Paint every part of the skull and skin and the bones of the wings, legs, and tail well, but do not paint the feathers. Turn the skin back again to its normal position, with the feathers outside, and then proceed to "make a skin."

Through the opening made by the removal of the brain, fill the skull with chopped tow; and fill the orbits with wadding. (Note that where wadding is used the sharpest wire will fail to penetrate it.) To prevent shrinking of the head, and to allow of any correction in shape that may be necessary when the head is returned, plaster it over thinly with soft pipe-clay or a modelling composition, forcing it in well above the beak and the sides of the face.

Partially fill the throat with tow also.

Gather up the skin of the neck in the fingers of both hands and return the head through the neck, but be careful not to catch the bill in the skin and so tear it. This may be obviated in great measure by previously passing a thread through the nostrils and tying it around the bill. With care and by gentle pulling with the fingers, the head will, in the end, be in its natural position.

Arrange the feathers with a fine needle, and, if any ridges have been formed and held by the clay inside, bring them backwards, usually, sometimes forwards, by the aid of the needle. The hollows in the wings, caused by the removal of the flesh, are filled VOL. IV PELVIS.

FEMUR TIBIO-TARSUS CARPALIA.

CLAVICLE.

TARSO-META-TARSUS.

STERNUM.

SKELETON OF PIGEON, SHOWING THE POSITION AND RELATIONS OF THE VARIOUS BONES. done by taking a piece of wire of suitable gauge, long enough to reach from the inside of the skull to the beginning of the tail, and upon this wrapping tow at one end to form a neck, leaving unwrapped, however, as much wire as is represented by the depth of the skull. When this is done, wind the tow lower and bind firmly, copying the shape of the natural body. At the end of the wire the tow must be very thinly wrapped, and come to an apex to represent the narrowing at the tail. That there may be no slipping, turn the wire backwards on to the body.

If the false body be ill-shaped, bind it with hemp, and occasionally flatten it, until it becomes of a pear-shaped form.

To put the body into the skin, take it in the right hand, raise the skin with the left, put the uncovered point of the wire-unsharpened, if possible-followed by the artificial neck into the palatal part of the skull, and then, with a little management, insert the whole body into the skin. Let the breast feathers lie over the breast of the S false body, and let the tail touch the apex, settle the wings properly, distribute the feathers as in nature, get the whole of the back into good order, and fasten the wings in position by pins which pass from one to the other through the artificial body.

A trough should be made of board, with the sides of a height according to the size of the skin, and over it a piece of strawboard should be tacked. Place in the trough a thin layer of wadding, and on this lay the bird upon its back, so that the breast may be attended to. Settle the feathers properly (for this is final), cross or tie the legs, and arrange the head naturally, turning it to one side should it be long-billed. Any feathers which are untidy may be bound in place with cotton or hemp.

In place of this trough, skilled taxidermists use a paper strip, arranged around the bird after the final disposition of the feathers, and pinned at the ends.

There are other methods which the clever skin-maker will probably discover for himself, such as wrapping the skin in wadding or using two or three cross bands of tissuepaper, but, in any case, it is imperative to correct all irregularities before the skin becomes dry. A label should of course be attached to the legs, giving all information as to name of specimen, sex, locality, date of capture, name of collector, and colour of eyes and soft parts generally. A wellshaped skin should be indistinguishable from a dead bird, with feathers perfectly smooth, wings closed and legs crossed. a The skinning and making of a skin being disposed of, the important process of "setting up" comes next. Ordinarily, it is done either by wiring the legs, the wings, the head, and the tail, and filling in and shaping by cotton wool or tow-i.e., the "soft-body" method or by carving peat or cork into some semblance of a body, and thrusting wires therein, inserted from the outside through the legs and so on, or by making "mannikin " of tightly bound tow or wood-fibre, placing it within the skin as a fictitious body, and arranging the wires in the best manner to do their supporting work. This "hard-body" method is, or should be, superseded, either by one adapted or by one invented by the present writer.

The first deals with the question of retaining the whole of the skeleton of a small bird as a guide to its form, which has much to recommend it, especially as most taxidermists retain the bones of the legs, the wings, the tail, and the skull, within the skin, thus leaving only the skeleton of the carcase or the "cage "undealt with. This, when freed from flesh, washed with strong carbolic acid and otherwise cured, worked over with tow and perhaps a little clay to replace the flesh [TAXIDERMY removed, becomes the semi-artificial body to be replaced within the skin, and on this the skull, wing-bones, leg-bones, and tail are wired in their exact positions, as in nature.

Thus, if moderate care and skill follow in the final "setting up," the bird should be more life-like than it would become by ordinary methods. It has been urged against this process by those who have never tried it-first, its difficulty, next, its liability to the attacks of insects. The first may be disposed of by saying that nothing is done, which is well done, or worth doing, without difficulty, and that it is not really so difficult as would appear; the second contention is disposed of, by the fact that all the bones are washed with carbolic, or creosote, or the non-poisonous soap, and the skin itself, after the bird is "set up" and finished, is washed by a solution of bi-chloride of mercury in spirits of wine. This, it need hardly be observed, is a deadly poison, and should not be touched by the hands. Arsenical or other poisonous soaps are painted inside the skin, and must be handled in "setting up," but the mercurial wash is applied outside, after the subject, be it bird or mammal, is finished, and therefore necessitates handling. Lambeth Public Libraries This method of using the whole of the skeleton is, in the case of large birds, superseded by the other plan mentioned-the modelled body, which has been used by the present writer for all mammals. The following description of the modelling and "setting-up" of an ostrich will, with modifications, do duty for the treatment of the vertebrate sub-kingdom. no At the outset, the specimen to be "set up," was measured, the colour of its soft parts and other details noted, and the feet, legs, thighs, neck, head, and other soft parts were washed in methylated spirits seventy per cent., to harden the skin generally, and also to fix the scales of the legs, which might otherwise have "slipped" in handling.

The bird was placed on its back on a dissecting table, being propped under the thighs, &c., with blocks of wood to maintain it in proper position. As it was intended that the bird should be mounted looking towards the left, an incision was made along the right margin of the central feathers, so that the ultimate stitching should not be seen. This was continued backwards to the tip of the tail, and forward, still following the edge line of feathers right round the sternum, down the under surface of the wing to the tip. Skinning was comparatively easy, until the masses of fat at the breast and round the base and sides of the tail were met with. As it was intended that a plaster cast of the body should be made, * TAXIDERMY] no more fat was left on the skin than was unavoidable. The whole side being laid bare, with the skin freed before and behind to its utmost limits, skinning was continued over the knee and down the leg to the junction of the heel, where it was disarticulated by means of an incision made from the outside. The skin of the leg was not in any way split except at this point. The tibiotarsus was removed from the body at the junction of the femur, with all its relative muscles attached.

The same process was gone through with the other side, the whole front of the breast being laid bare without any necessity for dividing the skin further. In undercutting the cloacal aperture, it was found necessary the division of the skin across the breast.

The wing-bones and head, the whole of the skin, and such bones as were attached, were thoroughly cleaned of flesh and fat, then well rubbed with the mammal preservative and left for some little time.

Afterwards, the toes and feet were slit up vertically, also the legs on their insides; the sinews, &c., were removed, and the bones and skin well rubbed with preservative.

Next two iron rods (half an inch or fiveeighths of an inch thick), tapped at one end for about six inches, were passed down the hollows of the leg-bones and out through the feet, the tapped portions protruding for some distance. The removed sinews, &c., were now replaced with pipe-clay, modelled 6 N TT R 3 H N PIGEONS, EXHIBITING METHOD OF SKINNING FROM UNDER THE WING. Fig. 1.--The commencement. Fig. 2.-The continuation, with part of one side of the body, outside the skin, showing the severance of the neck (N.), the humerus (H.), the femur (F.). Fig. 3. The body removed, with the skin turned inside out, showing the severed skull (S.). wing (W.), radius and ulna (R., U.), the trimmed bones of both legs, tibio-tarsus (T. T.), and severed tail (T.). Fig. 4. The skin returned to its normal position. Fig. 5.-The natural body after removal (letters as before). Fig. 6. -The artificial body of tow wrapped with thread. to plug it with wadding and to tie the end of the intestine freed by this process.

Having skinned down both sides, further operations were greatly assisted by partly hoisting the bird with a pulley, tail upwards, and commencing at that part, the skin by its weight assisting the process of freeing the back.

The neck was turned back as in small birds, the knife, however, being in constant use, to free it from the enveloping skin, and it was found necessary to make an incision on the side of the head near the top and to continue it for an inch or two up the neck to free and disarticulate it, after which the neck was easily got at. The left wing was cleaned by slitting it underneath from the tip to the point where it had previously been freed from the inside, thus avoiding to shape, and the skin carefully sewn up.

A board or block of suitable size and thickness was now provided, having two holes bored for the reception of the protruding irons of the feet in such a position that these stood each four and a half inches from the median line, i.e., nine inches apart, the right foot, however, being posed about six inches behind the left.

Whilst the skin was curing, the mould of the body was proceeded with, but owing to its bulk it was necessary to cast it in three separate parts, viz. (I) neck; (2) body; and (3) right and left tibio-tarsi together.

The first and third operations will be described later; the second is as follows:- Three sacks of plaster-which were all used-were obtained, and a galvanised iron bath with a handle at each end, holding S2 about a pailful and a half, was found very convenient in which to mix the plaster with water. Another bath of water stood near for the necessary rapid washing and rinsing of hands and utensils, whilst the work was proceeding. Two operators were required, one to supply the mixing bath with the proportions of water and dry plaster, and the other to do the hand-mixing and actual casting. supp The form of the specimen being studied, with a view to its proper relieving from the mould subsequently, it was found expedient PELVIS CAUDAL VERTEBR MUMERU TIBIO-TARSUS CORACOID TEANUM TARSO-META-TARSUS CERVICAL VERTEBRO SKELETON OF PIGEON, INSIDE THE PREPARED SKIN, TO SHOW THE RELATIONSHIP AND AS A GUIDE TO A NORMAL POSITION. to place the bird upon its back, raised from the bench by a small piece of wood, one inch deep, placed under the lowest angle in the lumbar vertebral region. A four-sided wooden frame was constructed around, which cleared the specimen inside by an inch each way, and rose an inch above the level of the ventral surface; herein the carcase was temporarily propped in manner similar to a vessel dry-docked.

Cracks between boards were stopped with putty, and the inside of the frame was well oiled. a All being ready, the plaster was expeditiously mixed in successive bathfuls and poured into the box until the back was embedded, and until it reached the mid-level of the horizontally-placed tail and femora on both sides, leaving the top half of each exposed.

This constituted the first section of the cast, which, after a short time allowed for setting, was well oiled on its surface, and the next proceeded with. [TAXIDERMY First the spaces between the sternum and pelvis and their respective ends of the frame were divided by pieces of wood cut to shape and stopped with putty; these, of course, together with the exposed portion of the specimen, divided the box longitudinally.

Into one of these divisions plaster was again poured to within three or four inches of the top of the ventral surface of the specimen, the wooden partitions were removed, and the other side similarly treated. A single cast was now made over the remaining exposed portion, similar to the back, although of course of much smaller bulk. Several hours were allowed to elapse before delivering. was a The casting of the neck and tibio-tarsi more simple process. Wooden frames to hold them having been loosely constructed, so as easily to knock apart, plaster was poured in to a depth of from two to three inches, and, when this had set to a suitable density, known only by experience, the objects were gently laid upon it and pressed down to a level of half their thicknesses or more, according to necessity.

When hardened, keyed, and oiled, the top cast was made, completing the operation.

Some little time elapsed before operations connected with the making of the paper model could take place, as all plaster moulds when first made are exceedingly damp, and, when required immediately, especially if in winter, must be artificially dried by placing near a fire or furnace, though not so close as to cause cracking, which would certainly result from overheating. In summer, however, exposure to sun and air would probably be sufficient, assisted by fire if wanted for immediate use. these moulds, when oiled, were pressed series of layers of paper in this order.

Into (1) A layer of white tissue-paper, pasted on under side only. (2) Layers of cap or newspaper, pasted on both sides. (3) Layers of moderately thick brown paper, pasted on both sides. (4) Layers of stout brown paper, pasted on both sides.

By applying alternate layers of two differently shaded brown papers unequal distribution was obviated, thus ensuring uniform thickness and strength. After drying a few days the paper casts were relieved, irregularities of surface, caused by adhesion to the plaster, pasted down into place, overlapping edges trimmed, and the vertebral, or back portion, and two sides joined together with glued calico and paper strips, converting them into one piece.

The two neck-pieces were next joined together; they contained a stout wire, gauge TAXIDERMY] nine, around which sufficient tow had been bound to fill the hollow model. This wire protruded at the lower end about eight inches for insertion and fixing in the body, which was effected by cutting a hole in the model and fastening the inserted portion with glued tow and calico strips. At the other end of the neck, about six inches of naked wire was left exposed as a subsequent head-support. The sternal portion was then fixed, thus completing the neck and body.