Practical Taxidermy; a Manual of Instruction to the Amateur in Collecting, Preserving, and Setting up Natural History Specimens of all Kinds

Abstract

ACCORDING to the dictum uttered, or supposed to have been uttered, by one of our leading ornithologists, “The worst use you can make of a bird is to stuff it,” and in nineteen cases out of twenty this saying is true, for, from a real naturalist's point of view, comparatively little can be got from the stuffed and mounted specimen not only of a bird but of almost any other animal. Nevertheless, there is a very large class of persons who are not real naturalists, and to them the skin of a beast, bird, reptile, or fish, duly prepared and embellished with glass eyes, stuck up with wire through its legs in a glazed box, and surrounded by imitation foliage, dried and dyed herbage, is a joy for ever, though perhaps not even to them a thing of beauty. For this large class the present book is intended, and it will probably attain its object, notwithstanding that how far the animal stuffer's trade is to be learned from any book without actual demonstration seems to be questionable. The author's practical knowledge of his business is, we doubt not, considerable, and it would have been better had he let alone some of the matters not really relating to it upon which he descants. His very first sentence tells us that taxidermy “is derived from two Greek words, a literal translation of which would signify the ‘skin art’”—a statement which beats the time-honoured explanation of Hippopotamus, from hippos, a river, and potamos, a horse, inasmuch as taxis has as little to do with art as with the Queen's taxes—and then goes on to inform us, from Herodotus, the Penny Cyclopædia, and other trustworthy authorities, how the Egyptians made mummies, which is all as delightful as so ghastly a subject can be, but is certainly somewhat superfluous as “Instruction to the Amateur” in “preserving and setting up Natural History Specimens.” Hardly less unnecessary is Chapter II. devoted to “Trapping and Decoying Birds and Animals,” whereby we may remark that the author is of that persuasion which denies the animal nature of birds. But we may pardon him this and other offences for what he says (pp. 14, 15) against the needless destruction of the rarer “birds and animals,” and thence to Chapter X. is much more to the purpose. We are sorry to see, however, that he is addicted to the usual taxidermist's mannerisms, most of which are fatal to good and artistic mounting. Paint, for instance, however thin, on bills and legs is an abomination. If colour is required it ought to be supplied by subcutaneous injection, which in the majority of cases can be easily and successfully done. Artificial twigs of wire and tow, dusted over with powdered lichens and the like, are nearly as objectionable as the external application of paint. As regards the stuffing of heads of large mammals the instructions given are really good, but we suspect that a satisfactory result cannot be obtained without far more experience and closer study of nature than the author would hare us think necessary. We must reproach him, moreover, for not giving a hint to the learner as to the best mode of preparing the “skin” of a bird so as to prevent its head from breaking off. This is done by inserting a long lock of cotton-wool of tow into the cranium (from behind, of course) making it fast there by tight packing, and then twisting the remainder of the lock into a kind of loose cord, which does not distend the skin of the neck, enables its length to be adjusted as may be required, and finally affords a coherent and effectual support, whereas the ordinary mode of ramming bit after bit of stuffing into the neck has exactly the opposite tendency.

Practical Taxidermy; a Manual of Instruction to the Amateur in Collecting, Preserving, and Setting up Natural History Specimens of all Kinds.

By Montagu Browne. (London: Bazaar Office, 32, Wellington Street, Strand. No date.)