Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1889 — THE ART OF TAXIDERMY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE ART OF TAXIDERMY.

HOW THE FORMS OF BIRDS AND ANIMALS ARE PRESERVED. Difficulty in Retaining the Natural Linen —A Big Buniness in Stuffed Skins— It Is Now a Fine Art in the Way of Preservation.

T is not a business to bring SW its followers into publie prominence. The busy world bustling up and down the } streets does not care a straw for taxidermy. The ordinary man has something else to think of. Yet there are those who are deeply interested in the preservation of

the forms of bird and animal life. Some are so from sentiment, as it enables them to retain the substantial shadow of a pet. Others are enlisted on a scientific basis. One may love birds and not be a taxidermist. Audubon illustrates this: He was a devoted ornithologist, one of the greatest America has yet known; but he paid no attention to taxidermy.

When he bagged a bird it was his practice to pin it to a tree and make a drawing reproducing the natural tints of the plumage, with colors. After this the skin was removed and dried. ’ The collection of drawings and descriptions left by Audubon serve as criteria for sportsmen, but the value would have been much increased if supplemented by the actual forms of the birds. Charles Waterton, the En glish naturalist, lias left far more to posterity through practicing taxidermy. The specimens he gathered, now in the museum in York, are of inestimable worth in showing the natural posture and action of life. On careful examination it will be found that a bird’s body is not completely covered by feathers. There are places about the shoulders, under the wings and on the thighs where the skin is about bare, and fits the cavities or rounds out with great nicety. Usually these parts are stuffed full, the result being a marring of the symmetry and proportion. Waterton gave particular care to such points, trying to get them exact to nature. The best way of preserving a bird’s skin demands careful attention from the moment it is killed to the time of mounting. The wounds should be filled with cotton, an' l feathers discol--01 ed by blood should be softly wiped with a wet sponge. In hot weather the skin should be taken off at once, but in autumn or winter the bird can be allowed to get cold. Beginning at the breast bone, the skin is slowly separated by forcing a blunt instrument between it and the flesh. The bones of the wings are cut at the shoulder joints, and when getting the skin from the skull the vetebrse can be unjointed. Then remove the brains and eyes. The flesh is taken from the under bill, using care not to mutilate the openings of the ears or eyelids. The skin should then be rubbed with

a solution of arsenic or corrosive sublimate and prepared for drying. Before beginning stuffing, the skin in the interim having been dampened, wash the skull with corrosive sublimate, and reconnect to the neck with wire. The wings and legs are also adjusted with wire, and connected with a central piece running from head to tail. A fault common with stuffed birds is the apparent lengthening of the legs. The three bones of the legs should be articulated to almost form a letter Z, as the upper joint of the thigh is never straight. Chopped flax tow or cotton is the best for stuffing or sewing up. Cotton is put in the orbits of the eyes with fine forceps, and the

eyes are fixed in with cement. After being stuffed aud the pose decided, thread is wound plentifully around the plumage to hold the feathers in position until the skin has again dried thoioughly. “The old custom,” said the taxidermist, “of mounting birds on branches or moss-covered bases has been pretty much given up. Moss is a great place to breed insects and for moths to lay eggs, so a T of some nice wood is now preferred.” The preservation of fish forms ‘is a distinct branch of taxidermy, and is but little done. It is necessary to treat the fish as soon as taken from the water, and even then it is difficult to retain the color and luster of the scales. The first ones to establish a business of stuffing anything and everything in natural life to supply museums and mercantile calls were the Verreaux Freres, in Paris. Before that a museum had to collect its own specimens, but the Verreaux opened a sort of clearing-house for wild beasts, birds, fishes, and reptiles, from which a stuffed elephant or cotton-filled rodent could be ordered. The Verreaux passed away and were succeeded by an American named Ward, who to-day supplies the largest museums with stuffed specimens. His American headquarters are at Bochester, N. Y., where there are thousands of birds, mammals, fishes, and reptiles stuffed, or ready to be, if w anted. He has agents in all sections of the world looking for rare specimens and collecting others as the general stock needs replenishing. Among taxidermal curiosities is a collection made by the late Henry Bergh to emphasize his stand against cruelty to animals. By stuffed specimens, the sufferings of the dumb brute from various forms of man’s brutality is reproduced. A number of celebrated horses have had their skins made subjects of the art. Bienzi, ridden by Sheridan to “Winchester, twenty miles away,” had his hide stuffed, and it is now at Governor’s Island. Sherman’s Tecumseh, that carried the General from Atlanta to the sea, can be seen at the Madison University. Bobert E. Lee’s war horse, Traveler, is in the Lee University, of Virginia, while famous trotting and running horses have in several instances also been thus honored. “I am called on a good deal, ” said the taxidermist interrogated, “to stuff dead canaries. They have been household pets, but gone the way of all flesh, and the women of the family think it would be nice to keep something that looks as they did when alive. I always ask for a deposit in advance for such jobs, as it is a tedious bit of work, and often by the time it is done the loss of the bird has been partially forgotten. There is a parrot on the

shelf there a woman cried over when she left the body, but got over her mourning ,so much in a week as to refuse to pay for the job. ”

TAXIDERMIST AT WORK.

BUCK WRAPPED TO DRY.

TRIGGER FISH MOUNTED.