OR, THE ART OF COLLECTING, PREPARING, AND MOUNTING OBJECTS OF NATURAL HISTORY. FOR THE USE OF Museums and Travellers. WITH PLATES. THE THIRD EDITION. LONDON: PRINTED FOR 1.ONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1823. D.17.11.90 TAXIDERMY. THE art of Taxidermy has only made progress during the last sixty years. At the beginning of this period, the celebrated Reaumur published a memoir on the method of preserving skins of birds to be sent into distant countries. He formed a very beautiful cabinet of Natural History in his own house, which, after his death, became the basis of the collection of birds in the Museum of Paris. Experience soon proved that the means he proposed were insufficient for preservation, and availed still less for preparation. Reaumur received birds from all parts, in spirits of wine, according to the instructions he had given; he contented himself by taking them from this liquor, and introducing two ends of an iron wire into the body behind the thighs; he then fastened the wire to the claws, the ends, which passed below, serving to fix them to a small board; he put two black glass beads in the place of eyes, and called it a stuffed bird. The larger animals, such as the Saw-Shark, the Squalus Carcharias, the Crocodile, were padded with straw, whence comes the term stuffed : (empaille) for which we have substituted that of mounted it does not perfectly express the idea we would convey; but it is always more correct than the former. Some persons, struck by the appearance of these animals, tried to skin indigenous birds, and to mount them. They succeeded indifferently; the body was too forward, and the thighs came beyond the rump. It may be well to observe, that this fault always happens to those who mount a bird for the first time, even if they have received proper instructions. Schoeffer succeeded to these. This naturalist, after skinning them, contented himself by cutting the birds longitudinally in two, and filling one half with plaster: fixing the skin properly at the back of a box, of a depth proportionate to the size of the bird, he stuck in an eye, and replaced or represented the beak and claws by painting; he then carefully fixed a glass on this frame, to protect the object from insects. This method is still followed in Germany, but much improved. A work appeared at Lyons, in 1758, entitled, "Instructions on the Manner of collecting and perparing the different Curiosities of Natural History." The author was the first who submitted some useful principles for Taxidermy: he ornamented his book with many plates, more than half of which are in all respects foreign to his subject, as they simply represent shells, and other marine productions, with their descriptions. He inserted the Memoir of M. Duhamel entire, entitled, "Instructions for the Transportation by Sea of Living Plants, Seeds, &c." The author, in doing justice to the good intentions of travellers, complains that the stationary naturalists, and the curious, often, after great expense, receive things badly chosen and badly preserved, which they are obliged to throw away. He gives some very interesting details on this subject, but unfortunately he has too much neglected the method of packing fragile objects, such as madrepores, star-fish, echini, butterflies, &c.; for by a near calculation, we may, for those objects alone which we have just mentioned, value at one-fourth the loss which results from the improper manner in which they have been packed. We shall, in the course of this treatise, speak of the means of remedying this inconvenience. In 1786, the Abbé Manesse published a volume, under the title of "Treatise on the Manner of stuffing and preserving Animals and Skins." He presented his work to the Academy, who made a favourable report of it. It contained some very useful advice, but the instructions it gave for mounting and preserving birds do not appear admissible to us, however seducing the author may have rendered them by excluding the use of poisons. In this we recognize the principles of |