The Art of Taxidermy

Abstract

THAT improvements in taxidermical methods are being carefully studied in the United States is evident not only from the publication of the present volume, but also from a paper recently communicated to the “Report of the U.S. National Museum” by Prof. R. W. Shufeldt, entitled “Taxidermical Methods in the Leyden Museum, Holland.” Both these may be advantageously studied together; and the result of their perusal will scarcely fail to convince the reader that the art in question stands on a higher level, and is making more decided progress there than is the case in this country. One very striking feature in Mr. Rowley's little volume is the absence of all reserve in communicating so-called trade secrets, and in laying bare all his methods to public criticism. It is, as the author well states, by such frankness alone that the art of the taxidermist can be advanced; and it is a matter for congratulation that on the other side of the Atlantic, at any rate, the profession is being taken up by men of education and genius who are above petty trade jealousies. One difficulty in making a comparison between English and American methods is owing to the fact that to all but experts it is very difficult, in the absence of treatises like the present, to ascertain the precise details of the modus operandi in the former.

The Art of Taxidermy.

By John Rowley. Pp. xi + 244; illustrated. (New York: Appleton and Co., 1898.)