The morning times., 1895-09-22

pulled off the animal. There are in these
chests hyena skins, leopard skins. and
tiger skins of rare beauty, and value. There
are several of these chests filled with such
treasures.
sTUFFING THE FISHES.
In the fish department there is a diff
ference. Three arts aud one science arc
required with these interesting exhibits.
Two of the specimens which are natura;
are the great big halibut and sawfish,
which everybody has seen. They are in
their natural skins and are stuffed. In
hundreds OF other cases the fish with the
glass eyes are only plaster casts from tue
original The three arts in this case are
the preservation first in alcohol, then
the taking of plaster cast of the speci-
men, and then the painting in life colors
of the cast by an artist The science is
that of natural philosophy. The fish. when
SO reconstructed, are just as natural as
life.
The colors of the trout are just as vivid
as if the sunlight touched him beneath
the waters, and his size is exactly that
of the fish taken from the stream for
the museum. Stuffing fish skins is not
satisfactory way of preserving speci-
MEMS, In time they will burst and go TO
pieces
Prof Ridgway, who has 73, 1925 mounted
and unmounted birds under his care,
is in charge of one of the neatest and most
interesting department nts in the Museum. Up
on the second floor, where visitors do not
go he has long row of bureaus, each with
ten or twelve drawers. Each of these is
filled with bird skins so perfect that when
you pick one up so light, so ethereal. and
so beautiful is the plunage that you say
10 yourself, surely this is the soul of that
little feathered sOngsteY. There are I'M
mounted specimens like this all the way
from Brazil, Borneo, Asia, ard Africa.
SKINS EIGHTY YEARS OLD.
Some of the skins are dated 1919. and are
consequently eighty years old, but are as
bright and as beautiful as the day on which
the birds were trapped or killed. Opening
one of the drawers the eye rests on a rain
bow of colors, green, blue, yellow, red, and
besides all the neutral tints.
These souls are simply waiting for Prof
Ridgway to make them bodies and tn give
them the steel springs of life. BY coinci-
dence, perhaps, on one of the bureaus Con-
tdlliIfS TWO OF lHree nunUrtu Dird SktnS
sat a mounted raven which one cuuld
easily conceive to be saying: Never more"
especially to the skins that have been
resting there for nearly hundred years.
The process of filling nut the skins OF
birds is very simple, bat it requires an ex-
pert and delicate touch when dealing with
the diminutive species. Everything de-
pends on a knowledge If the species, the
carriage, the habits, the shape, the pose.
and other characteristics OF the living ami
NAL. To place one little bird un its ped
estal as it should lonk il alive requires The
use of about fifty delicate wires.
II these are not correctly placed and used, Z
when they are Withdrawn. The subject
will appear deformed. out of shape and not
a bird of Known species at all. Usually
the smaller birds are merely filled with
cotton, or some light material
Just as one can see only a few things
in an hour or two in the museum, the his
tory of an hour or two In the workshops
is really an imperfect and brief chapter.
To describe it all would require a shelf
of library.