Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1910-12-17
SKINS ARE STUFFED
RooseveIt's Trophies Are Being
Prepared In Washington.
fasIdermIsts Are at Work With the
Specimens and Carpenters Are
Erecting the Mounts In the
National Museum

Washington.-In an obscure corner
of the national museum, on the mall,
in Washington, half a dozen men are
preparing the skins of the animals
killed by Theodore Roosevelt and his
party in Africa. Carpenters are build
Eng the framework on which the hides
If the mammals will be mounted and
laxidermists are working with the
skins under the supervision of govern
ment naturalists.
In the department given over to the
study of comparative anatomy, where
the skeletons of the largest animals
are suspended from the ceiling. are
two glass cases. In these are the
trophies of the s250,00O Roosevelt
hunt. The collection consists of the
skins of a lion, cheetah, reed buck.
mongoose. leopard zebra, hyena,
horse-tailed monkey. rhinoceros,
Grants gazelle, Thompson's gazelle
and field mice. In another case are
the skulls of rhinoceros, giraffe. hip
popotamus, wart hog, African buffalo
and an antelope.
Few of the hundreds of tourists that
visit the national museum each day
pay much attention to the Roosevelt
collection as 1t stands, the guards on
duty say, and seldom does a sightseer
ask where the Roosevelt collection
may be found.
TITS funny thing to me-" re-
marked one of the curators of the
museum, why those skins and skulls
don't make more of hit with the
rUl.
see. and the word Roosevelt In big
letters on that placard yonder ought
to be an attraction alone. But 1t is
not"
A number of the skins, those of
hartbeests, elephants and hippos are
still packed in hogsheads in which
they were shipped from Africa. Brine
is the principal preservative used and
the skins are in such good condition,
taxidermists say, that they may be
kept indefinitely. AS rapidly as the
skin of one animal is stuffed 1t is set
aside, in the rough, and work is begun
on another. n finishing touches are
left to the naturalist and his work is
important.
Perhaps you never thought much
about it," said an employee at the
museum, who Is a student of natural
history. but animals have a wonder
full lot of xpression-facial express
sion. ! mean. They have their moods
just as we do, and it is a knack
coupled with a certain artistic sense
to build up skeleton, clothe It with
pelt and make it appear as It did
in life. Particularly is this true of our
larger wild animals, the very kind we
are working with now in getting to-
gether the Roosevelt. collection
Lower classes of animal life are
not so difficult to handle. birds and
reptiles being comparatively easy to
stuff and mount. 1t is In posing the
subjects that the real difficulty is en-
countered. There are many details to
be looked after. For example, 1t is a
good days work to select and fit the
right kind of glass eyes for just such
specimens are we are now working
with. It's not hard to pick out ele-
plant eyes from those of lion or an
antelope, but 1t is job to select the
right shade and size and IL is not al
together practicable to follow models
too closely. or course, the general
contour of the specimen is the princi-
pal thing to pay attention to, but
there are any number of little details
to be looked after that makes the
work tedious.
The Asiatic elephant and the Afri-
can elephant, while they are first cou-
sins and in a general way look a good
deal alike, have distinguishing fea-
lures. Almost everyone knows that
| their ears vary in size and shane and
that their eyes differ in shape and
often in color. 1t rests with the natur-
alist to put the finishing touches to a
specimen after the taxidermist has
done the rough work"
The larger animals that go to make
up the Roosevelt collection will have
ribs of wood. BY the first of the year.
specimens will be on display in the ma
tional museum.