Taxidermy, the name given to the art of putting up natural history specimens in the dried state. It includes the skinning and stuffing of fishes, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals; also the preserving, drying, and setting up of insects and other invertebrata. But it does not properly comprise the making of wet zoological preparations which are to be preserved in spirits; nor, strictly speaking, does it include the articulating of skeletons, although this is usually treated of in books on taxidermy.
For the skinning of animals a few tools, such as scalpels, scissors, and forceps, are required. Incisions must be made in certain directions. Care has to be taken not to stretch the skin in detaching it from the body, and it is necessary to avoid soiling the plumage of birds or the hair and fur of mammals with blood or grease. The skull and certain wing and leg bones are left in their place to preserve as perfectly as possible the form of these parts in case of the skin being afterwards mounted. Considerable difference of opinion has of late years arisen as to the best treatment for preserving or, as it is sometimes called, poisoning skins. Arsenical soap is still largely used. It commonly consists of arsenious acid 1 oz., white soap 1 oz., carbonate of potash 1 drachm, distilled water 6 drachms, and camphor 2 drachms. To preserve bird skins some prefer powdered white arsenic (arsenious acid) either alone or mixed with powdered alum; and nothing else is much used in the United States. But sometimes powdered oak-bark and a little camphor are added, the proportions being arsenic 1 part, alum 1 part, bark 2 parts, camphor part. These powders should be applied to the inner surface of the skin when it is moist. A non-poisonous preservative soap of the following composition has been recommended: chalk lb., soft soap 1 lb., chloride of lime 2 oz., tincture of musk 1 oz. But as it is difficult to prevent a little free chlorine escaping from chloride of lime, there must be some risk of corroding or rotting skins by the use of this mixture. These dry powders should be well rubbed, and the soapy mixtures carefully brushed, into the wet surface of skins. An alcoholic solution of corrosive sublimate is a good preservative for skins, but it is very poisonous. For cleaning feathers, and especially those that are light coloured, powdered plaster of Paris is very effective. Wherever bird skins or the fur-covered skins of mammals are kept camphor or naphthaline should be present. The latter is more obnoxious to destructive moths than the former, as it has a powerful and peculiar odour. Benzene is also very useful. Butterflies, moths, and other insects require to be kept in drawers or boxes of a peculiar construction to prevent the escape of the vapour of camphor or other preservative.
It would occupy too much of our space to describe in detail the process of stuffing or mounting an animal. Before the taxidermist can stuff or mount well he requires some training in anatomy and modelling, and a knowledge of the external forms of animals, as well as some acquaintance with their habits. He cannot be a master of the art unless he has the artistic faculty in a high degree. With rare exceptions, the remuneration hitherto obtained for stuffing animals has not been sufficient to secure the services of persons trained to produce high-class work. This explains why so many specimens in museums of natural history are so faulty and unattractive. That birds, mammals, and other animals can be made beautiful, instructive, and even of real service to science in the mounted state is, however, clearly seen in some examples of the handiwork of Hancock of Newcastle, Ward of London, Verreaux of Paris, and others. But specimens of the taxidermist's art far in advance of anything ever attempted before have within the last few years been prepared for the natural history museum at South Kensington. Here to each species of British birds a glass case is (or will be) devoted, in which are placed the male, female, and eggs, or young. In addition, the nesting-place of the bird, whether this be a sylvan, pastoral, sandy, or rocky spot, is carefully modelled to show its habitat. All this is represented with so much truth and fidelity to nature, and is in every way so interesting and attractive, as to cause regret that only the funds at the disposal of a great national institution can cope with so costly an undertaking.
See Methods of the Art of Taxidermy, by Oliver Davie (1892); Practical Taxidermy, by Montagu Browne (1884); Field Ornithology, by Coues (1890); and Taxidermy, by W. T. Hornaday (1891).