Montagu Browne

“ Come out into the world, measure yourself against the best, criticise your own work as if it were a stranger's. Be honest, and say, "That man's work knocks mine into a cocked hat," and then go home miserable, but determined to beat that man's work or perish in the attempt. Never sneak! If you see first-class work by anyone, go boldly and say, "Sir, I am an amateur," or, "I am a young professional," as the case may be. ”

“ The skin should be freed down nearly to the beak, and then the back of the head, with neck attached, should be cut off, the brains extracted, all the flesh cleared from the skull and from the bones of the wings, legs and tail, the skin painted with the preservative, and ultimately turned into its proper position. ”

“ The dark colour is unavoidable, at all events in the present state of taxidermy. Bare skin invariably becomes blackish-brown by lapse of time, no matter what the previous colour may have been, so that the delicate tints of an English maiden's cheek and the sable hue of the blackest negro would in a few years assume the same dingy colour, and become quite undistinguishable from each other. ”

“ A general collection, even should great care be taken, requires constant watching to seize upon any specimen showing signs of damage; but why a choice group of young birds in their nest, with parents — birds in change of plumage, surrounded by accessories which perhaps have cost hundreds of hours to execute — should be exposed to all the evils imaginable when isolation is so much more practicable and practical, passes comprehension. ”

“ This is the animal sure to be selected by all learners, and the reason is not far to seek — it being of a manageable size, not too large nor too small; an animal, moreover, of a picturesque habit of body, and about whose death more or less of mystery hangs — this mystery so dear to the imagination of the youthful amateur! In some places the death of the vulpine robber of hen roosts is hailed with delight, and people are to be found even — oh, horror! ”

“ Having now summed up in the case of Common Sense versus Arsenic, I challenge contradiction to any of my statements, and ask, Why use a dangerous and inefficient preservative agent, when a harmless preservative, and that quite as good worker and dryer as arsenic, will suffice? I have invented a soap for which I claim those advantages, and as to its deterrent principle re insects, I am convinced that it is quite as good as the other, for is there any one thing known — compatible with clean-looking work — that will prevent the ravages of the maggots in birds' skins? ”

“ A vast amount of ignorant ideas, carefully nursed, are used as weapons against the entomologist — the pet one of which is, that impalement of a living insect through the head constitutes the sole aim and end of the collector.
The fact is curiously inverse of this, for not only are insects captured for purposes of study, but they are never impaled alive but by a very ignorant or careless person. The lepidoptera (butterflies especially) are very easy to kill, the simplest plan being to press the thorax underneath the wing with the finger and thumb, which instantly causes death. ”

“ And as wildfowl in their descent, just before alighting on the water, diverge from their accustomed angular figure, and spread themselves more in a broad front line, a whole flight sometimes comes swooping into the fowler's snare all at once. ”

“ I am quite convinced that if a person of any experience makes up his mind never to skin a bird by any other way than by the side or back, he will have no reason to ever regret his decision. Should a bird be required for flight, undoubtedly the proper place to cut it is under the side; the suspending wire then comes along the off side and is hidden by the wing. If the wings are to be raised and the breast or side shown, cut it on the back; if closed wings, the same; in either case the cut is perfectly hidden, and is where it should be, out of the way of grease. ”

“ It is quite true that this art — which has for its end and aim the better delineation of character as exhibited by the lower animals — is not teachable unless the pupil is well grounded in anatomy, and is also a clever draughtsman and modeller — in fine, an artist! — with all an artist's perception of beauty of line and of form. I will here indicate what I take to be the basis upon which a competent taxidermist must proceed to become a zoological artist. ”

“ No pictorial artist ever pretends he has a special brush or colours with which he can paint landscapes or sea pieces at will; he knows that only thorough mastery of the technicalities of his art - supplemented by wide experience and close application - enables him to succeed as he does, and to delight people who, seeing his facility of handling, may imagine that picture painting is very easy and could be readily acquired — perhaps from books. So it is with the Taxidermist. ”

“ But there is no excuse now-a-days for allowing the bare skin to become shrivelled. The colours we cannot preserve, the form we can and ought to reproduce. No one would conceive, after inspecting a dried specimen, how round, full, and pouting were once those black and wrinkled mandibles, and how delicately they had been coloured while the animal retained life. Their natural hue is rather curious, the outer surface of the upper mandible being very dark grey, spotted profusely with black, and its lower surface pale flesh-colour. ”

“ Let us now take the evidence of Waterton:
"You will observe how beautifully the feathers of a bird are arranged; one falling over the other in nicest order, and that, where this charming harmony is interrupted, the defeat, though not noticed by an ordinary spectator, will appear immediately to the eye of a naturalist. Thus, a bird not wounded, and in perfect feather, must be procured, if possible, for the loss of feathers can seldom be made good; and where the deficiency is great all the skill of the artist will avail him little in his attempt to conceal the defect ”

“ First, let me say that in order of merit, in all arts connected with the preservation of natural history objects, I must, after many years study, give the palm to the Germans, not only in all matters connected with artistic taxidermy, but in their elegant and truthful setting of beetles, their sensible setting of lepidoptera, and their really beautiful method of making skins of birds etc..
Next come the French, then the English, and lastly, the Americans. The Americans are the worst simply because they adopt the crudest English methods of taxidermy, with other bad habits of ours. ”

“ Beating the boughs with a long stick will often force insects to fly, when their presence is unknown to us.
I have hitherto spoken of the collecting of insects by day only, but as there are many insects — moths — which appear but at night, we must follow them to their haunts, prepared with lantern and net. In the dusk of the evening, just as the sun sets and twilight comes on, we must take our stand near the flowers frequented by certain moths. ”

“ You will also observe that the whole of the skin does not produce feathers, and that it is very tender where the feathers do not grow. The bare parts are admirably formed for expansion about the throat and stomach, and they fit into the different cavities of the body at the wings, shoulder, rump, and thighs, with wonderful exactness, so that in stuffing the bird, if you make an even rotund surface of the skin, where the cavities existed, in lieu of re-forming them, all symmetry, order, and proportion are lost for ever. ”

“ I cannot urge the advisability of making the body larger to allow for shrinking, inasmuch as in the case of certain birds — notably gulls — which should present an even' surface on the breast, the opposite effect will be produced if the false body is unduly large, as then, in place of the evenness so desirable, a division will appear in the centre of the body, which entirely mars the beautiful symmetry of the sea-bird's breast. No perceptible shrinkage can, however, occur if the body is properly made and packed ”

“ It might as well be expected that a picture could be painted from printed directions as to imagine that one person could make a rockwork precisely similar to another without seeing it done, or without working it out by his own experience.
Trees for large groups may be carved out of successive layers of peat, or modelled up with brown paper and virgin cork; better still by arranging brown paper over rods or a wire framework, covered previously by tow, and afterwards coloured to nature. The leaves of some trees dry and colour up well, and can be introduced on the natural or artificial twigs. ”

“ Unless you are greedy, therefore, and wish to make a regular trade of your loneliness, you will find that a friend, holding the lantern or net while you "bottle," is not by any means prohibitory to enjoyable collecting. Two working together can get over more ground than one, and what one friend misses, the other stops.
From dusk to eleven on a favourable night in the summer months the fun is fast and furious; thousands of moths of the common sorts come and go ”

“ I have been asked many times what to do, if camping out abroad, supposing you shot a tiger or a bear, and wished to preserve the skin as a "flat." Simply lay it on the ground and slit the skin underneath, in a straight line through the under lip to the tip of the tail, then make four cross cuts from the median line along the inside of the limbs down to the toes, and skin out the body by stripping it in a careful manner, not allowing any pieces to be cut away, in case you might change your mind and wish it mounted as a specimen. ”

“ Knaggs says that on one occasion he met with night-flying moths literally swarming on a sugared fence in a field once in his possession, whither, in the small hours, he had taken a stroll with a friend on the brightest moonlight morning it was ever his lot to behold.
Many nights which appear the most favourable will, on the contrary, be unaccountably disappointing; not a single moth will make its appearance. ”

“ This, and one or two analogous works, carried the English to the foremost ranks of zoological artists; and now that we embellish our taxidermic studies with natural grasses, ferns, etc.., and with representations of scenery and rockwork, in the endeavour to carry the eye and mind to the actual localities in which the various species of animals are found — an advance in art not dreamed of fifty years ago — and also correctly model the heads and limbs of animals, we still hold our own, and are as far advanced in taxidermy as any other nation. ”

“ Another very fine feature of the Liverpool Museum, and worthy of imitation, is the manner in which the osteological preparations are managed. Not only are complete skeletons of mammals shown, but parts for comparison — that is to say, there is a large series of skulls of various mammals, birds, reptiles, and fishes, and, again, leg and arm bones, and their parts, arranged side by side; hence you may compare the fore-limb of the human subject with that of a monkey, a lion, a whale, a marsupial, a bird, a reptile, or a fish. ”

“ Be sure all is sound and firm, as also the nail on which the specimen hangs, otherwise your own, or your stag's, head may come to grief. Plaster heads being very heavy at first, before drying, it is as well to get them dried, if possible, in advance of the mounting, to obviate great weight, and also a tendency to cause mildew inside the skin. It is really astounding, however, to observe how very light plaster becomes when thoroughly dry; clay of the same sized model is, on the contrary, exceedingly heavy — more than twice the weight of plaster. ”

“ I say now, in conclusion, work hard, study hard, and look to good modellers and painters — and not to bird-stuffers — for conceptions of form, arrangement, and colour, and in the end, believe me, you will achieve a better success than attends the labours of those who follow in the old paths of careless or inartistic Taxidermy. ”

“ The usual way of sending horned heads home from abroad is to leave the skins attached to the skull, and the consequence is, that at the various points of attachment the skin is improperly cured (often with the — worse than — useless arsenic) , and if they escape the inevitable knocking about they receive in travelling, and get to England in fair condition, the hair, when the skin is relaxed, sweats off, particularly at the very places it should not, around the eyes, lips, nose, and ears, and the labour of, perhaps, years of anxious collecting and dangerous hunting is nullified. ”

“ The skull bone being now only attached to the subject, literally by the "skin of its teeth," you have the whole bone exposed to work on.
Fill up the orbits and hollow bone of the nose with any loose pieces of peat, to give solidity to the next operation, which is, to cut pieces of peat in an artistic manner to represent the flesh of the cheeks, the chin, the top of the head, and the cartilage of the nose. When the whole of these pieces are shaped to their required measurements, attach them by string or wire to their neighbouring bones in the manner which occurs to you as being the best. ”

“ As to putting cotton wool between the flesh and the skin, practice will enable one to do without this. To me it would be a great nuisance, unless in the case of much grease, of persistent bleeding, or clots of extravasated blood occurring. All the rest of the instructions on skinning are sound and practical, except where he advises the knee to be used instead of a table. A little reflection, or, better still, a trial, will convince anyone that nothing can compare in practice with a table or bench for comfortable working. ”