Artistic and Scientific Taxidermy and Modelling. By Montagu Browne. (A.
and C. Black.)—Mr. Montagu Browne includes in this handsome book chapters on the modelling of fish, flowering rushes, flowers, and all the accessories to the proper mounting of various animals and birds. His instructions on the preparation of casts and models for the lifelike and accurate stuffing of birds and animals seem to us very much wanted. The student will learn from them some exceedingly useful hints. Mr. Browne, of course, represents the modern and artistic school of taxidermy, to whom the methods and results of the ordinary taxidermist are simply grotesque. Many a young birdstuffer will wonder that he has never thought of some improvement to the old-fashioned method of skinning a bird, which begins by breaking the skin at the breast, which is the most difficult to preserve smooth and sound afterwards. At the same time, the greatly improved ideas that this volume inculcates require time and money in the way of mounting specimens with the natural accessories. A large house is wanted for an amateur taxidermist artistically inclined, though he could make good use of the room. One thing we must regret ; it is that when an amateur becomes a scientific naturalist of this description he also becomes an absolutely ruthless person with regard to the creatures he kills. To get birds in their breeding plumage, &c., he perpetrates hideous, nay, disgusting, crimes. Indeed the collector is far more destructive to species than the much-decried sportsman, who after all pays attention to close times. This the collector never dreams of doing. Mr. Browne speaks very feelingly about sea-birds, and is of course a humane man ; but this study of taxidermy, of which he is such an admirable ex- ponent, is dreadfully wasteful, and this search after perfection means hecatombs of feathered victims. But it is an admirable book, and is most comprehensive, and is also handsomely printed and illustrated.
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