Home Taxidermy for Pleasure and Profit A Guide for Those Who Wish to Prepare and Mount Animals, Birds, Fish, Reptiles, etc., for Home, Den, or Office Decoration

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INTRODUCTION

This volume of the Pleasure and Profit Library is offered to the hunter, trapper, fisher, vacationist and out of doors people in general. In the study and practice of taxidermy for several years I have failed to find any work written primarily for these every day nature lovers, though they probably handle a greater number of interesting specimens of animal life than all other classes of people.

In view of this fact the following directions and suggestions for preserving various animal forms as objects of use and ornament have been prepared. As a treatise for the scientist or museum preparator it is not intended, there are many books on the art expressly for them, but we hope it may fill a place of its own, acting as a not too dry and technical introduction to the art preservative for those who find life all too short for the many things which are to be done.

Thoroughness, patience, and some love for nature, are qualities highly desirable in this art. Work prepared by one possessing these qualities need not be ashamed and practice will bring skill and perfection of technic.

As a handicraft in which the workman has not been displaced or made secondary by a machine taxidermy is noticeable also, and for many reasons is worthy of its corner in the home work-shop.

In this work also the ladies can take a very effective hand, and numbers have done so; for there is no doubt that a woman's taste and lightness of touch enables her in some branches of taxidermy to far exceed the average man. Especially in the manipulation of frail skins and delicate feathers, in bird taxidermy, is this so.

I have endeavored to give preference to short cuts and time-saving methods where possible in the following matter, and especially hints on saving interesting and valuable specimens temporarily until sufficient leisure is had to do justice to their further preservation. In this connection I have given prominence to the liquid preservative for entire specimens and the methods for preserving skins of birds and animals in a damp and relaxed state ready for mounting at the operator's pleasure.

I would urge the beginner especially, to mount all his specimens as far as possible. Dry scientific skins have their value, perhaps, to the museum or closet naturalist whose chief delight is in multiplying species, but a well mounted skin is a pleasure to all who may see it. Making it a rule to utilize thus all specimens which come to hand would also deter much thoughtless killing in the ranks of the country's already depleted wild life.

Make this a rule and you will avoid friction and show yourself truly a conservationist with the best. In a number of states there are legal restrictions in the way of a license tax imposed on the professional taxidermist. Detailed information of these are found in Game, Fur and Fish Laws of the various states and Canadian provinces. Fur and game animals and birds killed legally during open season may be preserved by the taker for private possession without hindrance anywhere, I think....