"beasts" for "animals" in the title, as he is liable to be told that he is not a believer in the animalism of birds; also, it would be better to alter the title to "decoying and trapping,” as it is essential that the animal should be enticed to the trap, or decayed into it before it may be trapped. The opening observations in this chapter do, indeed, constitute a golden rule, and ought to be engraved on every rifle and fowling piece in use. Then, perhaps, the hideous scenes at Hurlingham, and other pigeon-murdering places, would cease, and sports having a healthier moral tune take their place. Mr. Browne has rendered good service in this chapter; it is a pleasure to read the details of making and setting each form of snare or trap, for the descriptions are lucid, easily grasped, and well illustrated, points which place this chapter above the average of such technical works; indeed, the value of such descriptions as those of traps, &c., and the methods employed in skinning and stuffing, are such as must be heartily appreciated by any industrious amateur or even professional taxidermist.
The question of the number of tools employed must rest, of course, with the amateur himself, and may depend upon the means at his command, but although so few are here recommended, the reader must remember that the educated fingers of an intelligent taxidermist, who knows well the limits and having appearances of the creatures he works upon when dead, supply the place of a boxful of bird-stuffing implements, however beautiful or costly.
The most important part of the book has is the chapter on preservative media, which contains some very useful formulæ, comprising all the most important soaps, pastes, powders, solutions, and washes. Same of these are formulae arranged and tested by the experience of the author, and which have enabled him to get up a large amount of first-class work, some of which those who saw the fine collection of preserved specimens ab the recent Conversazione of the Midland Naturalists' Union in the Town Hall, Birmingham, will remember and appreciate. In this chapter, Mr. Browne starts an argument which he terms "Common Sense versus Arsenic." which, let us hope, will prove of real value to the members of his craft, by breaking down the old, foolish, and dangerous practice of using arsenic in any form. There cannot be a doubt in the mind of any experienced person that the destroyers of animal skins, more especially Tinea, cannot face the powerful influence of light, and that a well-made cabinet, with plenty of light in its interior, will preserve properly cured and well-mounted specimens for a very long time, and this with or without arsenic. We call Mr. Browne's attention to the use of the word "meat” on page 57 and other parts of the book. and suggest that it is not so proper or useful as "flesh."
We quite concur in the idea that if a bird’s head is to regain its proper appearances after being skinned so far as the eyes or root of the beak, the calvarium, or upper part of the skull, at least, should be retained undamaged. With regard to modelling the faces of animals, we should like to know whether the author has ever tried to fill up the hollows caused by the removal of the muscular and cellular tissues, with ordinary or even pipe clay, which is capable of such very nice finger and thumb manipulation after the skull has been replaced, as we find on
