[Illustration: FIG. 57.--Wall-case of Birds, by Frederic A. Lucas.]
Mr. Frederic S. Webster has in his Washington studio a table-case single specimen which is in every sense a masterpiece. It is very nearly a replica, but with a heron of a larger species, of his prize piece, "The Wounded Heron," represented in Plate XVI., Fig. 5. A snowy heron lies on its back (on a black velvet panel), its breast pierced by a gilt arrow, which the wounded bird has seized with its right foot, and is endeavoring to withdraw. The subject is a difficult one, and its treatment in every detail is masterly.
DEAD-GAME PANELS.--Game birds of all kinds--particularly the handsomest ducks, geese, grouse, woodcock, and snipe--made to represent bunches of dead game, are very popular as dining-room ornaments, and during the last ten years the taxidermists of this country have produced thousands of them, many of great beauty. In regard to their proper make-up I will offer a few suggestions.
While the bird is yet warm, or at least relaxed, hang it up by one leg, pose it carefully, and mark out its outline on paper. See that the bird hangs like a _dead_ bird, and not like a stuffed bird. In mounting the skin, make the body flat rather than round, and have the eyes _three-quarters closed_. The majority of "dead-game" birds are mounted with their eyes wide open. Birds close their eyes when dying.
The "Dead Gull," shown in Plate XVI., Fig. 5, which is the work of Mr. E.A. Capen, of Boston, author of "Oology of New England," may be taken as a perfect model of its kind. In every line it is a _dead_ bird, one that has been killed with small shot in a sportsman-like manner, and has fallen dead without a feather awry.
FIRE-SCREENS.--Probably no handsomer fire-screens were ever produced by a taxidermist than those of Mr. Thomas W. Fraine. The specimen presented by him to the National Museum is represented in Plate XVI., Fig. 4. It is made of the mounted head and neck of a peacock, set against a background of the ocellated tail feathers, of which the magnificent metallic feather shield from the bird's back forms the centre. The framework is a very thin board of tough but light wood, the back of which is covered with satin or raw silk, and the whole is supported on an elegant gilt tripod standard. The effect of this arrangement as a whole is truly superb, and it is no wonder that Mr. Fraine's peacock screens have been very popular.