wo old birds and five young defending
themselves against two polecats (30 pounds).

Goshawk attacking an eagle owl.

These were followed by comic groups, six of which illustrated Goethe's
fable of "Reinecke the Fox," and were skilfully managed as well as
amusing. Some others were:

A duel between two dormice, with moles as gravediggers.

"A Declaration of Love." Two weasels.

"A Nursery Maid." One old and four young weasels.

"Shaving a Luxury." One frog shaving another.

Apropos of the above, frogs lend themselves better to comic scenes
than almost any other animal, from their ridiculous likeness, when
erect on their hind legs, to mighty man. Hence advantage is often
taken of this; and amongst mirth-provoking caricatures I have seen "A
Steeplechase," frogs mounted on puppies as horses, some tumbling at
the water-jump, others riding to win, some unhorsed, scrambling after
their steeds, and so on; "The Battle of the Nile," frogs on rafts of
leaves of water plants, attacking one another with small bulrushes;
duel scenes; "Courtship" and "Matrimony"; "Fortiter in Re," a young
frog soundly smacked (in the most approved fashion) by the irate
paternal frog; the companion picture, "Suaviter in Modo," a young frog
soothed by maternal affection.

Monkeys are the next best for comic scenes, but are more awkward to
handle, and not half so funny, unless very carefully modelled to
caricature the manners and customs of the human subject. Pourtrayed as
shoemakers, acrobats, as "You dirty boy!" or, as in the Fisheries
Exhibition of 1883, as "The Enthusiast" (a gouty monkey fishing in a
tub placed in his sick chamber), they are, perhaps, the most
successful. The addition of miniature furniture to assist the delusion
is permissible; but, after all, these caricatures are not artistic
taxidermy, and they are only allowable now and then as a relaxation.

Perhaps that which most exercises the skill and judgment of the
taxidermic artist is reproducing large groups of some of Landseer's
pictures, such as, "The Combat" (two stags fighting); the "Stag at
Bay," and others in connection with hunting. Lion and tiger fighting
over prey; two tigers fighting for possession of a deer; head and paws
of lion or tiger peeping over a rock; tiger crouching for a spring on
some feeding animal; lion and zebra; panther or jaguar crouching on an
overhanging tree-trunk; leopard killed by a gemsbok antelope; polar
bear killing seal on ice; lynx creepin