h that, although it was hanging
head downwards, not a feather was out of place! All was plastered
down, and gravity and nature were utterly set at defiance. A little
consideration, and a visit to the nearest poulterer's shop, would have
prevented such a palpable error.

Kittens or puppies of a few days old, if nicely marked, can be stuffed
and mounted on a piece of marble for paper weights, or on red cloth
for penwipers.

The shells of small tortoises make tobacco pouches if lined with silk,
as do also the skins of the feet of albatrosses (the long bones of the
wings of these birds make pipe-stems) or squirrels mounted as a whole.

The shells of large tortoises make fancy baskets if the lower shell or
plastron is sawn away, with the exception of the centre piece, which
is left to form a handle. The shell may be lined with metal or with
any other material or fabric desired.

Lobster claws make up as Punchinellos, or as old men and women, or--as
exhibited at the Fisheries--handles of fish-knives and forks, tops
of inkstands, paper weights, etc. The uses of ivory, either in the
rough, or sawn and polished, are too manifold to notice here.

FEATHER FLOWERS.--I have seen some splendid specimens of flowers (made
from waste feathers of birds) brought from China, the Island of
Ascension, and Brazil, but can give no directions for making them,
further than to say that I should suppose anyone skilled in the making
of such artificial flowers as are sold by the best milliners, or
makers of wax flowers, would have but little difficulty in making up
these beautiful objects.

This is, of course, but a precis of the various uses to which objects
of natural history can be applied as means of ornament; and, indeed,
so many branches are represented by this department of art that it
would require a book double the size of the present, and written by
experts of the various professions and trades concerned, to give a
full history of the practical working of what is known as "Ornamental
Taxidermy."

=======================================

CHAPTER XV.

COLLECTING AND PRESERVING INSECTS.

THE taxidermist will, in the course of his avocation, require to know
something of various insects, their methods of capture, and how to
preserve and utilise them in his profession.

Of the various orders of insects, Hemiptera (earwigs, field-bugs,
etc.), Orthoptera (cockroaches, grasshoppers, locusts, etc.), Diptera
(flies, etc.), Neuroptera (