This work is offered as my contribution to the science of zoology and the work of the museum-builder. It is entirely "an affair of the heart," and my only desire in regard to it is that it may be the means of materially increasing the world's store of well-selected and well-preserved examples of the beautiful and interesting animal forms that now inhabit the earth and its waters. The sight of a particularly fine animal, either alive or dead, excites within me feelings of admiration that often amount to genuine affection; and the study and preservation of such forms has for sixteen years been my chief delight.
In these pages I have sought to give, in clear language, the detailed information which I have found deplorably lacking in all "manuals" on this subject that I have ever seen, save one, in French, published many years ago, and which, while very tiresome to write out, are precisely what the practical worker wants. I hold a permanent grudge against those who have written before me on the subjects here treated of, because of what they did _not_ write. The average book on taxidermy contains four times too much "padding," and not one quarter enough practical information. "If this be treason, make the most of it."
The students of entomology are indebted to Dr. Holland for his admirable chapters on Insects, and I leave them to make their own acknowledgments. My own very sincere thanks are hereby tendered him for his valuable contribution to this work, thereby making it complete. I am also under obligations to Mr. Charles Bradford Hudson, the accomplished artist, whose skill has done so much to explain and embellish the text. The spirit and interest with which he entered into his share of the work very materially lightened and encouraged my own tardy labors.
My thanks are also due to my valued friend, Mr. Frederic A. Lucas, of the Department of Comparative Anatomy, National Museum, and one of the founders of the Society of American Taxidermists, for advice and assistance in the preparation of the illustrations relating to work on skeletons. Mr. W. Harvey Brown, Naturalist of the U.S. Eclipse Expedition to Africa, kindly wrote for me nearly all of the chapter on "Mounting Disarticulated Skeletons;" Messrs. William Palmer and John W. Hendley, of the National Museum, also rendered me valuable services; for all of which I gladly record here an expression of my thanks and appreciation.