![]() ![]() ![]() He could not tell of what they were made, and mentioned wood or wax as possibilities. When Michael started work on the owl in fall 2019, he ran into something he had never seen before, although he has worked with many old taxidermy specimens: the old and dull eyes were not made of glass. Michael has worked on quite a few of our birds, including the peacock which is now exhibited in the Science Library. They also need repairs of fur and feather, and in some cases bright new glassy eyes. Many are in need of some cleaning: the Wesleyan Museum of Natural History in Judd Hall (1871-1957) was heated by coal-fired heaters, and many specimens are dulled by coal dust. Many of the Wesleyan taxidermy birds (and our stuffed buffalo, Greg) date back to the late 19 th century, thus are more than a hundred years old. He is in charge or restoring the a mazing dioramas (and their animals) in the Yale Peabody, thus has ample experience in cleaning and repairing taxidermy mounts. Recently, ‘my’ owl was included in a set of birds picked up for repairs by Michael Anderson, an ‘ exhibit preparator’ at the Yale Peabody museum, and an expert in working with dilapidated stuffed birds. I like owls, so I put it in my office ‘for safe keeping’ ( owl-napping?). Our poor Wesleyan owl (see above) had been sitting neglected in a lab in Exley since 1970 (when Exley opened), in danger of being harmed inadvertently by lab users, and slowly falling apart. ‘ Eyeballs of Owl‘ may sound Halloween-y, but owls do not have eyeballs because their eyes are long and shaped more like a tube, and the eyes thus can’t turn in their sockets. Owls have very large eyes, as compared to humans: a Great Horned Owl weighs about 3 ½ – 4 pounds, and its two eyes together weigh almost an ounce, more than the eyes of a 200-pound human. Great horned owls are very adaptable birds, and the most widely distributed owl in the Americas. One of the latter is a specimen of a Great Horned Owl or tiger owl or hoot owl ( Bubo virginianus Gmelin 1788), a large owl native to the Americas. Other were stored haphazardly in the storage room on the 3d floor of Exley, on top of display cases in the Joe Webb Peoples Museum on the 4 th floor of Exley, and randomly in various labs and offices. Our Wesleyan natural history collections include many taxidermy specimens of birds (‘stuffed birds’), some of which can be admired in display cases along the hall ways of Shanklin, 2 nd floor.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |