Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum

Archilochus colubris

Sam came across a few other hummingbirds in the avian freezer and decided to make a small live mount display for them, which I think is a wonderful idea!  I know a few taxidermists that deal with birds, and they won’t go anywhere near a hummingbird because they are notorious for being extremely fragile and difficult to mount.  Sam obviously doesn’t listen to that kind of talk because he came in yesterday and between classes skinned and mounted this ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris), to go along with the Anna’s hummingbird (Calypte anna) he mounted last week. I also want to give Sam some credit because he is currently taking an Ornithology class and they are actually using some of his mounted study skins from the teaching collection as examples in the class, so I’m not the only one who thinks he’s got some natural taxidermist skill.  Dave told me they used to require students taking Zoology/Ornithology to actually mount a study skin as a final project in some classes and I’m kind of disappointed they don’t do that anymore because I find it is one of the easiest and most concise way of learning the material, which Sam has discovered already.  

I wanted to include the last two photos to supplement yesterday’s post on the ostrich leg (Struthio camelus). The photos were taken and sent to me by the original preparator in November of 2010 — Emily M. can take the credit for introducing me to the zoological museum in the fall of 2010, so I am really glad she is still following along with our projects and is able to see the conclusion of her work here at the UMZM.  I’m really impressed by the photo of the leg pre-cleaning; it must have been quite the undertaking!