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LEFT TAX 268 TAYGETUS any particular object; as charitable con- tributions, or contributions in support of a war; but it may be taken in the gen- eral sense of a forced payment, as in speaking of military contribution. Also a disagreeable or burdensome duty or charge; an oppressive demand or exaction; a requisition; as, this is a heavy tax on his time and strength. See Single Tax; Income Tax. TAXIDERMY, the name given to the art of putting up natural history speci- mens in the dried state. It includes the skinning and stuffing of fishes, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals; insects and other invertebrata. But it does not properly comprise the making of wet zo- ological preparations which are to be pre- served in spirits; nor, strictly speaking, does it include the articulating of skele- tons, though this is usually treated of in books on taxidermy. For the skinning of animals a few tools, such as scalpels, scissors, and for- ceps, are required. Incisions must be made in certain directions. Care has to be taken not to stretch the skin in de- taching it from the body, and it is neces- sary to avoid soiling the plumage of birds or the hair and fur of mammals with blood or grease. The skull and certain wing and leg bones are left in their place to preserve as perfectly as pos- sible the form of these parts in case of the skin being afterward mounted. Ar- senical soap is largely used for preserv- ing skin. To preserve bird skins some prefer powdered white arsenic (arseni- ous acid) either alone or mixed with powdered alum. But sometimes pow- dered oak bark and a little camphor are addod, the proportions being arsenic 1 part, alum, 1 part, bark 2 parts, cam- phor V2 part. These dry powders should be well rubbed, and the soapy mixtures carefully brushed into the wet sux-face of skins. For cleaning feathers, and es- pecially those that are light colored, pow- dered plaster of Paris is very effective. Wherever bird skins or the fur-covered skins of mammals are kept, camphor or naphthaline should be present. Benzene is also very useful. Butterflies, moths, and other insects require to be kept in drawers or boxes of a peculiar construc- tion to prevent the escape of the vapor of camphor or other preservative. Before the taxidermist can stuff or mount well he requires some training in anatomy and modeling, and a knowledge of the external forms of animals, as well as some acquaintance with their habits. TAXTJS, in botany, the yew, the typi- cal genus of the order Taxacese. T. Baccata, the common yew, is an ever- green tree which often attains a great size. Specimens of remarkable antiquity are commonly seen in old churchyards. The timber is extremely durable and val- uable, and was formerly much used for making bows. Its leaves and young branches act as narcotic-acrid poisons when eaten by man or the lower ani- mals. T. Canadensis, the dwarf yev/, or ground hemlock, is a small, evergreen shrub, with the general aspect of a dwarf hemlock spruce {Piyitis Canaden- sis). TAY, a river of Scotland, draining nearly the whole of Perthshire, and pour- ing into the German Ocean a greater Bulk of water than any other British river; rises on Benloy, on the Argyllshire bor- der, at an altitude of 2,980 feet. Thence it winds 118 miles E. N. E., S. S. S. E., and E. — for the last 25 miles as a tidal estuary, V2 mile to 3^4, miles broad, which separates Perth and Forfar shires from Fife. In the first 25 miles of its course it bears the names of Fillan and Doch- art; it then traverses Loch Tay, and it afterward passes Aberfeldy, Dunkeld, Stanley, Perth, Dundee, and Broughty- Ferry. Its principal affluents are the Tunnel (58 miles long, and sometimes re- garded as a N. head stream), Isla, Al- mond, and Earn. The Tay, as it is the most beautiful of Scottish rivers, so it is unrivaled for its salmon fisheries. Ves- sels of 100 tons can ascend as high as Perth, but even to Dundee the navigation of the firth is much impeded by shifting sandbanks. TAY, LOCH, a lake in Perthshire, Scotland, 355 feet above sea-level, and extending 14% miles N. E. from Killin to Kenmor^, % to 1% miles broad, 15 to 100 fathoms deep, and covering G,550 acres. It is a magnificent Highland lake, flanked on the N. W. by Ben Lawers (4,004 feet), and containing near its foot a wooded islet, with a fragment of an Augustinian priory, founded in 1122 by Alexander I., who here buried his queen, Sibylla. In September, 1842, Queen Victoria was rowed up Loch Tay, on which a steamer was first launched in 1883, and a railway to which, at Kil- lin, was opened in 1886. TAYGETUS, a part of a lofty ridge of mountains in Greece, which, traversing the whole of Laconia from the Acliaesn frontier, terminates in the sea at the promontory of Taenarus. Its outline, particularly as seen from the N., is of a more serrated form than the other Gre- cian mountains. In winter it is covered with snow, which renders the vicinity ex- tremely cold. In summer it reflects a powerful heat upon the Spartan plain,