Taxidermy

Step right up! Be amazed and edified!
While shopping in the Woolloongabba antiques district the other day, we came across these creepily-well-preserved examples of taxidermy, tucked away on a back shelf, deep within a reputable and gilded-interior'd antique dealership. Behold: the freshwater crocodile bookends; the wombat head (perhaps not a wombat) wearing real spectacles; the tawny frogmouth perched on log; the tortoise with cowrie eyes; the real elephant's foot footstool with rhino hide seat cover for $1150; the two-headed Siamese calf. The owner was looking at me sternly as I took these photos: perhaps I shouldn't have. But it's not as if I am a rival taxidermist or anything. Would have been much more suspicious if I'd been photographing any of his million-dollar golden antique chandeliers, two feet away.