REARING AND COLLECTING ANIMALS 481 



a leg and work the knee from without into the opening just 

 made; cut the bone at the knee, skin leg to heel and clean 

 meat off the bone (leaving it attached of course to foot). 

 In animals larger than squirrels skin down to tips of toes. 

 Do the same with other leg. Skin around base of tail till 

 the skin is free all around so that a grip can be secured on 

 body; then with thumb and forefinger hold the skin tight 

 at base of tail and slowly pull out the tail. In small mammals 

 this can be done readily, but in foxes it is often necessary 

 to split the skin up along the under side and dissect it off 

 the tail-bones. After the tail is free skin down the body, 

 using the fingers (except in large mammals) till the fore 

 legs are reached; treat the fore legs in the same manner 

 as hind legs, thrusting elbow out of the skin much as a 

 person would do in taking off a coat; cut bone at elbow; 

 clean fore-arm bone. Skin over neck to base of ears. With 

 scalpel cut through ears close to skull. With scalpel dissect 

 off skin over the head (taking care not to injure eyelids) 

 down to tip of nose, severing its cartilage and hence freeing 

 skin from body. Sew mouth by passing needle through 

 under lip and then across through two sides of the upper 

 lip; draw taut and tie thread. Poison skin thoroughly. 

 Turn skin right side out. Next sever the skull carefully 

 from body, just where the last neck-vertebra joins the back 

 of the skull. It is necessary to keep the skull, because 

 characters of bone and teeth are much used in classification. 

 Remove superfluous meat from the skull and take out brain 

 with a little spoon made of a piece of wire with loop at end. 

 Tag the skull with a number corresponding to that on skin, 

 and hang up to dry. A finished specimen skull is made by 

 boiling it a short time and picking the meat off with forceps, 

 further cleaning it with an old tooth-brush, when it is placed 

 in the sun to bleach. Care must be taken always not to 

 injure bones or dislodge teeth. 



Mammals are stuffed with cotton or tow; the latter is 

 used in species from a gray squirrel up. Large mammals 

 stuffed with cotton do not dry readily, and often spoil. 

 Being much thicker-skinned than birds, mammals require 



