72 THREE KINGDOMS. 



SKINNING. 



We do not propose here to attempt a detailed ac- 

 count of the taxidermist's art, but the general mode 

 of procedure should be as follows : 



See that throat, nostrils, and wounds are well 

 plugged with cotton, and fasten some also around 

 the bill. Should any blood get on the feathers, re- 

 move it at once with a damp sponge, and dry with 

 plaster-of-Paris. Lay the bird on its back, separate 

 the breast-feathers right and left, cut from the breast- 

 bone to the vent (not cutting the flesh), and raise the 

 skin carefully on each side as far as the legs. Cut off 

 the legs at the knee-joints, inside the skin, and after- 

 ward skin down to the tarsus, scraping the flesh from 

 the shin-bone, but leaving that bone in place. Next 

 skin around the coccyx, or tail-bones, and cut off the 

 coccyx inside the skin, leaving enough flesh to hold 

 the feathers. 



Large birds can often be more easily handled if 

 suspended, head downward before the operator, by a 

 strong hook firmly inserted in the exposed stump 

 of the rump ; but with a little experience this becomes 

 unnecessary. Now carefully strip off the skin, turn- 

 ing it back like a glove, as far as the wings ; cut 

 off the wings, inside the skin, at shoulder-joint. Skin 

 the wing-bones and scrape the flesh from them, as from 

 the legs. Skin over the head to the bill, taking especial 

 care not to stretch the skin. The skin above the ears 

 and eyes will have to be detached by cutting. The eyes 

 must now be picked out, and the entire base of the 

 skull removed, together with the brain, and the flesh 

 between the jaws. If the head is too large to be 

 skinned in this way, some persons make an incision 

 under the throat, but a writer in Random Notes gives the 

 better method of opening it on the back of the head. 



