TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. 



at the hips,, raid with the other hand separate tho skin from the 

 back. From this point we proceed to turn the skin wrong- side 

 out over the shoulders and head. When* the wings are reached, 



cut them off where they are broken, and 

 turn the skin down over the neck. Avoid 

 cutting 1 through the crop. If blood flows 

 at any time, absorb it all with the corn 

 meal or plaster Paris. 



Almost before you know it you have 

 skinned your bird down to the head, for 

 it hangs head downward during the latter 

 part of the operation, suspended on a 

 small wire hook thrust through the pelvis, 

 so that you can work with both hands. 



It is a trifle more difficult to turn the 

 skin over the head. Push it up from the 

 back of the head with the thumb-nail, 

 working it patiently at all points, and 

 stretching tTie skin gradually until it will 

 pass over the widest part of the skull. 

 Presently the crisis is past, the skin slips 

 clown without trouble, and we see by the 

 way it is held at a certain point on each 

 side of the head that we have come to the 

 ears. Cut through the skin close up to 

 the head, and a little farther on we reach 

 the eyes. 



Now be careful. Cut very slowly at the eye, and close to the 

 head, until you can see through the thin membrane and define 

 the exact position of the eyeball. Now cut through the mem- 

 brane, but do not cut the eyelid on any account. A little 

 farther and wo come to the base of the bill, where the skin and 

 our skinning stops. 



Cut through the back of the skull so as to sever the head com- 

 pletely from the neck, and lay bare the base of the brain. Re- 

 move the brain from the skull ; cut the eyes out of their sockets ; 

 cut out the tongue and remove all flesh from the skull. 



Skill each wing down to the first joint, or the elbow, and stop 

 the " wrong-side-out " process there. The ends of the second- 



FIG. 11. First Steps in Skin- 

 ning a Bird. 



