CHAPTER VII. 

 COLLECTING SKINS OF LARGE BIRDS. 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN" SKINNING LARGE BIRDS. In 

 skinning a large bird you must have room according to your 

 strength and the size of your subject. You will need the usual 

 materials in quantity, plenty of table space, and a stout hook 

 depending from the ceiling at the end of a stout cord, to hang 

 your half-skinned victim upon at a certain stage of the pro- 

 ceedings. 



With but few exceptions, the procoss in skinning a large bird 

 is, from start to finish, precisely similar in principle to that for 

 a small one, which has already boon described. When you get 

 the body about half skinned, and aro well started up the back, 

 thrust your hanging hook into the top of the pelvis, and suspend 

 the bird in mid air, so that you can work with both hands. Ba 

 careful, however, throughout the whole operation that you do 

 not allow the weight of the body of the skin to stretch the skin 

 of the neck. 



If the head is small enough that the skin of the neck will pass 

 over it, skin right over it to tho base of the beak itself, and pro- 

 ceed in every respect as with small birds. If, however, the skin 

 of the neck will not go over the head, then skin the neck as far 

 toward the head as you possibly can (usually in such cases you 

 can go no farther than the lower end of the axis or second cer- 

 vical vertebra), and then cut it off. 



The next step is to skin the head. Turn the skin right 

 side out, make a clean, straight cut from the top of the head 

 straight down the back of the neck for a sufficient distance to 

 allow the remaining cervical vertebrae to be be drawn up through 

 the opening. It is now a very simple matter to skin the head 

 and clean the skull. 



