76 TAXIDEllMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. 



your barrel like sardines in a box, as closely as they will lie 

 without being squeezed. Fill the receptacle full of fishes, head 

 it up, and then pour into it all the clean spirits it will hold. 



In order to proceed with the second and third methods of 

 preserving 1 fish specimens, it now becomes necessary to describe 

 a process. 



How TO SKIN A FISH. Of course, no one aspiring 1 to become 

 a collector of fishes will remain in ignorance of the names of 

 the different fins. And, more than that, before he can prepare 

 even the rough skeleton of a fish he must know what its bony 

 structure is like. On the whole, there is a good deal to be 

 learned about methods in collecting fishes, and as a beginning 

 we must learn how to skin a scale fish. The methods with car- 

 tilaginous fishes will be considered later. 



The principles with all scale fishes are precisely the same, 

 the only difference being in the greater amount of cold steel 

 and energy required for such great, hulking brutes as the jew- 

 fish, and the magnificent tarpon. For convenience we will take 

 a specimen about a foot in length ; for example, a striped bass, 

 a pike, or a red snapper. 



As is the case with quadrupeds, the left side of a mounted 

 fish is always expected to be " the show side." Lay the speci- 

 men upon its left side, start at the vent with a stout pair of 

 sharp -pointed scissors, and divide the skin in a perfectly 

 straight line along the median line of the belly toward tho 

 head, stopping the cut when you approach close to the narrow, 

 tongue-like point which terminates between the lower angles of 

 the gill openings. Now reverse the fish, begin again at the 

 vent, and divide the skin with a clean cut through the scales, 

 in a line parallel with the base of the anal fin, and about half 

 an inch from where the scales meet the fin rays. This is really 

 a cut along the side of the fish, as low down as possible, made 

 necessary by reason of the anal fin. Continue this cut straight 

 back to the tail, as shown in the dotted line g-h in Plate IV. 



You will find that the ventral fins are joined together in the 

 flesh by a strong bony arch, called the pubis, and this must be 

 divided through the middle so as to entirely separate the fins. 

 The anal fin -rays must now be cut loose from the interior rays 

 (called interhaemal spines), which are really their bony founda- 



