Natural History 357 



this — the one that corresponds with our forearm. 

 This must be reached in a different way. There are 

 two bones in this, and the space between them is full 

 of meat. The quill feathers on its under side hold the 

 skin tight. In birds up to the size of a robin, this can 

 be cut out after the skin is forced a httle farther back 

 than the elbow joint on the upper side, but in large birds 

 it is well to slit the skin under the wing from X to J (Fig, 

 i), along the line between the two bones. 



Clean off the leg bones in the same way as the first wing 

 Joint, turning the skin back as far as the heel joint (H in 

 Fig. 2). Carefully scrape off any lumps of fat left on the 

 skin, and especially remove the grease and flesh about 

 the tail bones. 



Now this is the time I have usually found most con- 

 venient to remove stains from the plumage. 



If of blood, hold the stained feathers on the inside 

 rim of a cup of lukewarm water and wash till clear. Then 

 dry the feathers with cornmeal. The shaking and turning 

 they get in the next operation will make them fluff out 

 as before. 



If the stain is grease, use a cream made of benzine 

 and plaster of Paris. Let this dry on the feathers. It 

 dries as powder and falls off, taking the grease with it. 



The next thing I now do is to tie the wing bones with 

 a stout linen thread, so that their ends are shackled 

 together as far apart as in Hfe, (Fig. 6.) Some do not do 

 this, but it strengthens the skin, and I find it a great 

 help in several ways. 



Now comes the poisoning. After trying dry arsenic 

 for long, I have come back to the old-fashioned arsenical 

 soap. It is much less liable to poison any one, since it 

 is not blown about by the wind. It does not look like 

 anything but soap and hence is unhkely to be mistaken 



