184 MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC WOELD 



leaving the feet attached, as most commercial furs are fixed in 

 the United States. Or a cut may be made from the breast to be- 

 tween the hind legs, and the legs cut off the body at the knee, the 

 skin worked off the rump and then off the rest of the body. The 

 tail can usually be pulled out by holding the tail loosely in a 

 V-shaped stick and pulling on the vertebrae. A little crumpled 

 paper, tow or straw put inside the hairy pocket formed by the 

 inside-out skin, to keep the fur surfaces apart and a straw 

 splinter of bamboo pushed to the end of the tail will permit the 

 skin to dry safely in all except the worst weather. Arsenical 

 soap or a mixture of arsenic powder and alum, half and half, 

 will preserve the skin. 



Bats and some other small mammals are easily preserved in a 

 formalin solution: one part commercial formalin to ten parts 

 water, or one part to forty parts saturated salt solution. The 

 abdomen should be opened to let the solution penetrate the in- 

 testines, which may otherwise spoil. 



Skulls can be saved when the skin is spoiled or when a dead 

 carcass is found in the wilds. The teeth and measurements of 

 such skulls are very interesting scientifically if the locality from 

 which they come is known. Various museums will identify such 

 skulls for any curious finder. 



A booklet giving the details of collecting and preparing 

 specimens may be obtained from the American Museum of 

 Natural History, New York 24, New York. 



