42 FIELD ORNITHOLOGY 



paper for the refuse, and throw the whole away. A perfectly smooth 

 surface is desirable. I generally have a large pane of window-glass 

 on the table before me. It will reall}' l)e found advantageous to 

 have a scale of inches scratched on the edge of the table ; only a 

 small part of it need be fractionally subdivided ; this replaces the 

 foot-rule and tape-line, just as the tacks of a dry-goods counter answer 

 for the yard-stick. You will find it worth while to rig some sort of a 

 derrick arrangement, which j^ou can readily devise, on one end of 

 the table, to hitch your hook to, if you hang your birds up to skin 

 them ; they should swing clear of everything. The table should 

 have a large general drawer, with a little drawer for gypsum and 

 arsenic, unless these be kept elsewhere. Stuffing may be kept in a 

 box under the table, and make a nice footstool ; or in a bag slung 

 to the table lea;. 



§ 7.— HOW TO MAKE A BIRDSKIN 



(rt) The Regular Process 



Lay the Bird on its Back, the bill pointing to your right ^ 

 elbow. Take the scalpel like a pen, with edge of blade uppermost, 

 and run a straight furroAv through the feathers along the middle 

 line of the belly, from end of the breast -bone to the vent. Part 

 the feathers completely, and keep them parted.- Observe a strip 

 of skin either perfectly naked, or only covered with short down ; 

 this is the line for incision. Take scissors, stick in the pointed 

 blade just over the end of the breast-bone, cut in a straight line 

 thence to and into the vent ; cut extremely shallow.^ 



Take the forceps in your left hand, and scalpel in 3'our right, 

 both held pen-wise, and with the forceps seize and lift up one of 

 the edges of the cut skin, gently pressing away the belly-walls with 



^ Reverse this and following directions for position, if you are left-handed. 



" Tlie motion is exactly like stroking the right and left sides of a moustache 

 apart ; you would never dress the hairs smoothly away from the middle line, by 

 poking from ends to root ; nor will the feathers stay aside, unless stroked away from 

 base to tip. 



^ The skin over the belly is thin as tissue paper in a small bird ; the chances are 

 you will at first cut the walls of the belly too, oiieniug the cavity ; this is no great 

 matter, for a pledget of cotton will keep the bowels in ; nevertheless, try to divide 

 skin only. Reason for cutting into vent : this orifice makes a nice natural termina- 

 tion of the incision, buttonhole-wise, and may keep tlie end of the cut from tearing 

 around the root of the tail. Reason for beginning to cut over the edge of the breast- 

 bone : the musciilar walls of the belly are very thiu, and stick so close to the skin 

 that you may be in danger of attempting to remove them with the skin, instead of 

 removing the skin from them ; wliereas you cannot remove anything but skin from 

 over the breast-bone, so you have a guide at the start. You can tell skin from 

 belly- wall, by its livid, transluceut whitishness instead of redness. 



