60 HOW TO MAKE A BIRDSKIN. 



dangling on either side ; the tail hanging loose over the bird's 

 back between them. Lay down scissors ; take up forceps* in 

 your left hand;, with them seize and hold the stump of "the 

 rump ; and with point or handle of scalpel in the other hand, 

 "with finger tips, or with thumb-nail (best), gently press down 

 on and peel away skin.f No cutting will be required (usually) 

 till you come to the wings : the skin peels off (usually) as 

 easily as an orange rind ; as fast as it is loosened, evert it ; 

 that is, make it continually turn itself more and more com- 

 pletely inside out. Work thus till you are stopped by the 

 obtruding wings. | You have to sever the wing from the body 

 at the shoulder, just as you did the leg at the knee, and leave 

 it hanging by skin alone. Take your scissors, § as soon as the 

 upper arm is exposed, and cut through flesh and bone alike at 

 one stroke, a little below (outside of) the shoulder-joint. Do 

 the same with the other wing. As soon as the wings are 

 severed the body has been* skinned to the root of the neck ; 

 the process becomes very easy ; the neck almost slips out of 

 its sheath of itself; and if you have properly attended to 

 keeping the feathers out of the w^ound and to continual ever- 



* Or at this stage you may instead stick a hook into a firm part of the rump, and 

 hang up the hird about the level of your breast; you thus have both hands free to 

 work with. This is advisable with all birds too large to be readily taken in hand 

 and will help you at first, with any bird. But there is really no use of it with a 

 small bird, and you may as well learu the best way of working at first as after- 

 ward. 



t The idea of the whole movement is exactly like ungloving your hand from the 

 wrist, by turning the glove inside out to the very finger tips. Some people say, 

 pull off the skin; I say ner;er imll a bird's skin under any circumstances : push it 

 off, always operating at lines of contact of skin with body, never upon areas of 

 skins already detached. 



X The elbows will get in your way before you reach the point of attack, viz., the 

 shoulder, unless the wings were completely relaxed (as was essential, indeed, if 

 you measured alar expanse correctly). Think what a difference it would make, 

 were you skinning a man through a slit in the belly, whether his arms were 

 stretched above his head, or pinned against his ribs. It is just the same with a 

 bird. AVhen properly relaxed tlie wings are readily pressed away toward the bird's 

 head, so that the shoulders are encountered before the elbows. 



§ Shears will be required to crash through a large arm-bone. Or, you may with 

 the scalpel unjoiut the shoulder. Tlie joint will be found higher up and deeper 

 among the breast muscles than you might suppose, unless you are used to carving 

 fowls at table. With a small bird, you may snap the bone with the thumb-nail and 

 tear asunder the'muscles in an instant. 



