INTRODUCTION xxix 



Skinning. — Place the bird on its back Avitli its bill to your left, 

 and part the feathers along the breast and belly. In most species a 

 strip of naked skin will appear. Holding the feathers back with 

 the thumb and finger of the left hand, cut with a down stroke of the 

 scalpel just through the skin from about the middle of the sternum 

 back to the vent. Catch the edge of the skin at one side, and with 

 the end of the scalpel handle or your fingers work it back from the 

 body until the knee-joint of the leg appears, sprinkling in plenty of 

 corn-meal as you go to absorb blood and juices and keep your fingers 

 dry and the feathers from sticking. Cut the bone at the knee-joint 

 with scissors or knife, and draw it up out of the flesh, which can 

 be cut off nearer the heel and left fast to the carcass. Loosen the 

 skin farther back, then treat the other side in the same manner, fre- 

 quently using corn-meal. 



Then turn the bird's bill from you, and cut across below the tail 

 to the bone, and either unjoint or snip the bone with the scissors 

 just in front of the base of the quills, keeping the forefinger of the left 

 hand at a point opposite on the outside as a guide to prevent cut- 

 ting the skin, and work the skin up over the rump. At this point 

 a small hook, suspended in front and hooked into the bird's rump, 

 will help the beginner, but he will soon learn to hold up the body 

 between the tips of the first two fingers of the left hand, using the 

 thumb and third or little finger of the same hand to draw down the 

 skin as he cuts with the scalpel in the right. Work the skin from 

 the edges, being careful not to stretch it. As the wings are reached 

 draw them back out of the skin to near the second joint, break the 

 first bone in the middle and remove tlie flesh. Keep the body well 

 sprinkled with meal, and work the skin carefully down over the 

 neck to the head until the ears appear, picking them out rather 

 than cutting them off ; then working the skin along mainly with the 

 finger nails over the eyes (cutting the transparent membrane without 

 inj\iry to the lids), and carrying it down to the base of the bill. 



Next remove the ej'cs and cut off the base and lower part of the 

 skull, which can be done so as to leave brains, tongue, and fleshy 

 part of mouth attached to the neck, and the skull and bill clean and 

 free attached to the skin. If any bits of flesh or fat have been left 

 on the skin, remove tlieni. and then dust dry arsenic over the inside 

 of the skill, till the eye sockets with pellets of cotton, and reverse 

 the skin by pushing tlie bill carefully back through the neck. Willi 

 the beginner the skin will become dry before it is ready to be 

 turned l>aek, and will need moistening, l)ut after some practice the 



