HOW TO MAKE A BIRDSKIN. 39 



it in tho hollow stump of the bone ; if there if> no stump left, file a piece of stout wire to a 

 point and stick it into tlie heel joint. If the forearm bone that you usually leave in a small 

 bird is broken, remove it and leave the other in ; if both are broken, do not clean the wings 

 so thoroughly tliat they become detached; an extra pinch of arsenic will condone the omission. 

 In a large bird, if both bones of the forearm are broken, splint them with a bit of wood laid in 

 between, so that one end hitches at the elbow, the otlier at the wrist. A humerus may be 

 replaced like a leg bone, but this is rarely required. If the skull be smashed, save the pieces, 

 and leave them if you can; if not, imitate the arch of the head with a firm cotton-ball. A 

 broken tarsus is readily splinted with a pin thrust up through the sole of the foot : if too large 

 t\>r this, use a pointed piece of wire. There is no mending a bill when part of it is shot away ; 

 for I think the replacing of part by putty, stucco, etc., inadmissible; but if it be only fractured, 

 the pieces may usually be retained in place by winding with thread, or with a touch of glue or 

 mucilage. It is singular, by the way, what unsightliness results from a very trifling injury to 

 the bill; much, I sujjpose, as a boil on a person's nose is peculiarly deplorable. I have already 

 hinted how artfully various weak places in a skin, due to mutilation or loss of plumage, may be 

 hidden. 



Decomposition. — It might seem unnecessary to speak of what may be smelled out so 

 readily as annual putrescence ; but there are some useful points to be learned in tliis connection, 

 besides the important sanitary precautions that are to be deduced. Immediately after death 

 the various fluids of the body begin to " settle" (so to speak), and shortly after the muscular 

 systein as a rule becomes fixed in what is technically called rigor mortis. This stiffening 

 usually occurs as the animal heat dies away ; but its onset, and especially its duration, is very 

 varialile, according to circumstances, such as cause of death ; although in most cases of sudden 

 violent death of an animal in previous good health, it seems to depend chiefly upon tempera- 

 ture, being transient and imperfect, or altogether wanting, in hot weather. As it passes off, 

 the whole system relaxes, and the body soon becomes as " limp " as at the moment of death. 

 This is the period immediately preceding decomposition ; iu fact, it may be considered as the 

 stage of incipient putridity ; it is very brief in warm weather, and it should be seized as the 

 last opportunity of preparing a bird vidthout inconvenience and even danger. If not skinned 

 at once, putrescence becomes established; it is indicated by the effluvium (at the outset ''sour," 

 but rapidly acquiring a variety of disgusting odors) ; by the distension of the abdomen with 

 gaseous products of decomposition ; by the loosening of the cuticle, and consequently of the 

 feathers ; and by other signs. If you pail; the feathers of a bad-smelling bird's belly to find 

 the skin swollen and livid or greenish, while the feathers come ofi" at a touch, the bird is too 

 far gone to be recovered without trouble and risk that no ordinary specimen warrants. It is 

 a singular fact that this early putrescence is more poisonous than utter rottenness ; as physicians 

 are aware, a post-mortem examination at this stage, or even before it, involves more risk 

 than their ordinary dissecting-room experience. It seems that both natural and pathological 

 poisons lose their early virulence by resolution into other products of decay. The obvious 

 deduction from all this is to skin your bii'ds soon enough. Some say they are best skinned 

 perfectly fresh, but I see no reason for this ; when I have time to choose, I take the period of 

 rigidity as being preferable on the whole ; for the fluids have then " settled," and the limbs arc 

 readily relaxed by manipulation. If you have a large bag to dispose of, and are pressed for 

 time, set them in the coolest place you can find, preferably on ice; a slight lowering of temper- 

 ature may make a decided difference. Disembowelling, which may be accomplished in a 

 moment, will materially retard decomposition. Injections of creosote or dilute carbolic acid 

 will arrest decay for a time, for an indefinitely long period if a large quantity of these anti- 

 septics be employed. When it becomes desirable (it can never be necessary) to skin a putres- 

 cent bird, great care must be exercised nut only to accomplish the operation, but to avoid 



