MAMMAL SKINS FOR STUDY AND MOUNTING. 



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but leave tlieni attaclied to the .skin as shown by the left leg of the 

 acconn)anyiiig figuic* 



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Fig. 1. — SiiiiiriL'l partly skinned. 



Detach the skin from the back, shoulders, and neck, and when you 

 come to the ears cut them off close to .the head. Turn the skin wrong 

 side out over the head and proceed until you come to the eyes. !N"ow 

 work slowly with the knife, keeping close to the edge of the bony orbit, 

 until you can see, through a thin membrane under your knife-edge, the 

 dark portion of the eye. You may now cut fearlessly through this 

 membrane and esi)Ose the eyeball. It is a good plan with large mam- 

 mals to hold one linger of the left hand in the eye and cut against it to 

 avoid cutting the lid. 



Skin down to the end of the nose, cut through the cartilage close to 

 the bone, and cut on down to where the upper lip Joins the gum. (Jut 

 both lips away from the skull close to the bone all the way around the 

 mouth, except directly in front of the incisors. 



Tiie lips are tliick and th\shy, and must l)c split open from the inside 

 and flattened out so that the llesli in them can be pared off. Do not 

 cut off" the roots of the whiskers, or they will fall out. Pare away the 



* The figures aceomp.iiiyiiijj; this article arc selections from plates iuteuded to illus- 

 trate a forthcouiinj^ work on taxidermy. 



