THE MUSEUM. 



103 



Notes 



On the Preparation 

 Rough Skeletons. 



of 



BY Frederic A. Lucas. 



IDENTIFICATION OF SPECIMENS. 



It is, of course, e.\tremely important 

 to know the correct name of every 

 skeleton, and whenever possible this 

 should be attached to the specimen. 



When the animal is unknown, either 

 the skin, roughly taken off, should be 

 kept, or else another specimen made 

 into a skin, in order that it may serve 

 as a means of identifying the skeleton. 



LABELS. 



Use good nianila labels, as thin pa- 

 per is so apt to be torn or defaced. 

 A ver}- good plan is to cut Roman 

 numbers on a bit of wood and let these 

 refer to entries in a note-book. 



SELECTION OF SPECIMENS BREAKAGES. 



Where time allows, select a series 

 •of skeletons of different ages; but 

 where only one skeleton can be pre- 

 pared, choose a fully grown, adult ani- 

 mal, as free as possible from breakages. 

 If an animal is shot or trapped it is 

 impossible to avoid breaking some 

 bones, and such must be allowed to 

 pass, but where it has been beaten to 

 death, fracturing the skull and limb 

 bones generally, the animal had better 

 be thrown away at once. 



If the skull alone is broken, select if 

 possible another of the same size and 

 send botJi with the body. When con- 

 venient send with a broken leg or wing 

 another of the same size, but on no 

 .account throw away the fractured limb. 



TOOLS. 



A knife and a pair of scissors are all 



that are absolutely necessary, but if 

 these can be supplemented by one or 

 two steel scrapers, the work will be 

 greatly facilitated. 



"ROUGHING OUT." MAMMALS. 



If an animal is rare, the skin should 

 be very carefully taken off and pre- 

 served; otherwise, remove the skin 

 roughly and disembowel the specimen, 

 taking care not to cut into the breast- 

 bone, especially the disk-shaped piece 

 of cartilage in which it ends. Animals 

 destined for skeletons should on no ac- 

 count be split up the breast as though 

 they were being dressed for market. 



Detach the legs from the body and 

 remove the coliar-bone or knee pan 

 with the meat. In the cat family the 

 collarbone is very small, and lies loose 

 in the flesh between the shoulder-blade 

 and front end of breast-bone. The 

 collar-bone of weasels is very minute 

 and difficult to find, while, on the other 

 hand, climbing and burrowing animals 

 usually have this bone well developed 

 and uniting the shoulder-blade with 

 the breast-bone. 



Deer, antelope, bears and seals have 

 no collar-bone. 



In small quadrupeds it will not be 

 necessary to detach the legs, but, 

 whenever convenience in roughing out 

 or packing renders this needful, cut 

 the collar-bone loose from the breast- 

 bone and leave it fastened to the 

 shoulder-blade. 



The legs being finished, disjoint and 

 clean the skull. Be careful in remov- 

 ing the eyes not to thrust the point of 

 the knife through the thin portion of 

 the skull back of them, and in deer, 

 antelope, or other ruminants take care 

 not to break through the thin bone at 

 the back end of the upper teeth. Also 



