APPENDIX II 



HINTS ON REMOVING AND PREPARING SKINS OF 



MAMMALS 



SECTION A.— LARGE MAMMALS 



Sportsmen are, as a rule, by no means careful enough about the proper 

 labelling of their specimens, which consequently lose much of their 

 scientific value. Large Mammals, like small ones, should be carefully 

 labelled, with all particulars of date, sex, locality, altitude, etc. Specimen- 

 labels are shown beyond (page i8i). The proper reference of each skull to 

 its own particular skin is also of much importance. 



For skinning large Mammals the implements required are very few and 

 inexpensive — a shoemaker's knife, a scalpel, a small saw, and a pair of 

 pliers, with perhaps the addition of a pair of cutting-pincers, being all 

 that are requisite. Any addition to this simple outfit only tends to en- 

 cumber the traveller unnecessarily, everything really depending upon the 

 skill with which the knife is wielded rather than upon the number and 

 nature of the implements themselves. 



The great principle the operator should bear in mind is to make as few 

 incisions as possible in the skin, and that these, so far as practicable, 

 should be confined to the middle line of the under surface of the body, 

 and to the inner sides of the limbs. If this be attended to, the slits will 

 be but little conspicuous when the specimens are mounted. In Moham- 

 medan countries the natives have a practice of cutting the throats of 

 animals from ear to ear immediately they fall, in order that they may 

 be bled after the orthodox fashion. Such gashes have, of course, to be 

 sewn up when the specimen is mounted, with the result that the region of 

 the throat is disfigured by ugly seams. In his book entitled " Seventeen 

 Trips to Somaliland," Major Swayne has shown that by a little gentle 

 persuasion the natives can be induced to so modify the halal (as the 

 operation is called) that the damage to the specimen is reduced to a 

 minimum ; and probably a similar modification might be assented to by 

 the Mohammedans of otlier countries. 



17S 



