58 Hints on Practical Collecting. 



IX. — Hints on Practical Collecting, 



A. — Directions for Preparing Birds' Skins. 



Instruments and Material required. — A sharp knife or 

 scalpel, a pair of stout nail-scissors, some powdered 

 arsenic or arsenical soap (or even powdered alum will 

 effectually preserve skins), a little tow and cotton- wool, 

 an awl or darning-needle, a little fine sawdust or plaster 

 of Paris. 



Skinning. — Plug the mouth and any bad shot-wound 

 with cotton-wool, make a medium incision through the 

 skin from the middle of the breast to just in front of the 

 vent. Press with the fingers the skin apart from the 

 sides of the body as far as the sides ; cut through the 

 flesh of the leg at the " knee-joint " on either side, so 

 as to completely sever the leg from the body. Work 

 the skin down to the root of the tail-feathers and cut 

 across the backbone just above their roots ; work the 

 skin off the back to the wings, separate these at the 

 shoulder-joints, then w^ork the skin back, turning it 

 inside out over the neck to the head ; cut carefully into 

 the ear to free the skin at that point and also over the 

 eye, leaving the eyelid intact ; remove from the skull 

 the eyes, tongue, and flesh above the palate ; cut a 

 slice off the back of the skull to remove the brain. 

 Now clear all superfluous flesh off the legs and wings 

 by pushing the skin off the limbs as far as possible ; 

 the skinning is now complete. 



Making-up. — The whole of the skin, including the bones 

 left in, should now be thoroughly dressed with arsenic 

 soap or powdered arsenic or even with a mixture of 

 alum and salt-petre. The eye-holes should be filled up 

 with a little cotton, and the skull carefully turned back 

 inside the skin ; a pointed match-stick wrapped round 

 with cotlon-wool forms an effective neck and should 

 be fixed in the back of the skull ; the body should now 

 be filled up with cotton-wool and the sides of the skin 



