iv APPENDIX. 



instrnment has the advantage of not splintering the bone. Brush with the soap, and wrap in wool in the 

 same manner as the leg. Having finished the second wing, which is much easier than the first, the neck 

 will be found to offer no difficulties, but care should be taken not to prick the jugular veins. It often 

 requires considerable patience to get the skin over the head. In some birds, especially in the case of 

 Ducks, Woodpeckers, and Parrots, it is an impossibility, and another method has to be adopted, which will 

 be referred to presently. On the head you will revert to your forceps. The ear is soon reached, and it 

 should be cut across as near the bone as you can — within the meatus itself, if possible. In small and 

 thin-skinned birds you will be able to pull the skin out of the ear with the forceps. Having finished the 

 ear on both sides, the eye next appears, and, from the conjunctiva or covering of the eye-ball being closely 

 connected with the eyelid, it will have to be cut through. It appears as a thin, semitransparent membrane, 

 which is easily recognisable by practice, but care is necessary, in the case of the novice, lest the thin 

 lower eyelid should be mistaken for it and "button-holed" — a mistake that would be fatal to the 

 appearance of your specimen on that side. Finish the other eye, and work back the skin till the 

 appearance of the base of the beak warns you that you have gone far enough, and that the first part of 

 your task is over. 



Now take the bird down. Take out the eyes, but be careful not to rupture them. With your pair of 

 strong scissors cut away a portion of the base of the brain, but do not make too large an opening. Join 

 this with two incisions made boldly along both edges of the floor of the under jaw, but do not cut into the 

 articulation of the latter with the head. This will separate the body, leaving the head attached to the skin, 

 but the former should not be thrown away. Remove the brains, and clean the skull thoroughly of the meat 

 attached to it. Dress it well with the soap, which should of course be made into a lather previous to its 

 application. Note the size of the eyeballs, and fill the sockets with tightly screwed-up pellets of clean 

 cotton-wool of the same dimensions. Stuff the skull with the same material. Clean your fingers, and, 

 holding up the bird with the finger and thumb of the left hand over the orbits, cover the neck plentifully 

 with soap, and then turn the skin right side out. This operation is facilitated by feeling for the point of 

 the beak with the fingers of the right hand, but, if the neck is too long to enable you to reach it, a small 

 ruler or blunt stick pushed up from the feather side will often assist you considerably. Be sure that the 

 skin is well pulled over the head. Arrange the eyelids so as to show a good circular eye of wool, and lay 

 the skin on its back before you — the beak to your left. Note the thickness of the neck in the carcase, and 

 construct a similar one of wadding, but some three or four inches longer; it should be tightly rolled 

 between the palms of the hands. Take a turn or two round the point of a skewer, having first moistened 

 one end of the wool with soap to make it "bite." By this means you can thrust it up the neck from the 

 opening in the body, and bring it out at the mouth ; it should be well soaped previously. Free the skewer 

 and withdraw it, and you will find that you will be able to lengthen or shorten the neck, as you think 

 necessary, liy pulling the beak out, or the feathers of the neck to the right. 



You have still the wings left to finish. In small birds the amount of meat on them is so small that it 

 may be left to dry without much risk, but all specimens larger than a Blackbird should have it removed in 

 the following manner : — Open the wing, and fix it steady on the table by means of a couple of stout pins 

 driven through the parts in the neighbourhood of the carpal and elbow-joints. Your incision should be 

 made between these two points, along the whole length of what corresponds to the fore-arm in man, and on 

 the inner surface of the wing. Having worked the skin back as far as you conveniently can, it may be 

 kept out of the way by means of the chain-hooks, while you remove the flesh from between and around the 

 two bones. Dress with the soap, and lay a strip or two of wool inside. It is only in the larger birds that 

 you will require a stitch or two to keep the edges of the skin together. Your bird is now nearly finished. 

 Kemove the adherent pieces of paper from the inside of the body, and dress well with arsenical soap, 

 especially at the root of the tail. Look well at the carcase, and construct a tightly-packed body of tow or 

 cotton-wool as near its size and shape as you can. Insert it carefully, pull the skin together, and sew it up. 



