a 
PREPARING AND STUFFING ANIMALS. 
Therefore, Reynard being procured, we need not say how, lay | 
him on his back in the same position as before recommended ; 
and, having first stuffed the mouth with cotton and tied 
it up, and measured his neck and body with rule and calipers, 
and noted them, proceed. Make an incision from the last rib 
nearly to the vent, but not quite up to it. Having done so, pro- 
ceed to raise the skin all round the incision as far as the thighs, 
first skinning one side and then the other, using the flat end of 
the knife in preference to the blade to raise the skin. Having 
reached the hind legs, separate the latter at the femur or 
thigh-bone close to the back-bone, leaving the legs attached 
to the skin. Now skin the head-quarters close up to the tail, 
and separate it from the body at the last vertebree, taking care 
not to injure the skin. Pull the skin over the heads of the hip- 
joimts, and now the carcase may be suspended by the hind- 
quarters, while the skin is stripped by pulling it gently and cut- 
ting towards the fore-quarters. The fore legs are separated from 
the body, as the hind ones had been, close to the shoulder-bone, 
and the skin fairly pulled over the head and close to the nose, 
when the head is separated from the body by cutting through 
the last vertebree of the neck. Reynard is now skinned, the 
head, legs, and tail being all attached to the skin, from which 
the carcase 1s separated. 
The flesh is now cut entirely away from cheek-bones, the 
eyes removed, the brains taken out by enlarging the occipital 
opening behind the cranium, the whole cleaned and suppled 
with a coating of arsenical paste, and stuffed with tow or wool 
to the natural size. 
The legs are now successively skinned by pushing out the 
bones and inverting the skin over them until the foot-joint is 
visible; every portion of flesh and tendons must be cut away, 
and the bone cleaned thoroughly, and a coating of arsenical 
soap laid over it as well as the skin. Wrap tow, or cotton, or 
any other suitable material, round the bone, bringing it to its 
natural shape, and draw the skin over it again. Do this to 
each leg in succession, and the body itself is ready for stuffing 
and mounting. 
The utmost care will not prevent accidents: the fur and 
plumage will get sullied, and before stuffing it is well to ex- 
amine the skin, for stains and spots are calculated to deteriorate 
its appearance. Grease or blood-spots may be removed by brush- 
ing over with oil of turpentine, which is afterwards absorbed 
by dusting plaster of Paris over; Macgillivray recommends 
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