or 
HOW TO MAKE A BIRDSKIN. 39 
it in the hollow stump of the bone; if there is no stump left, file a piece of stout wire to a 
point and stick it into the heel joint. If the forearm bone that you usually leave in a small 
bird is broken, remove it and leave the other in; if both are broken, do not clean the wings 
so thoroughly that they become detached ; an extra pinch of arsenic will condone the omission. 
In a large bird, if both bones of the forearm are broken, splint them with a bit of wood laid in 
between, so that one end hitches at the elbow, the other at the wrist. A humerus may be 
replaced like a leg bone, but this is rarely required. If the skull be smashed, save the pieces, 
and leave them if you can; if not, imitate the arch of the head with a firm cotton-ball. A 
broken tarsus is readily splinted with a pin thrust up through the sole of the foot: if too large 
for this, use a pointed piece of wire. There is no mending a bill when part of it is shot away ; 
for I think the replacing of part by putty, stucco, ete., inadmissible; but if it be only fractured, 
the pieces may usually be retained in place by winding with thread, or with a touch of glue or 
mucilage. It is singular, by the way, what unsightliness results from a very trifling injury to 
the bill; much, I suppose, as a boil on a person’s nose is peculiarly deplorable. I have already 
hinted how artfully various weak places in a skin, due to mutilation or loss of plumage, may be 
hidden. 
Decomposition. — It might seem unnecessary to speak of what may be smelled out so 
readily as animal putrescence; but there are some useful points to be learned in this connection, 
besides the important sanitary precautions that are to be deduced. Immediately after death 
the various fluids of the body begin to “ settle” (so to speak), and shortly after the muscular 
system ,as a rule becomes fixed in what is technically called rigor mortis. This stiffening 
usually occurs as the animal heat dies away; but its onset, and especially its duration, is very 
variable, according to circumstances, such as cause of death ; although in most cases of sudden 
violent death of an animal in previous good health, it seems to depend chiefly upon tempera- 
ture, being transient and imperfect, or altogether wanting, in hot weather. As it passes off, 
the whole system relaxes, and the body soon becomes as “limp” as at the moment of death. 
This is the period immediately preceding decomposition ; in fact, it may be considered as the 
stage of incipient putridity ; it is very brief in warm weather, and it should be seized as the 
last opportunity of preparing a bird without inconvenience and even danger. If not skinned 
at once, putrescence becomes established; it is indicated by the eflluvium (at the outset ‘‘ sour,” 
but rapidly acquiring a variety of disgusting odors) ; by the distension of the abdomen with 
gaseous products of decomposition; by the loosening of the cuticle, and consequently of the 
feathers ; and by other signs. If you part the feathers of a bad-smelling bird’s belly to find 
the skin swollen and livid or greenish, while the feathers come off at a touch, the bird is too 
far gone to be recovered without trouble and risk that no ordinary specimen warrants. It is 
a singular fact that this early putrescence is more poisonous than utter rottenness; as physicians 
are aware, a post-mortem examination at this stage, or even before it, involves more risk 
than their ordinary dissecting-room experience. It seems that both natural and pathological 
poisons lose their early virulence by resolution into other products of decay. The obvious 
deduction from all this is to skin your birds soon enough. Some say they are best skinned 
perfectly fresh, but I see no reason for this; when I have time to choose, I take the period of 
rigidity as being preferable on the whole ; for the fluids have then ‘ settled,” and the limbs are 
readily relaxed by manipulation. If you have a large bag to dispose of, and are pressed for 
time, set them in the coolest place you can find, preferably on ice; a slight lowering of temper- 
ature may make a decided difference. Disembowelling, which may be accomplished in a 
moment, will materially retard decomposition. Injections of creosote or dilute carbolic acid 
will arrest decay for a time, for an indefinitely long period if a large quantity of these anti- 
septics be employed. When it becomes desirable (it can never be necessary) to skin a putres- 
cent bird, great care must be exercised not only to accomplish the operation, but to avoid 
