28 INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PRESERVATION OF BIRDS. 



of very small birds, it is necessary to skin down to the base of the 

 bill. When the skin has been pushed back as far as the eyeballs, it 

 will be found attached firstly to the ear (si^e fig. 2). This must be 

 detached by placing the point of the knife under the tightly stretched 

 skin and cai-efully scooping it out. The next difficidty is the eyelid. 

 Still stretching the skin towards the bill, make a light cross cut 

 behind the point of attachment above the eyeball, taking care not to 

 cut into the latter. This cut will partially separate the eyelid from 

 the eye, and a second upward cut from in front backwards completes 

 the operation. It is very important to preserve the eyelid intact, as 

 nothing spoils the appearance of a skin so much as a torn or damaged 

 eyelid. When the eyeballs have been removed from the orbits, it is 

 time to cut away the back of the skull, and with this goes the neck, 

 which has not yet been detached. The tongue must also be removed 

 at the same time. Mr. W^illiam Davison, who always made beautiful 

 skins, and had one of the widest experiences in the preparation of 

 specimens during the fifteen years that he was collecting for Mr. 

 Allan Hume, always recommended that the skull should be attacked 

 from below, and that a triangular piece should be taken out from the 

 end of the jaw-bones to the palate, cutting away the roof of the mouth, 

 and that the brain should be removed through the opening thus made ; 

 and he advised that the eyeballs should then be extracted with the 

 aid of a pair of forceps through the same opening in the base of the 

 skull. It should, however, be mentioned that in large-headed birds, 

 such as parrots, woodpeckers, ducks and some others, in which the 

 skin of the head cannot be turned back, an incision has to be made 

 in the nape, through which the skull can be pushed and cleansed. 

 The incision is afterwards closed by two or three stitches. The 

 skull and the skin of the body should then be everywhere carefully 

 dressed with arsenical soap, and the head turned back by means 

 of a little gentle manipulation. Great care must be taken not to 

 stretch the skin of the neck in pulling the head back into position ; 

 and the head and neck should always be drawn hack towards the body 

 before the skin is made up. Mr. Davison thus proceeded to make up 

 the skin. Opening the bill, he put into the eye-socket, through the 

 triangular cut made in the base of the skull, small tufts of pure white 

 bleached wool, which filled out the contour of each eye in turn ; and 



