HINTS ON REMOVING AND PREPARING 

 SKINS OE MAMMALS. 



SECTION A.— LARGE MAMMALS. 



Sportsmen are, as a rule, by no means careful enough about the 

 proper labelling of their specimens, which consequently lose much 

 of their scientific value. Large Mammals, like small ones, should 

 be carefully labelled, with all particulars of date, sex, locality, 

 altitude, etc. Specimen-labels are shown on page 15. The proper 

 reference of each skull to its own particular skin is also of much 

 importance. 



For skinning large Mammals the implements required are very few 

 and inexpensive — a shoemaker's knife, a scalpel, a small saw, and 

 a pair of pliers, with perhaps the addition of a pair of cutting-pincers, 

 being all that are requisite. Any addition to this simple outlit only 

 tends to encumber the traveller unnecessarily, everything really de- 

 pending upon the skill with which the knife is wielded rather than 

 upon the number and nature of the implements themselves. 



The great principle the operator should bear in mind is to make 

 as few incisions as possible in the skin, and that these, so far as 

 practicable, should be confined to the middle line of the under 

 surface of the body, and to the inner sides of the limbs. If this be 

 attended to, the slits will be but little conspicuous when the specimens 

 are mounted. In Mohammedan countries the natives have a practice 

 of cutting the throats of animals from ear to ear immediately they 

 fall, in order that they may be bled after the orthodox fashion. 

 Such gashes have, of course, to be sewn up when the specimen is 

 mounted, with the result that the region of the throat is disfigured 



