26 PREPARATION OF SPECIMENS FOR STUDY. 



scraping. As soon as the wings have been severed, 

 the skin, which by this time will have been turned 

 inside out, will easily slip along the neck as far as the 

 head. To skin the latter is the most difficult part of 

 the job, and must be carefully done, or the skin will 

 tear. The head is to be uncovered nearly as far as 

 the base of the bill, taking especial pains, at this stage 

 of the process, not to stretch the skin unduly. The 

 eyes are to be picked out, and then the entire base of 

 the skull, together with the flesh between the jaws, and 

 the brain, is to be removed, leaving the sides and top 

 of the skull attached to the bill. The skin above the 

 ears and eyes is closely adherent by membrane to the 

 bone, and must be detached with care by cutting. In 

 the general process of skinning, after the first incision, 

 little if any use of the knife or scissors is required 

 except to sever the legs, tail, and wings, to work about 

 the eyes and ears, and to remove the base of the skull. 

 Nearly all the necessary cutting may be better done 

 with the scissors than with the knife. The skins of 

 most birds slip off very easily, or at most only require 

 to be detached with the thumb-nail. In the cases of 

 Woodpeckers, some Ducks, and a few other birds, the 

 heads of which are too large in proportion to the cali- 

 bre of the neck to be skinned as above directed, this 

 part must be afterward separately skinned by an incis- 

 ion made from the outside along the middle line of the 

 skull. 



If the above process has been properly conducted, 

 the bird's skin has been turned inside out. The pre- 

 servative may now be applied thoroughly to every part 

 of the skin, and especially to the head, wings, legs, 

 and tail, where bone or traces of flesh remain. The 



