PROCESS OF SKINNING. 59 



your right forefinger under the raised flap of skin, and feel a 

 bump ; it is the knee; push up the leg till this bump comes into 

 viev^, hold it so. Take the scissors in your right hand ; tuck 

 one blade under the concavity of the knee,, and sever the joint 

 at a stroke ; then the thigh is left with the rest of the body, 

 while the rest of the leg is dissevered and hangs only by skin. 

 Push the leg further up till it has slipped out of its sheath of 

 skin, like a finger out of a glove, down to the heel-joint. You 

 have now to clear off the flesh and leave the bone there ; you 

 may scrape till this is done, but there is a better way. Stick 

 the dosed points of the scissors in among the muscles just be- 

 low the head of the bone, then separate the blades just wide 

 enough to grasp the bone ; snip off its head ; draw the head to 

 one side ; all the muscles follow, being there attached ; strip 

 them dowmvard from the bone ; the bone is left naked, with 

 the muscle hanging by a bundle of tendons ("leaders") at its 

 foot ; sever these tendons collectively at a stroke.* Draw the 

 leg bone back into its sheath, and leave it. Repeat all the 

 foregoing steps on the other side of the bird. If you are 

 bothered by the skin-flaps settling against the belty-walls, in- 

 sert a fluff of cotton. Keep the feathers out of the wound ; 

 cotton and the moustache movement will do it. Next you 

 must sever the tail from the body, leaving a small "pope's- 

 nose" for the feathers to stay stuck into. Put the bird in 

 the hollow of your lightly closed left hand, tail upward, belly 

 toward you. ; or, if too large for this, stand it on its breast on 

 the table in similar position. Throw your left forefinger across 

 the front of the tail, pressing a little backward ; take the scis- 

 sors, cut the end of the lower bowel free first, than peck away 

 at bone and muscle with cautious snips,! till the tail-stump is 

 dissevered from the rump, and the tail hangs only by skin. 

 Now you have the rump-stump protruding naked; the legs 



*This whole performance will occupy about three seconds, after practice; and 

 you may soon discover you can nick off the head of the bone of a small bird with 

 the thumb-nail. 



t You will soon learn to do it all at one stroke ; but you cannot be too careful at 

 first; you are cutting right down on to the skin over the top of the pope's-nose, 

 and if you divide this, the bird will part company with its tail altogether. 



