METHODS IN THE ART OF TAXIDERMY. 221 



The center incision begins at the throat and extends to the vent, and 

 the tail is slit open and skinned quite to the tip. In large mammals, 

 such as elephants, the skin is removed in three pieces, so that it may 

 be handled with facility. 



The skin of the elephant Jumbo, for example, which was mounted 

 at Ward's Natural Science Establishment, Rochester, New York, was 

 taken off in three pieces, the head and neck in one, the body in two, 

 by cutting along the middle of the back and belly until the cuts met 

 that severed the head and neck and divided the body skin. 



The legs should be disjointed from the body where the fore leg 

 joins the shoulder blade and where the hind leg joins the pel- 

 vis bone. Skin the legs by turning the skin wrong side out over 

 the foot, and cut all the flesh away from the bones and clean them 

 thoroughly. In mammals above the size of a deer, the bones of the 

 legs may be detached at the first joint above foot, as the skin can then 

 be more easily handled ; the bones, however, should remain attached 

 to their ligaments. 



The skin should be cut neatly from the body and every particle of 

 flesh adhering to it removed. 



When you have skinned down far enough to reach the ears, cut 

 them off close to the head and continue to turn the skin wrong side 

 out over the head, being careful while skinning over the eyes, mouth 

 and nose, as I have previously directed. The thick, fleshy upper lip must 

 be split open from the inside and the flesh pared off. When split in 

 this manner it can be thinned down, and a pocket formed in which we 

 can place clay and give the lip its natural fullness. The head of an 

 animal having horns must be skinned through an opening made in the 

 back of the neck and across from one horn to another, as is seen in 

 Fig. 1, Plate LXIX. Some make this opening in the shape of a Y, the 

 incisions reaching to and around each horn. The skin is cut away 

 completely around the base of each horn, while the skin of the head 

 worked down over the skull and cheeks. 



Skinning the ears to their tips and removing their cartilage is a 

 tedious operation, requiring patience, care and perseverance. There is 

 more than one decided advantage in skinning the ears all the way to their 

 tips and removing the cartilage. In the first place, you can thoroughly 

 poison them ; secondly, when the cartilage has been nicely replaced 

 with sheet copper or lead cut and hammered the proper shape, and the 

 lower portion filled with clay, it is impossible for the ear to curl up or 

 shrivel ; it will always retain the shape you give to it. Now wash ofi 

 every blood stain before you go any farther. 



