274 METHODS IN THE ART OF TAXIDERMY. 



discover the butt of the ears ; here you may cut them off close to the 

 skull and continue skinning forward over the face to the tip of the 

 nose. Perhaps the most difficult point for the beginner to work over 

 is the eyes. When you come to these the best plan, adopted by nearly 

 all taxidermists, is to place the index finger on the outside of the eye, 

 pull the skin away from the skull gently and cut through the mem- 

 brane, being very careful when you come down into the corner of the 

 eye where the skin closely joins the bone. Separate the skin neatly 

 along the jaws all the way to the end of the nose, where the cartilage 

 must be cut through in order to detach the skin entirely from the 

 skull. After taking the skin off roughly, begin to pare off all particles 

 of flesh that remain adhering to it. Clean it thoroughly. If you do 

 or do not intend to mount the head immediately, skin the ears all the 

 way to the tips and pocr/cet the upper lip. In skinning the ears of the 

 larger mammals it is a good plan to use a pair of flat-nosed pliers for 

 pulling the skin of the ears apart. Toward the tips the skin joins 

 closely together, and it requires force to separate it. The cartilage 

 after this must be carefully cut away. The upper lip may be pocketed 

 by cutting into the fleshy part and the skin proper, leaving a pocket 

 between the fleshy part and the skin. In previous chapters I 

 have given sufficient directions for tJiinni)ig the skin. This is of 

 such great importance to the person who is to mount the head that it 

 will well repay him to study carefully what I have said in the last 

 chapter concerning the thinning of skins, when expression and shape 

 are desired in the head of an animal. On page 204 there are special 

 directions for thinning skins under the head of Relaxing Dry Skins 

 of Mammals. After washing all blood stains from the hair w^e shall 

 place the skin in the salt and alum pickle, as directed on page IS. The 

 flesh ere this time has been thoroughly cleaned from the skull, and the 

 brain has been taken out through a long hole, cut forward from the 

 back of the occipital opening. In this hole the center-board for the 

 neck is fitted into the skull cavity. Now mix up some plaster of Paris 

 in water, place the center-board in the cavity, pour in the plaster until 

 it is full; pile the plaster up and around where the lower jaw joins the 

 upper, so that it will also be held in place. This is a good method of 

 fixing the center-board for the neck in the heads of deer, antelope, etc., 

 but in the skulls of elk, moose, etc., on account of the great weight, 

 we must employ a different means of fastening, which I shall describe 

 in this chapter. 



For a deer head you may make the center-board the shape it ap- 

 pears in Fig. 3, Plate LXX, or you may make it perfectly straight, for 



