DIRECTIONS FOR PRESERVING SKINS. 1G3 



HINTS FOR PRESERVING SKINS OF MAMMALS AND BIRDS. 



Mammals. Stuff cotton into the mouth, nostrils, large shot-holes, 

 etc. Split the skin from the top of the breast-bone to the tail, being 

 careful not to cut through the abdominal muscles. Push off the skin, not 

 pull it off from the body. Separate the limbs from the body, preserving 

 all the bones, including the shoulder-blades. With a cleft stick slide 

 out the tail, if covered with hair ; but, if naked like the tail of a rat, 

 cut it off, as it cannot be skinned. Turn out the legs and clean away 

 all flesh to the toes, leaving the tendons around the joints. Skin over 

 the head, taking off the ears close to the skull, and preserving unin- 

 jured the eyelids and lips. Cut into the mouth on the inside of the 

 teeth only to remove the tongue. Cut off the head, cleaning away all 

 muscle and taking out the brain and eyes. While the skin is wrong 

 side out and moist, sprinkle it thoroughly with a mixture of equal 

 parts, by- weight, of powdered alum and arsenic. Fill the eye-orbits 

 with cotton. Push the skull and legs back, supplying the place of the 

 flesh in those portions with tow or cotton. Force a wrapped wire into 

 the tail, if skinned, to hold it in place. Leave the skin a few hours, 

 flattened to bring the inner surfaces together, to absorb the mixture. 

 Finally, distend the skin, without stretching it, into its natural shape, 

 as nearly as possible, with any dried vegetable substance. 



Birds. Take the girth of the body over the wings with a slip of 

 paper, pinning it in the form of a ring, and slide it off over the tail. 

 Begin the incision with the lower third of the breast-bone. Cut off 

 the legs at the knee-joint, and the wings at the elbow-joint. Skin over 

 the head to the bill, pulling out the ears and enlarging the orifice to 

 take out the brain by cutting forward into the roof of the mouth. In 

 all other respects proceed as with Mammals, with such slight modifi- 

 cations as will naturally suggest themselves. Most web-footed birds 

 have the head too large to force the skin over. For these, skin the 

 neck as far as possible, amputate, and after the skin is poisoned and 

 turned back, an incision must be made o^ the top of the head or under 

 the throat, by which the head may be skinned in the usual way. Then 

 poison, turn back, and carefully sew up the incision. Great care 

 must be taken to work the poison around the roots of the tail and the 

 wrist-bones of the wings, opening orifices on the inside with the blade 

 of the knife, and inserting a pinch of the powder. In the case of very 

 long wings, after turning the skin back, cut a slit along the under-side 

 of the arm and remove the muscles. Stuff cotton loosely into the neck 

 and body and around the bones of the legs. Tie the bones of the 

 wings in their natural position. Sew up the slit, and after a careful 



