WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 321 



stick like a common knitting-needle, and a handful 

 or two of cotton. Now fill the mouth and nostrils 

 of the bird with cotton, and place it upon your 

 knee on its back, with its head pointing to your 

 left shoulder. Take hold of the knife with your 

 two first fingers and thumb, the edge upwards. 

 You must not keep the point of the knife perpen- 

 dicular to the body of the bird; because, were 

 you to hold it so, you would cut the inner skin of 

 the belly, and thus let the bowels out. To avoid 

 this, let your knife be parallel to the body, and 

 then you will divide the outer skin with great 

 ease. 



Begin on the belly below the breast-bone, and 

 cut down the middle, quite to the vent. This done, 

 put the bird in any convenient position, and sepa- 

 rate the skin from the body, till you get at the 

 middle joint of the thigh. Cut it through, and do 

 nothing more there at present, except introducing 

 cotton all the way on that side, from the vent 

 to the breast-bone. Do exactly the same on the 

 opposite side. 



Now place the bird perpendicular, its breast 

 resting on your knee, with its back towards you. 

 Separate the skin from the body on each side at 

 the vent, and never mind at present the part from 

 the vent to the root of the tail. Bend the tail 

 gently down to the back, and while your finger 

 and thumb are keeping down the detached parts 

 of the skin on each side of the vent, cut quite 

 across, and deep, till you see the back-bone, near 

 the oil-gland at the root of the tail. Sever the 

 back-bone at the joint, and then you have all the 



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