656 



INSTRUCTION IN TAXIDERMY. 



tween the hind legs, extending quite back to the vent, the hair having been care- 

 fully parted so that it may not be cut. Do not cut into the abdominal cavity. 

 The skin can now be separated from the flesh and turned back as far as the thigh, 

 which is severed at the joint. When this is done on both sides, the gut should be 

 drawn out and severed at a short distance from the vent. The tail should also be 

 disjointed at the root. Thi§ being done, the skin can be loosened around the body 

 until the fore-legs are reached, when they also should be dissevered. The skin- 

 ning now proceeds along the neck until the skull is reached. Here considerable 

 care is necessary to remove the skin without damage to the ears, eyelids, and 

 lips. The skin is left attached to the skull ; when the operation has proceeded far 

 enough to expose the muscles of the jaws, the skin must be separated from the 

 body at the first joint of the neck. The tongue, eyes, and muscles, remaining 

 attached to the head, are now to be carefully removed, and the brain taken out 

 from an opening in the back of the skull, cut through for that purpose. To make 

 this opening, amateurs can use a small gimlet or bit with very small animals, and 

 a large one as circumstances may demand. The legs are now to be skinned out 

 quite down to the claws, which completes the operation of skinning. During the 

 entire process, all fluids escaping must be immediately soaked up with cotton. 

 As soon as the skin is removed, it should be thoroughly rubbed with arsenical 

 soap, not omitting the inside of the skull and mouth cavities. 



Insect Specimens. — To preserve insects ; quarter of an ounce of corrosive sub- 

 limate in one ounce of water, and add three ounces of spirits of wine. Steep 

 insects in this, then dry ; and especially if spider specimens be treated this way, 

 they will be found to be pliable. 



Bird Lime. — To make it, boil down linseed oil of the best quality until it 

 becomes .thick and glutinous. It should be boiled in an earthern pot in the open 

 air, for about two or three hours. It is very essential that an earthen vessel 

 should be used, as an iron one heats and the oil takes fire when boiling, and in 

 such a case is useless as bird lime. A pot should be used with a tight fitting cover, 

 to prevent the fire entering inside it. When prepared set the oil away in tin 

 boxes with tight fitting covers, until it is to be used. Prepared lime made of 

 pitch and oil and sold by some dealers, is worthless. 



To Use It. — Select some small dry sticks, about eight inches long and as thick as 

 a straw ; sharpen one end of them to a flat thin edge, so they can be stuck 

 i ito a cut in stake ; take a large stick or stake and drive it in the ground ; 

 make cuts in its sides suitable to receive the flat ends of the stick ; take two of the 

 small sticks and dip them in the lime ; when covered, hold one in each hand 

 and roll them between your thumbs and fingers with their sides touching, thus 

 equally distributing the lime ; insert their ends loosely into the notches in the 

 ground, and place a •' call bird " in a conspicuous place near the stake ; when the 

 birds alight in the sticks they pull loose from the main stick, and when flying 

 away the wings come in contact with the lime, and are pinioned to the bird's sides. 

 It does not hold them by the feet, as is generally supposed. 



To Tan Skins 0/ Animals with the Fur on.—i. Put them into a pickle of alum 

 and saltpetre until they become like leather ; then dress the flesh sides, dry them 

 slowly, and rub them with a little butter, and dry them by rubbing or treading 

 them out in veneer sawdust. 



2. Take soft water, about ten gallons, a half bushel wheat bran, seven pounds 

 of salt, two and a half pounds of sulphuric acid. Dissolve all together and put the 

 skins in the solution and allow them to remain twelve hours ; take them out and 



