Appendix 311 



Collections of heads Collections of skulls Method of preparing the 

 bone in this case Preservation of specimens and precautions to be 

 taken Their despatch to Europe Small mammals Preparation of 

 birds Necessary instruments Preservation laws and licences in African 

 colonies Measurements : Elephants, rhinoceros, lions, and antelopes 

 Vocabulary. 



LARGE AND SMALL MAMMALS 



In order to measure an animal, you lay it on its side, 

 the legs stretched out one on the top of the other before 

 the rigidity of death makes this difficult. By means of two 

 assagais, two pieces of wood, or else two rifles which you 

 place perpendicularly, one against the sole of the fore-foot 

 and the other against the withers, you measure the animal's 

 height. Then you take the total length from the tip of 

 the nose to the beginning or the end of the tail, passing 

 along the forehead between the two ears and along the 

 backbone. Then you note the circumference of the neck, 

 and that of the chest, which you take exactly behind the 

 fore-legs and over the withers. 



In the case of elephants, you may take the circumference 

 of the fore-foot around the nails, and in case of lions that 

 of the fore-leg, this measurement indicating the degree of 

 strength. 



After noting down the measurements you proceed to 

 skin the animal. In order to do this, you stretch the 

 animal on its back, and have it kept in that position 

 by your assistants, the legs well apart. Then you your- 

 self make the first incision, which must set out from 

 under the chin or from the corner of the lip, pass along the 

 throat, and down the middle of the breast and stomach. The 

 sexual parts are left adhering to the skin on the right-hand 

 side, as well as the rectum, and you continue the cut the 

 whole length of the tail. From this central incision are 

 made transverse ones which set the limbs free, cuts which 

 can be compared to the branches of a tree shooting off from 



