316 After Big Game in Central Africa 



a lion without further troubling myself ; but Bertrand and I 

 were obliged to look after the birds. On the average, it 

 takes an experienced hand twenty minutes to skin a bird 

 the size of a sparrow. 



I begin the operation by cutting the skin, not in 

 the middle of the breast, but at the side under the left 

 wing, which advantageously hides the cut when the bird is 

 stuffed. Birds' skins generally come off very easily by 

 using the fingers or the handle of a scalpel. You must be 

 very careful in removing the bird's body through the 

 incision ; as soon as you come across the thigh or the wing 

 you must cut it with a pair of scissors at the joint, on a 

 level with the body, doing the same with the neck and the 

 coccyx, which must be cut at their base. Rapidly remove 

 the trunk in such a manner as to prevent the liquid or 

 blood staining the feathers, and dry the skin by sprinkling 

 it with ashes or any other substance capable of absorbing 

 moisture. Seizing the legs left inside the skin, you pull 

 them towards you, remove all flesh (which is supplanted 

 by an equal volume of tow or cotton-wool, prepared with 

 arsenical soap), and push them back definitely into their 

 places. The neck, which is cut off at the base of the skull, 

 is dealt with in a similar manner ; the brain is taken out 

 by means of a small piece of wood, the tongue and its 

 cartilages are removed ; the skin is pushed back over the 

 beak, and the eyes are taken out. The neck is filled up by 

 a piece of wood of the same length, surrounded with tow, 

 the skin being pressed down over this artificial neck after 

 it has been well coated with arsenical soap. Tow prepared 

 with arsenical soap takes the place of whatever else has been 

 removed. When the head is bigger than the neck and cannot 

 pass through, as in the case of wild-ducks, you make a cut 

 at the neck. The neck and legs well in their places and in 

 their natural position, the skin is well covered with soap, 

 stuffed, and loosely sewn up. After this has been done the 

 bird's stomach is opened in order to discover its sex ; 



