TAXIDERMY 



107 



With the knife cut off the neck and a sHce of the skull 

 at its base (Fig. 20) ; remove the brain, eyes, tongue, 

 (with the tongue out will come the plug of wool you 

 had previously placed in the mouth), cut away the 

 superfluous meat on the palate and around the base of 

 the jaws and skull. 



Rub plenty of preservative on the skull and head 

 and neck skin, place with the forceps a wad of wool 

 in each eye — but not either in the mouth or brain 

 cavity — and by keeping the head towards you and 





Fig. 20. 



placing the thumbs on the base of the skull, and the 

 fingers on the head skin, proceed to turn the skin the 

 right side out again. This is not a difficult matter, but 

 requires working all round at the same time. 



Skin out each wing from the inside till all the flesh 

 is exposed, which remove ; but do not cut away the 

 flight feathers from the bone. 



If, as in the case of large birds, the whole of the flesh 

 cannot be exposed from the inside without separating 

 the flight feathers from the bone, remove as much as 

 possible and cut the wing on the outside to remove 



