480 LEWLS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



cause the beauty of a mounted bird depends on the freshness of 

 its head ; it is easy to repair and clean the soiled feathers of the 

 belly and back, but not those of the head without a great expense 

 of time. 



" These precautions taken, we stretch the bird on the table, the 

 head turned towards the left of the operator; we divide the 

 feathers of the belly right and left with small forceps, pull out the 

 down which covers the belly, make an incision in the skin from 

 the commencement of the sternum or breast-bone, until beyond 

 the middle of the belly ; raise the skin on one side by the forceps, 

 and separate it from the muscles with a scalpel, approaching as 

 near as possible to the wings ; this done, we put a little floured or 

 powdered cotton on the skin and flesh, that the feathers may not 

 stick to them ; we force up or push out the thighs within the body 

 of the skin, cut them between the femur and tibia in such a man- 

 ner that the former remains to be afterwards pushed back into the 

 skin. By the help of the scalpel and the fingers we detach the 

 skin as far as the rump, which we cut off. It is essential for this 

 part to remain attached to the skin to sustain the tail-feathers. 

 We then take the already uncovered part of the body with the 

 left hand, and continue to separate the skin from the two sides, 

 cutting some little tendons, which we find before we come to the 

 wings, with the scissors ; we separate the wings from the trunk at 

 the junction of the humerus with the body, and restore them to 

 their proper place. We continue to skin the neck, thrusting the 

 head from within, and we uncover it, taking care not to enlarge 

 the opening of the ears, and, above all, to be particularly attentive 

 not to injure the eyelids in taking out the eyes, which are easily 

 picked out with closed points of the scissors ; we replace the eye 

 •with chopped cotton, with which we fill the orbits. 



"We separate the neck, take out the tongue, and carefully re- 

 move all the flesh which is between the two branches of the inferior 

 mandible. We enlarge the occipital hole, to extract the brain, by 

 means of an iron instrument resembling an ear-picker ; and, to 

 finish cleaning out the inside of the head, we pass cotton and flax 



