Guide to Taxidermy 



39 



)e soiled for the blood will not have sufficiently 

 oagulated so as not to run freely. You will find 

 hat a bird killed one day and skinned the next will 

 aake the most satisfactory subject to work upon. 



Before commencing to skin your specimen, it is 

 test to loosen the rigidness of the wings by bend- 

 ng them back so that the shoulders will touch be- 

 lind the back, bending them carefully so as not to 

 ireak the bones; should these bones be broken, it 

 fill not interfere with the successful skinning or 

 tiounting of the specimen, but a good taxidermist 

 akes pride in not mutilating his specimens. 



Place a clean piece of paper upon your work 

 lench or table and \ny your bird upon it with the 

 icad to your left and belly upward. With the 

 •oint of the scalpel and your fingers, part the 

 eathers on the breast and you will find that a 

 pace, nearly devoid of feathers extends from the 

 ireast bone to the anus. Make a clean cut with 

 our scalpel down the center of this bare space 

 from a point slightly below the breast bone to the 

 ent), taking care to just cut through the skin and 

 s little as possible into the flesh ; practice will 

 nable you to complete the operation of skinning 



