46 



Guide to Taxidermy 





persons is dangerous, but it may safely be handled 

 by any person of ordinary intelligence. 



Apply the soap thoroughly to the skin with a 

 stiff, round brush, taking special pains to well 

 cover the skull, root of the tail, and leg and wing 

 bones ; next springle the skin, where soaped, with 

 sawdust or meal so you can handle it and not get 

 the soap on the feathers. 



Fill the cavity of the skull full of cotton and 

 with the tweezers draw it out into the eye-sockets. 



Pull the legs and wings back into their normal 

 position from the outside and you have left only 

 the head to turn back. This is done by working 

 carefully from the inside with the thumbs and 

 fingers of both hands ; having gotten the skin over 

 the largest part of the skull you can readily work 

 it the remainder of the way from the outside. 



The feathers of the head will fall naturally and 

 smoothly into place if the end of a knitting needle, 

 the square end of a piece of wire or the head of a 

 pin is inserted through the eye-lid and worked 

 about on the top and sides of the head. 



You now have the skin of your bird in a condi- 

 tion ready to be either mounted or made into a 



