96 



Guide to Taxidermy 



right hand; you will find that the tail will slip out 

 easily without injury to the skin. The tails of 

 many animals up to the size of a fox can be skinned 

 in this way. With some animals, like cats or rats 

 the tail cannot be pulled out but must be split the 

 entire length on the under side and then skinned. 

 Of course, in this case, you have to sew the cut up 

 again, so it is best not to split the tail on any ani- 

 mal that you think can be removed witliout. 



You now have the entire lower portion of the 

 body separated from the skin and have reached the 

 fore legs. Skin around these and cut them off near 

 the body; clean, the same as you did the hind legs. 

 Continue skinning up the neck until you reach the 

 ears. Sever these close to the skull and then skin to 

 the eyes. By stretching the skin slightly, you can, 

 through the thin membrane that connects the eye- 

 lid and skull, see the outline of the lid, which ap- 

 pears as a straight whitish line. Cut between this 

 and the skull and you will avoid danger of cutting 

 the eyelid. Continue your skinning down over the 

 head until you have entirely severed the skin from 

 the body at the nose. 



You now have the skin entirely separated from 



