Guide to Taxidermy 153 



mount, so we would advise you to try your skill 

 on one of tliese. 



As a rule those fish are the easiest to mount that 

 have the smallest scales, because the loss of a few 

 scales is less noticeable, and this loss is very diffi- 

 cult to repair on any fish. 



Lift the skin up along the cut, a little at a time, 

 pushing or cutting the flesh away from it. 



On some fish the flesh separates from the skin 

 easily while on others it has to be cut away all over 

 the whole body. With the scissors, you will have to 

 cut through bony edge of the skin back of the 

 gills, from the point where the median line meets it 

 to the apex under the lower jaw; then continue 

 down around the bony edge until you meet the me- 

 dian line on the opposite side of the fish (the front 



side). As you skin down the side of the fish to- >t3„ -r (B^^ffS^^*^ 



wards the belly the first obstruction you meet is jJiJJv * JlvtvSjSj^S^A. 

 one of the pectoral fins, those that are on the side 

 of the fish nearest its head. Insert the scissors un- 

 der this and cut it off. Do the same with the ven- 

 tral fins, the two that are located side by side about 

 midway of the belly of the fish. The next fin that 



