168 



Guide to Taxidermy 





your jack-knife into its mouth and severing the 

 backbone just back of the head, taking care not to 

 cut through the skin. 



Aside from the use of chloroform, this is the 

 most painless method of killing a reptile; then it 

 will take some minutes before all motion will cease. 



A snake sheds its skin by breaking it about the 

 neck and then crawling out; you can skin one in 

 nearly the same manner, by making a short slit on 

 the throat and then drawing the body from the 

 skin, but this method loosens most of the scales on 

 the body and is to be strongly condemned. The 

 onl}^ correct way to skin a snake is to split it the 

 entire length of the under side, after which you 

 can lay the skin back and easily remove the body, 

 without the loss of a single scale. The bony struc- 

 ture of the head has to be cut out with the scissors. 

 Poison the skin well with arsenical soap. 



Mounting 



If you have a freshly killed snake it is much bet- 

 ter to make the body before you skin the specimen. 

 You can then be certain that it is exactly as it 

 should be. Two wires are used in a snake body, 

 one from the head to the vent and thence out 

 through the skin ; this wire is usually the only sup- 

 port needed and should be large enough to sustain 



