3. PREPARING SKINS 25 



long-necked birds more easily without risk of damage in transit. Before 

 sewing up the skin in the usual way cotton wool should be packed around the 

 mannikin body to fill out the skin shape in the usual manner. If wire is not 

 available the neck should be packed with the normal packing material and 

 folded over onto the breast. 



(c) Long legs. Birds with exceptionally long legs can have these bent 

 upwards over the breast and tied together (fig. 18). When this is done it is 

 advisable to wrap the legs in paper to prevent damage to the breast plumage. 



(d) Crests. Where species have elaborate erect crests it may be advisable 

 to prepare a skin with the head turned to one side to prevent damage to the 

 feathers (fig. 18). 



Alternative methods of skinning 



Although the methods described for skinning a bird is a proven one that 

 achieves good results it is not the only method by which a skin can be made, 

 the following methods can also be used. 



1. Ventral incision with head and wings detached first. This has some 

 advantages if the skin of the lower part of the body has become thin or 

 fragile through damage or decay. In using this method the ventral incision 

 should extend up to the mid-breast. The skin is first eased away from the 

 breast and upper parts of the body, including the base of the neck, until it is 

 possible to reach the wing-joint on one side; and this wing is then separated 

 from the body. The skin is then eased over the shoulder and the neck 

 severed at the base, head and neck being left in the skin for the moment. 

 The other shoulder is then uncovered and the other wing severed. The skin 

 can now be peeled down the body and carefully eased away from the difficult 

 areas of the lower back and belly. It is also eased down along the leg to just 

 below the knee joint. The leg can then be cut through or severed at the knee, 

 leaving the skin attached by the tail only. It is then possible to clean the 

 tail base region and separate the skin from the body by cutting through this 

 region. The tail base is cleaned and the legs cleaned of flesh and wrapped in 

 the usual way. The wing joints are cleaned and the neck and head are 

 skinned back and cleaned in the normal way. The remainder of the prepara- 

 tion is the same as that of the first method described, but care must be taken 

 in the final sewing-up to avoid undue disarrangement of the feathering on the 

 underside resulting from the longer initial incision. 



2. Lateral incision. This has the advantage that any pattern on the 

 underside is not destroyed or disarranged by skinning, and the incision is 

 concealed by the closed wing in the final skin. It has the disadvantage that it 

 is difficult to insert the final stuffing symmetrically, and one wing tends to be 

 displaced in the final skin. The incision is made near the wing-joint, just 

 below the line of the humerus, downwards to the thigh. The skin is freed 

 around the incision and there is easy access to one wing joint which is freed 

 from the body. The skin is further loosened over the back and breast and 

 eased over the shoulder to expose the base of the neck. The neck is severed 

 and skinning continues to expose the other wing-joint. The bird is now 

 skinned in a similar manner to that of the alternative method described above, 

 the skin being freed down the body to the tail. 



In stuffing the bird the wing on the side of the incision tends to be loosely 



