28 FIELD ORNITHOLOGY. 



table, to hitch your hook to, if j'ou hang your birds up to skin them ; they should swing clear 

 of everything. The table should have a large general drawer, with a little drawer for gypsum 

 and arsenic already mentioned, unless these be kept elsewhere. Stuffing may be kept in a box 

 under the table, and make a nice footstool ; or in a bag slung to the table leg. 



Query : Have you cleansed the bird's plumage ? Have yt)u plugged the mouth, nostrils, 

 and vent ? Have you measured the specimen and noted the color of the eyes, bUl, and feet, 

 and prepared the labels, and made the entry in the register ? Have you got all your apparatus 

 within arm's length f Then we are ready to proceed. 



§7. — HOW TO MAKE A BIRDSKIN. 

 a. The Regular Pkoce.ss. 



Lay the Bird on its Back, the bill pointing to your right ' elbow. 'J'ake the scalpel like 

 a pen, with edge of blade uppermost, and ruu a straight furr<jw thr(.)Ugh the feathers along the 

 middle line of the belly, from end of the breast-bone tfi the vent. Part the feathers com- 

 pletely, and keep them parted.'^ Observe a strip of skin either perfectly naked, or only cov- 

 ered with short down ; this is the line for incision. Take scissors, stick in the pointed blaile 

 just over the end of the breast-bone, cut in a straight line thence to and into the vent : cut 

 e.Ktremely shallow.^ 



Take the forceps in your left hand, and scalpel in your right, b'lth held pen-wise, and with 

 the forceps seize and lift up one of the edges of the cut skin, gently pressing away the brlly- 

 walls ^vith the scalpel-point ; no cutting is required ; the skin may be peeled off without trouble. 

 Skin away till you meet an <.ibstacle ; it is the thigh. Lay down the instruments ; M'ith your 

 left hand take hold of the leg outside at the shank ; put your right forefinger tmder the raised 

 flap (if skin, and feel a bump ; it is the Icnee ; push up the leg till this bump comes into view ; 

 hold it so. Take the scissors in your right hand ; tuck one blade under the concavity of the 

 knee, and sever the joint at a stroke ; then the thigh is left \^ith the rest of the body, while 

 the rest of the leg is dissevered and hangs only by skin. Push the leg further up tUl it has 

 Slipped out of its sheath of skin, like a finger out of a glove, down to the heel-joint. You 

 have now to clear off the flesh and leave the bone there; you may scrape tUl this is done, 

 but there is a better way. Stick the closed pioints of the scissors in among the muscles just 

 below the head of the bone, then separate the blades just wide enough to grasp the bone : 

 snip off its head ; draw the head to one side ; all the muscles follow, being there attached ; 

 strip theni doicmvard from the bone ; the bono is left naked, with the muscle hanging by a 

 bundle of tendons ("leaders") at its foot; sever these tendons collectively at a stroke. This 

 whole performance will occupy about three seconds, after practice ; and yon may soon discover 

 you can nick off the head of the bone of a small bird with the thumb-nail. Draw the leg bone 

 back into its sheath, and leave it. Repeat all the foregoing steps on the cither side of the bird. 

 If yoQ are bothered by the skin-flaps settling against the belly-walls, insert a fluff of ci.tton. 



1 Reverse this and following directions for poxitwn, if you arc left-handed. , 



2 The motion is exactly like stroking the right and left sides of a moustache apart ; you would never dress 

 the hairs smoothly away from the middle line, hy poking from ends to root; nor will the feathers stay aside, 

 unless stroked away from base to tips. 



'■> The skin over the belly is thin as tissue paper in a small bird; the chances are yovi will at first cut the 

 walls of the belly too, opening the cavity ; this is no great matter, for a pledget of cotton will keep the bowels in ; 

 nevertheless, try to diviile skin only. Reason for cutting into vent: this orifice makes a nice natural termination 

 of the incision, buttonhole-wise, and may keep the end of the cut ftom tearing around the root of tlio tail. Reason 

 for beginning to cut nrer the edge of the sternum : the muscular walls of the belly are very thin, and stick so close 

 to the skin that you may he in danger of attempting to remove them with the skin, instead of removing the skin 

 from tliem ; whereas, you cannot remove anything but skin from over the breast bone, so you have a guide at the 

 start You can tell skiu from belly-wall, by its livid, translucent whitishness instead of redness. 



