20 TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



therefore, if engraved with these, such a rule, costing but a 

 trifle, is cheap and good. 



No. I knife, as will be seen by reference to the rule, is eight 

 inches in entire length, and about three-quarters of an inch wide 

 in the blade. It is of a handy size and shape for skinning the 

 larger animals, and for a variety of other purposes. No. 2 is of 

 a different shape, but is equally useful, and comes in handily to 

 supplement the other. No. 3 is too long for most purposes, 

 but is figured to show that from this is made, by snapping and 

 grinding the blade, the handy little knife No. 4, which is the 

 one most useful in skinning birds and small mammals, and for 

 " trimming and splitting " (see Chap. V.). All of these knives 

 are cheap and strong, having polished hardwood handles riveted 

 to the " tang " of the blade — a most necessary quality in any 

 knife, but especially in one used for taxidermic purposes. No. 

 S was originally an artist's double-edged eraser, with a handle 

 of steel in one piece with the blade, but it has now one edge 

 ground flat, and so makes a still smaller and handy scalpel-like 

 knife. Its cost being but little, and its strength undoubted, 

 it is a favourite instrument, although its handle is rather 

 too thin, as is also that of the ordinary scalpel, No. 6, which 

 has a bone handle, and is only figured in deference to the 

 views of some taxidermists, who find it useful for small things. 



No. 7, the spoon-shaped instrument, is the eye and brain 

 scoop -or extractor — a tool which may save the beginner some 

 trouble in preventing the bursting of a bird's eyeballs, but 

 which he will learn to discard in time, practice enabling him to 

 pick out the eyes and extract the brains with the blade of his 

 knife, or with the end of the tool No. 1 6. 



No. 8 is a strong but not large pair of shears, much stronger 

 and more efificient than ordinary scissors of the same size, and 

 is required for cutting through the bones of the neck, wings, 

 and legs of birds, dividing cartilage generally, and for many 



