MAMMAL SKINS FOR STUDY AND MOUNTING. 



GG1 



Jbut leave them attached to the skin as shown by the left leg of the 

 accompanying figure.* 



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Fig. 1. — Squirrel partly skinned. 



Detach the skin from the back, shoulders, and neck, and when yon 

 come to the ears cut them off close to the head. Turn the skin wrong 

 side out over the head and proceed until you come to the eyes. Kow 

 work slowly with the knife, keeping close to the edge of the bony orbit, 

 until you can see, through a thin membrane under your knife-edge, the 

 dark portion of the eye. You may now cut fearlessly through this 

 membrane and expose the eyeball. It is a good plan with large mam- 

 mals to hold one finger of the left hand in the eye and cut against it to 

 avoid cutting the lid. 



Skin down to the end of the nose, cut through the cartilage close to 

 the bone, and cut on down to where the upper lip joins the gum. Cut 

 both lips away from the skull close to the bone all the way around the 

 mouth, except directly in front of the incisors. 



The lips are thick and fleshy, and must be split open from the inside 

 and flattened out so that the flesh in them can be pared off. Do not 

 cat off the roots of the whiskers, or they will fall out. Pare away the 



* The figures accompanying this article are selections from plates intended to illus- 

 trate a forthcoming work on taxidermy. 



