BIRDS 



31 



now free of the skin, may be pulled loose and put to one side. 

 Clean out the brain through the cut end of the skull. If there 

 is much meat on the side of the skull, scrape it away. Dust the 

 skull with the arsenic and alum preservative. Make smooth balls 

 of clean cotton for eyes and put one in each eye socket. Dust 

 the inside of the head and neck skin with arsenic and alum and 

 work it back over the skull. 



Large-headed birds like ducks, woodpeckers, and hornbills 

 have heads too big to allow the skin of the neck to be worked 



Fig. 26. — Line of cuts on skull. 



over them. In such cases, when the base of the skull is reached, 

 cut it loose from the bones and muscles of the neck. When you 

 have finished the rest of the preparation of the skin, poison it 

 and turn it right side out. Then make an incision down the back 

 of the head (fig. 27) and loosen the skin around it until you 

 can skin and prepare the head as directed above for ordinary 

 birds. After the head skin is poisoned and the eyes are in place, 

 sew up the cut in the back of the head with fine stitches. 



Free the wing bones as far as the joint and clean off any meat. 

 Skin along the top of the wing to expose the meat on the second 

 joint and remove this also (fig. 28). In sandpipers, goatsuckers, 



