
60 HOW TO MAKE A BIRDSKIN. Mee 
dangling on either side; the tail hanging loose over the bird’s ~ 
back between them. Lay down scissors; take up forceps* in — 
your left hand; with them seize and hold the stump of the 
rump; and with point or handle of scalpel in the other hand, 
with finger tips, or with thumb-nail (best), gently press down 
on and peel away skin.t No cutting will be required (usually) 
till you come to the wings: the skin peels off (usually) as a 
easily as an orange rind; as fast as it is loosened, evert it; 
that is, make it continually turn itself more and more com- = 
pletely inside out. Work thus till you are stopped by the : os 
obtruding wings.t You have to sever the wing from the body = 
at the shoulder, just as you did the leg at the knee, and leave ‘ 
it hanging by skin alone. Take your scissors,§ as soon as the 
upper arm is exposed, and cut through flesh and bone alike at 
one stroke, a little below (outside of) the shoulder-joint. Do 
the same with the other wing. As soon as the wings are ~~ 
severed the body has been skinned to the root of the neck; 
the process becomes very easy ; the neck almost slips out of 
its sheath of itself; and if you have properly attended to 
keeping the feathers out of the wound and to continual ever- 























* Or at this stage you may instead stick a hook into a firm part of the rump, and 
hang up the bird about the level of your breast; you thus have both hands free to 
work with. This is advisable with all birds too large to be readily taken in hand 
and will help you at jirst, with any bird. But there is really no use of if with a 
small bird,and you may as well learn the best way of working at first as after- Wy 
ward. tem 
j The idea of the whole movement is exactly like ungloving your hand from the 
wrist, by turning the glove inside out to the very finger tips. Some people say, 
pull off the skin; I say never pull a bird’s skin under any circumstances: push i 
of, always operating at lines of contact of skin with body, never upon areas of 
skins already detached. 
t The elbows will get in your way before you reach the point of attack, viz., the 
shoulder, unless the wings were completely relaxed (as was essential, indeed, if 
you measured alar expanse correctly). Think what a difference it would make, 
were you skinning a man through a slit in the belly, whether his arms were 
stretched above his head, or pinned against his ribs. It is just the same with a — 
bird. When properly relaxed the wings are readily pressed away toward the bird’s 
head, so that the shoulders are encountered before the elbows. 
§ Shears will be required to erash through a large arm-bone. Or, you may with 
the scalpel unjoint the shoulder. The joint will be found higher up and deeper 
among the breast muscles than you might suppose, unless you are used to carving 
fowls at table. With a small bird, you may snap the bone with the thonb aa 
tear asunder the muscles in an instant. 
