PROCESS OF SKINNING. 63 
nium. You have enclosed and cut out a squarish-shaped mass 
of bone and muscle, and on gently pulling the neck (to which 
of course it remains attached), the whole affair comes out, 
bringing the brain with it, but leaving the entire roof of the 
skull supported on a scaffolding of jaw-bone. It only remains 
to skin the wings. Seize the arm-stump with fingers or for- 
ceps ; the upper arm is readily drawn from its sheath as far as 
the elbow; but the wing must be skinned to the wrist (carpus 
—‘‘bend of the wing”); yet it will not come out so easily, 
because the secondary quills grow to one of the forearm bones 
(the ulna) pinning down the skin the whole way along a series 
of points. To break up these connections, hold the upper arm 
firmly with the left thumb and forefinger, the convexity of the 
elbow looking towards you; press the right thumb-nail closely 
against the back edge of the ulna, and strip downward, scrap- 
ing the bone with the nail the whole way.* If you only hit 
the line of adhesion, there is no trouble at all about this. Now 
you want to leave in one of the two forearm bones, to preserve 
sufficiently the shape of the limb, but to remove the other, with 
the upper arm bone and all the flesh. It is done in a moment; 
stick the point of the scissors between the heads of the two 
forearm bones, and cut the hinder one (ulna) away from the 
elbow ; then the other forearm bone (radius), bearing on its 
year end the elbow and the whole upper arm, is to be stripped 
away from the ulna, taking with it the flesh of the forearm, 
and to be cut off at its far end close to the wrist-joint, one 
stroke severing the bone and all the tendons that pass over the 
wrist to the hand; then the ulna, bare of flesh, is alone left in, 
attached at the wrist. Draw gently on the wing from the out- 
side till it slips into the natural position whence you everted 
it. Do the same for the other wing. This finishes the skin- 
ning process. The skin is now to be turned right side out. 
Begin any way you please, till you see the point of the bill 
reappearing among the feathers; seize it with fingers or for- 
ceps as convenient, and use it for gentle traction. But by no 
means pull it out by holding on to the rear end of the skin — 


* For special case of wing too large to be handled thus, see beyond. 
