SKINNING AND PRESERVING BIRDS. 



103 



the form of " gutters." In these, padded in wadding, the skins 

 rest until dry. 



Often "blood and other substances clog and spoil the feathers 

 of a bird ; how to remove these will be found explained in the 

 chapter on Cleaning Birds' Skins. 



In noting the sex of a bird — an important matter, only 

 managed in most cases by the aid of a little dissection — it will 

 be necessary to cut the body, after it is out of the skin, through 

 the ribs along the side close to the back, open it, and look upon 

 the kidneys (dark coloured masses apparently let into the hollow 

 of the back-bone at the narrowest part of the body) for the 



Fig. 25.— Starling pkoperlt made iitto a Skin with Label ATrACHED. 



sexual organs. If a male, there will appear just upon the upper 

 end of the kidneys, one on each side of the back bone, two little 

 oval-shaped bodies, usually of a dull white or light yellow tint (do 

 not mistake the supra-renal capsules — quite yellow, small, and a 

 little higher up — for these). If a female, these two small oval 

 bodies will be replaced a little lower down by a string or bundle 

 of eggs, very minute in some seasons, but strongly marked and 

 large in the breeding season. It is sometimes difficult to tell the 

 sex — in young birds especially ; but a good plan is to get a bird, 

 known by its plumage to be a male — say a cock sparrow — and a 

 female bird, and dissect out these organs, putting them in spirits 

 in separate bottles, the organs of each sex attached to its part 



