SKIlfNING AND PEESERVINa BIEDS. 123 



*' wooden," as, unlike a body formed of tow, that made of peat is 

 stiff and unyielding, and, therefore, after it is once in the skin, it 

 cannot be pressed into shape where defects appear, and is of 

 course not so easily altered. After a long and patient trial of 

 the peat body, I have become convinced of its many disadvan- 

 tages, and have of late years returned to my first plan — the body 

 made of well wrapped tow — nor do I think anything will compare 

 with it, for the reasons above stated. Peat in the case of very 

 large birds (ostriches, &c.) and mammals is useful, but for the 

 ordinary run of birds I decidedly veto its application. 



Birds with larger heads than necks, such as ducks, &c., 

 must be treated in one of three ways. First, after skinning 

 out the body, and cutting oif the neck from the inside, cut 

 with the strong scissors a triangular piece away from the base 

 of the skull, from which extract the brain, and then compress 

 the sides of the face (mandibles) between your finger and 

 thumb from the outside, at the same time endeavouring to 

 " slip " the head (now somewhat elastic by the removal of the 

 base of the skull) through the neck. Do this whenever possible ; 

 but for those birds whose mandibles resist any amount of 

 moderate pressure, of which the larger ducks, woodpeckers, 

 &c., are examples, the second plan must be adopted, which is to 

 cut (after the removal of the body) on the crest of the head of 

 a specimen — if a crested bird — or along the sides of the face 

 if failing in this particular; the head may then be carefully 

 skinned, leaving it attached as much as before directed, brains 

 cleared out, eyes extracted, &c,, then painted with the preserva- 

 tive, head nicely stuffed with chopped tow, and returned in the 

 skin, and finally very neatly sewn up. If this latter operation 

 be well performed, and especially if the stitches are drawn tight, 

 the seam ought not to show. 



A more tedious method is to extract the brain and eyes 

 through the roof of the mouth, or from the back of the head 

 (after the neck has been cut off), but neither of these plans will 

 bear comparison with " slipping," or with cutting on the crest, 

 or by the side of the head, as by these latter methods you do 

 not miss any flesh by the sides of the face in skinning out. 

 Let me give an instance. In the eider duck, the flesh of the 

 face is protracted along the sides of the bill ; if, therefore, 3^ou 



