130 PRACTICAL TAXIDERMY. 



bottom of tlie palm of the hand opposing — skin out the rest of 

 the thigh, which lorings you just on top of the root of the tail. 

 Turn the fox in an exactly opposite direction, and repeat the 

 process; you will before doing this find yourself, perhaps, 

 restrained by the skin of the ventral orifice, which carefully cut 

 out ; this frees the limb considerably. (I may mention that the 

 animal skinner must not be afraid of handling his subject ; it is 

 not so pleasant nor so delicate an operation as skinning a bird, 

 and, consequently, does not require so fine a touch.) You will 

 now have exposed the tail at its back and front. N'ow double up 

 the fox, supporting it with your left hand, and get the whole of 

 the tail free at the root. Letting it rest on the table again, you 

 skin as far up the tail as you can go. The two thighs and part 

 of the back are entirely freed from the skin, but the tail still 

 holds at about three inches up. Now get a pair of common 

 pincers, such as are used for pulling nails out, and place them so 

 that the tail comes between their hollows ; push this against the 

 part still unskinned; hold this firmly down on the table with 

 the left hand, and pull from the root of the tail with the right. 

 Yery often the tail will not move jDast this point ; in that case 

 there is nothing left but to cut it off at the root, and place the 

 latter firmly in a vice (after the animal is skinned out), and 

 taking both hands to the skin, cross the thumbs and two first 

 fingers, so as to obtain a good grip and yet prevent the skin of 

 the tail from turning inside out, and pull with all your might 

 (jerking it at the same time) until it slides. Now free the skin 

 from the back, working round to the front. During this 

 operation the fox must be frequently turned to get round the 

 sides and back. The knife being held short in the hand and 

 guided near the tip by the fore-finger considerably facilitates 

 this. Endeavour as much as possible to keep all the flesh and 

 fat (if any) on the body, and not on the skin. Coming up now 

 to the fore limbs you will find the skin hold considerably between 

 them at the chest. This is the place where an amateur generally 

 runs his knife through, which, I need hardly say, is one of the 

 worst places in which this accident could happen. Having 

 released the chest, skin all away from the back and shoulder; 

 the fore -arm now appears, showing the articulation of the 

 liimierus with the radius and ulna. Skin all round it until 



