SKINNING- AND PRESERVING MAMMALS. 141 



each eyelid holds. Skin tMs completely off, not leaving it 

 attached anywhere, as also the skin on the forehead where 

 it holds. Continue and finish in the same manner as the 

 fox's head. 



The skins of the heads of bulls, large stags, tigers, &c., 

 are best taken completely ofO the bone, and the inside of the 

 lips, nostrils, eyelids, &c., afterwards skinned out and well cured; 

 the skull-bone may then be plunged in a copper full of water 

 and boiled out; this saves considerable labour, and also gets 

 the skulls nicely cleaned and free from grease. 



The plan of taking the skin entirely off the head will be 

 found of the utmost advantage to explorers or collectors in 

 foreign countries, as the skulls may be numbered and a corre- 

 sponding number scratched on a tin, or written on a parchment 

 label, which may be tied through the eyehole of the skin. 

 The skulls being left loose, their skins may be packed in barrels, 

 and if well rubbed in with my preservative (No. 9), and looked 

 at occasionally to prevent mildew, they will, after the lapse 

 of many years, only need relaxing to make perfect specimens. 

 The usual way of sending horned heads home from abroad 

 is to leave the skins attached to the skull, and the consequence 

 is, that at the various points of attachment the skin is im- 

 properly cured (often with the — worse than — useless arsenic), 

 and if they escape the inevitable knocking about they receive 

 in travelling, and get to England in fair condition, the hair, 

 when the skin is relaxed, sweats off, particularly at the very 

 places it should not, around the eyes, lips, nose, and ears, 

 and the labour of, perhaps, years of anxious collecting and 

 dangerous hunting is nullified. 



I will now take a bull's head as our subject, to illustrate 

 the method of mounting such heads. I will assume that a fair 

 piece of neck is attached to the head, and having skinned the 

 head completely off the skull and preserved it, proceed as fol- 

 lows : "When the bone is sufficiently trimmed, should the meat 

 have been cut off, or dry, if the head has been previously boiled, 

 tie together the upper and the lower jaws at their points of 

 articulation behind the eye, by the aid of wire or string; tie 

 also the tip of the lower jaw to the nose in any manner that 

 allows the teeth to come in their proper position as in nature. 



