MANUAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 635 



remains to separate the skull at its articulation with 

 the neck, at the same time withdrawing the tongue. 

 Clean the muscles from the skull, remove the eyes, and 

 scoop out the brain through the occipital foramen, 

 carefully preserving entire the base of the skull, 

 as after the skin is mounted it may, perhaps, be 

 removed for comparison. Now skin the legs down 

 to the toes, though small animals will not require it 

 further than the feet ; remove the muscles, apply 

 the preservative to the bones, the skull, and the skin 

 in general ; wrap tow, or some other material round 

 the bones of the legs, to compensate for the muscle 

 taken away, and replace them as before ; pad the 

 skull with tow where the muscle has been removed, 

 fill the orbits with cotton, and return the skin over 

 it ; turn the skin, and if the animal is not too large 

 fill it out with some soft material, but carefully 

 avoid unnatural distension ; sow up the opening, 

 and the work will be nearly complete. 



It will be requisite, before putting the specimen 

 aside to dry, to anoint the bare parts of the skin 

 with the solution of corrosive sublimate, and to 

 repeat it twice or thrice Attach a little ticket, 

 with a number to the specimen, and against a cor- 

 responding number in the note-book let all the 

 particulars be placed ; viz., the colour of the exposed 

 portions of the skin, the locality where obtained, 

 habits, whether or not the skins are articles of com- 

 merce, &c. 



When animals are very large it will be necessary 

 to cut the skin from the chin to the arms, and even 



