﻿PROCESS FOR PRESERVATION. %6~ 



root of the tail, where the skin cannot be separated any 

 farther ; here, therefore, you cut the body away with 

 the scissars, taking care to avoid cutting the skin at the 

 same time. The whole skin being now entirely taken 

 off, the carcass will present, if neatly done, something 

 the appearance of a trussed fowl. Spread out the skin 

 so that you can sprinkle it with powdered chalk, for 

 the purpose of absorping the blood and moisture, ad- 

 justing the feathers, and preventing any from adhering 

 to the inner surface. If any of the feathers are bloody, 

 absorb the blood with chalk, and press it upon them ; 

 so long as they retain any moisture, the chalk will thus 

 form into flakes, which must be thrown off, and more 

 applied until the feathers are quite dry. 



(222.) The next stage consists in removing the 

 fleshy parts of the wings and legs, together with the 

 whole of the neck, and the inside of the skull. Let us 

 speak of each of these separately. The feathers being 

 adjusted, and all moisture absorbed from the skin by 

 means of the chalk powder, take the stump of the 

 shoulder bone, and with the thumb nail of the other 

 hand, detach the skin from the fleshy muscles of the 

 bone, working equally all round, so that the skin is not 

 stretched or torn, but is forced gradually away ; the 

 slender muscles may be cut with the knife or scissars, 

 but the parts where the quills adhere are to be separated 

 by the force of the thumb nail : as soon as you reach 

 the first joint of the wing, cut away all the fleshy 

 muscles, which there seem as if they were united. If 

 the bird is small you need not proceed farther, for the 

 quantity of flesh on the bones of the next, or last joint, 

 is but small. This done, and the bones made quite clean, 

 anoint them and the skin with a little of the soap 

 lather, worked up as ordinary soap is for shaving, by a 

 camel's hair pencil, dipt in any sort of spirits, and then 

 draw the skin over them without putting in any cotton 

 or other stuffing. This latter practice is most detri- 

 mental, for it invariably discomposes the order and 

 regularity of the feathers, and almost always swells out 



