ON PRESERVING BIRDS. 315 

 occasion requires. While you are holding it thus, con- Preserving 



Birds. 



trive, with the help of your other hand and knife, by 



cutting and shoving, to get the skin pushed up till you 

 come to where the wing joins on to the body. 



Forget not to apply cotton ; cut this joint through ; 

 do the same at the other wing, add cotton, and gently 

 push the skin over the head; cut out the roots of the 

 ears, which lie very deep in the head, and continue 

 skinning till you reach the middle of the eye; cut the 

 nictitating membrane quite through, otherwise you would 

 tear ti:e orbit of the eye ; and after this, nothing difficult 

 intervenes to prevent your arriving at the root of the bill. 



When this is effected, cut away the body, leaving a 

 little bit of skull, just as much as will reach to the fore- 

 part of the eye ; clean well the jaw-bones, fasten a little 

 cotton at the end of your stick, dip it into the solution, 

 and touch the skull and corresponding part of the skin, 

 as you cannot well get to these places afterwards. From 

 the time of pushing the skin over the head you are sup- 

 posed to have had the bird resting upon your knee ; keep 

 it there still, and with great caution and tenderness 

 return the head through the inverted skin, and when you 

 see the beak appearing, pull it very gently till the head 

 comes out unruffled and unstained. 



You may now take the cotton out of the mouth ; cut 

 away all the remaining flesh at the palate, and whatever 

 may have remained at the under jaw. 



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