HINTS ON REMOVING AND PREPARING 
SKINS OE MAMMALS. 
SECTION A. — LARGE MAMMALS. 
Sportsmen are, as a rule, by no means careful enough about the 
proper labelling of their specimens, which consequently lose much of 
their scientific value. Large Mammals, like small ones, should be 
carefully labelled, with all particulars of date, sex, locality, altitude, 
etc. Specimen labels are shown beyond (page 15). The proper 
reference of each skull to its own particular skin is also of much 
importance. 
For skinning large Mammals the implements required are very few 
and inexpensive — a shoemaker's knife, a scalpel, a small saw, and 
a pair of pliers, with perhaps the addition of a pair of cutting-pincers, 
being all that are requisite. Any addition to this simple outfit only 
tends to encumber the traveller unnecessarily, everything really de- 
pending upon the skill with which the knife is wielded rather than 
upon the number and nature of the implements themselves. 
The great principle the operator should bear in mind is to make 
as few incisions as possible in the skin, and that these, so far as 
practicable, should be confined to the middle line of the under 
surface of the body, and to the inner sides of the limbs. If this be 
attended to, the slits will be but little conspicuous w r hen the specimens 
are mounted. In Mohammedan countries the natives have a practice 
of cutting the throats of animals from ear to ear immediately they 
fall, in order that they may be bled after the orthodox fashion. 
Such gashes have, of course, to be sewn up when the specimen is 
mounted, with the result that the region of the throat is disfigured 
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