18 
HINTS ON REMOVING AND 
a shape as possible. The ears in Foxes, Hares, Rats, and Mice may- 
be neatly folded backwards; in Bats, Squirrels, and other animals 
they should stand up in an erect position. 
7. — Disarticulate the skull from the trunk, label it with your 
initials and the corresponding number to that on the skin, and then 
let it dry. In a dry climate this may be done almost without any 
cleaning ; and even in a wet one, if the skull be dropped into some 
sawdust artificially dried, little cleaning need be done : at most the 
eyes and brain may be taken out, the tongue being always left in 
to protect the palate-bones. In a general way try to do as little to 
the skull as the climate will admit of — but, of course, it must not 
be allowed to become rotten. Drying naturally or artificially is 
the best, and arsenic or other chemicals should not be put on it, 
insects being kept off by the use of naphthaline or other disinfectant. 
Ely-blown skulls should not be dropped into the same box with other 
drying skulls. 
8. — Pack the skins up carefully in small boxes when they are dry, 
with enough wool between them to prevent their shaking about. Do 
not roll them up separately in paper. 
It is a good plan to have with you an ordinary cork-lined insect- 
box, in which the pieces of cork can be pinned for travelling. When 
the skins are partly dry, they can be taken off the separate pieces 
of cork, and pinned close together in the box, where they can safely 
travel and dry at the same time. 
9. — Bats should be skinned like other animals, but the limbs are 
separated at the shoulders and hip- joints instead of the elbows 
and knees. They are also pinned down in the usual way, the pins 
running through the wrist-joint and the hind feet. The wings 
should not be spread out, but should be folded up on each side of 
the body in such a way as not to hide the fur of the belly. The 
thumbs should be made to point inwards or backwards, not outwards. 
The hind legs may be spread sufficiently to stretch the membrane 
between them, and then their breadth taken as a guide for the 
folding of the wings. One or two specimens of each species should 
also, if possible, be preserved in spirit. 
The skinning of larger animals must necessarily be somewhat 
different from the above ; but the labelling and make-up of skins 
