26 INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PRESERVATION OF BIRDS. 
The preparation of the head is usually considered by beginners to 
be very difficult, but in reality it is quite easy. The first care is 
not to stretch the neck, as a skin with an elongated neck is always 
ugly ; and the neck, when once unduly stretched, can never be got 
back to its proper length. By gently forcing the head back from 
the outside, the skull is gradually exposed, and, except in the case 
of very small birds, it is necessary to skin down to the base of the 
bill. When the skin has been pushed back as far as the eyeballs, it 
will be .found attached firstly to the ear (see fig. 2). This must be 
detached by placing the point of the knife under the tightly stretched 
skin and carefully scooping it out. The next difficulty is the eyelid. 
Still stretching the skin towards the bill, make a light cross cut 
behind the point of attachment above the eyeball, taking care not to 
cut into the latter. This cut will partially separate the eyelid from 
the eye, and a second upward cut from in front backwards completes 
the operation. It is very important to preserve the eyelid intact, as 
nothing spoils the appearance of a skin so much as a torn or damaged 
eyelid. When the eyeballs have been removed from the orbits, it is 
time to cut away the back of the skull, and with this goes the neck, 
which has not yet been detached. The tongue must also be removed 
at the same time. Mr. W T illiam Davison, who always made beautiful 
skins, and had one of the widest experiences in the preparation of 
specimens during the fifteen years that he was collecting for Mr. 
Allan Hume, always recommended that the skull should be attacked 
from below, and that a triangular piece should be taken out from the 
end of the jaw-bones to the palate, cutting away the roof of the mouth, 
and that the brain should be removed through the opening thus made ; 
and he advised that the eyeballs should then be extracted with the 
aid of a pair of forceps through the same opening in the base of the 
skull. The skull and the skin of the body should then be everywhere 
carefully dressed with arsenical soap, and the head turned back by 
means of a little gentle manipulation. Great care must be taken not to 
stretch the skin of the neck in pulling the head back into position ; 
and the head and neck should always be drawn back towards the body 
before the skin is made up. Mr. Davison thus proceeded to make up 
the skin. Opening the bill, he put into the eye-socket, through the 
fcria agular cut made in the base of the skull, small tufts of pure white 
