HINTS FOR ORNITHOLOGICAL TRAVELLERS. 
separated at each side, until the legs appear, which should be either 
disjointed at the knees, or cut immediately above them with scissors, 
after which the skin becomes comparatively free, and allows the 
body to be skinned and cut out at the tail, which is best done 
by placing it, as it were, tail uppermost, and gradually skinning 
round until the rump can be cut through. During all this part of 
the skinning, and indeed throughout the whole operation, free use 
should be made of paris plaster, fuller’s earth, or such substances, 
to absorb the blood or grease, both on the specimen and hands ; and, 
for that purpose, a plate, containing one of these, should stand within 
reach. The tail or rump being cut through, the most difficult part 
is over ; and, in the absence of any one to hold the specimen up, it 
may be tied by one of the thighs and hung from a nail, the operator 
turning the skin inside out, and gradually separating it from the 
body, disjointing the wings close to it ; and after getting the head 
clear as far as the eyes, separating it at the junction of the neck, 
without cutting or injuring the skull. The brains are removed at 
the occipital hole ; and the eyes, with a little care, are easily dis- 
sected out, without bursting the humours, by commencing at the 
posterior part, and cutting the adhesions and optic nerve before 
attempting to turn them out. All the other fleshy parts of the 
head must likewise be cleaned away and removed. In a fev r birds, 
such as woodpeckers, ducks, grebes, &c., the diameter of the skin 
of the neck is too small to pass the skull; and to get out the 
brain, eyes, and otherwise clean it, an incision must be made in the 
throat, or back of the neck, after inverting the skin, through which 
it can be easily turned out and thoroughly cleaned. The body 
being now completely removed, it remains to clean the inside of the 
skin from all pieces of flesh or fat remaining upon it, which, if the 
bird has been neatly skinned, should be very small ; and a little 
pains devoted to taking the skin cleanly off, often saves much time 
afterwards. The wings must be pulled out and skinned, as far as 
the carpal joint (the second from the shoulder); and the bones, 
after being pasted or dusted with the preserving paste or pow r der, 
should be wrapped round with tow or cotton, to replace the space 
occupied by the flesh ; the skin is then drawn over and the feathers 
put in position. In some birds, the second or ulnar joint of the 
wings may be more conveniently cleared of the flesh, by opening it 
on the under side, instead of reversing the skin from within. The 
5 
