56 
too strong a pull will bring out part of the tail. Squeezing and manipulat- 
ing the adhering part will generally enable it to be drawn out by its tendons. 
Otherwise the skin may be split for a short distance on under side and 
sewn up afterwards. 
With both hind legs and tail free, the skin is rolled back, the forelegs 
cut off, and bones cleaned of flesh, head skinned, and skull removed as 
described for “cased skins” (Figure 10). 
In removing the skin never pull it until it stretches, but manipulate 
the skin gently, using finger-nails and the blunt end of the scalpel, cutting 
or scraping away any strands of fascia that hold the skin to the carcass. 
The free and frequent use of sawdust or eommeal on the skin will greatly 
facilitate this work. 
Clean the skin as described before, washing it with soap or soda in 
water or, if very greasy, with a solution of gasoline, alcohol, and tur- 
pentine. Squeeze out the moisture, but do not wring the skin and thereby 
stretch it out of shape. Dry the fur, rubbing in fine sawdust or cornmeal, 
repeating the operation as often as necessary, and beating out the dust. 
The skin and attached bones being cleaned, the lips may be brought 
together with a few “surgeon’s stitches,” tying a knot for each stitch, and 
cutting off the thread. A continuous stitch with one thread, such as a 
“ball stitch,” will bring together the wrong parts and give the mouth a 
twisted appearance. The first stitch should be made through the inside 
of the lower lip, from the posterior edge forward, and coming out inside 
the edge of the exposed part of the lip. Draw the thread through a 
point at the middle of upper lip and nasal septum, tie a knot, and cut the 
thread. For a mouse two more similar stitches, one on each side between 
the middle and the corners of the mouth, will be sufficient, but with larger 
mouths such as those of squirrels or rabbits five stitches arc better, as it is 
not desirable to have the cotton filler show between the stitches. With the 
stitching done from the inside in this way, the thread should not show on 
the outside of the finished study skin. Many collectors merely bring the 
lips together with a triangular stitch (Dice, 1932) through each side of 
the upper lip and once through the lower lip, tying securely. Any large 
cuts or holes in the skin should be sewed up from the inside using an over- 
hand stitch. 
Shrews are difficult to handle, being small, and having a very long 
snout and upper mandible, with a correspondingly long upper lip, but a 
short lower lip. The ordinary method of stitching distorts a study skin, 
and a better method is to run a thread through the two sides of the upper 
lip about one-third of the distance back from middle angle, bringing them 
together, thence back through the inner edge of the lower lip, thence 
through the middle angle of the upper lip, drawing the four perforations 
gently together and tying the two ends of the thread together (Figure 15). 
Poisoning the Skin 
Put a little arsenical soap in a saucer and mix it with water, or, prefer- 
ably, keep soap in a wide-mouthed receptacle so that a depression may 
be made in the top and lather worked up with a wet brush. Paint the 
whole fleshy inside of the skin with arsenical soap, working it well down 
to the feet and tail sheath and around the head. If a brush is not at hand, 
