115 
vacuum cleaner may be used for a blower by hooking the nozzle on the 
reverse end and putting a cork with a small hole in it, in the end of the 
nozzle, in order to reduce the volume of air current and make it stronger. 
If the skin becomes too dry for making up after going through this pro- 
cess, it may be moistened by leaving it in a damp box for an hour or so. 
After the skin has been poisoned, it may be made up in the usual manner. 
Mr. George E. Hudson, Department of Zoology and Anatomy, 
University of Nebraska, Lincoln (1935, page 103), describes a method of 
degreasing bird skins that he considers preferable to the method described 
by Huber. After scraping the fat carefully from the skin, the skin is made 
up as usual and allowed to dry in its cotton shroud for about 6 weeks. 
Several skins may then be degreased simultaneously in a vat or wash-boiler 
containing several gallons of white gasoline, where they are allowed to 
remain for several weeks, removed and drained several times, and placed 
in fresh gasoline. On final removal it is drained head downward for about 
an hour, after which the skin or skins are placed on a flat pile of news- 
papers, which are allowed to soak up the gasoline overnight. The news- 
papers are changed until the specimens are thoroughly dry, whereupon 
the process is completed. The feathers may require a little stroking to 
restore them to their former fluffiness, but this requires only a few minutes 
in the case of well-made skins. Mr. Hudson believes this method far 
superior to degreasing freshly skinned birds in gasoline, as the plumage is 
not so much disturbed, and furthermore, gasoline will not penetrate a 
fresh wet skin as well as it will a dry one, even though alcohol is added 
to increase miscibility in the former case. He also recommends that tur- 
pentine be used in much smaller proportions, if at all, in the degreasing 
formula given by Huber, as too much turpentine may give the feathers 
an unnatural gloss. 
Degreasing Old Skins 
Old, dirty, and grease-soaked skins of either birds or mammals may 
be cleaned and freed from grease if they are not so decomposed or 
“burned” by action of the fatty acids that they come apart in the opera- 
tion. The general method of treatment is the same as for freshly salted 
skins. Soak the skins in water until partly relaxed, remove the stuffing, 
and scrape away any large pieces of fat. Immerse in the gasoline bath 
for at least 24 hours. Very dirty and greasy skins may need two or three 
days soaking in gasoline, and they should be squeezed out several times a 
day and the bath changed until it is comparatively clean after squeezing. 
Mr. Huber recently sent the writer a manuscript addition to his 1930 paper: 
“To degrease a small mammal ekin without removing the stuffing: Immerse in 
clean gasoline for twenty-four hours, draining out several times by holding the tail 
down and gently shaking; this will remove greasy gasoline from inside. Rinse care- 
fully in clean gasoline. Bury the skin in hard maple sawdust, occasionally brushing 
the adhering sawdust off with a soft toothbrush. Then bury again until dry. Small 
bird skins may also be cleaned in this manner. 
Hudson (1935) states that made-up mammal skins may be degreased 
more readily with gasoline than freshly killed specimens, as described in his 
method given above for degreasing bird skins, adding that the use of 
gasoline has the added advantage of making the skin less attractive to 
dermestids. 
