SKINNING BIRDS. 
455 
Seated at a table in the work shop you have a bird, its mouth, nostrils and vent 
are plugged, the ruptured eye has been taken out without damage to the neigh bor- 
ing parts, and the blood spots have been cleaned from the feathers of its breast and 
back and you are ready for work. Lay the bird on its back # with bill pointing to 
your body, part the feathers on the abdomen, which in many birds is quite naked, 
and make an incision with scissors or knife from lower part of breast bone to vent 
(Fig. IT.), being caretul to not cut through the muscular covering of abdomen. 
FIRST STEPS IX SKINNING 
.4. Xostrils plugged with cotton. It. Leg cut off and turned inside out. 
Sternum nr Breast hone I). Knee-joint pushed up. showing position of scis¬ 
sors before cutting. E. Abdomen—viscera covered by their muscular layer, 
which should not be cut open when first incision is made. 
However, if the abdomen is cut so that the viscera and fluids escape, plug the open¬ 
ing with cotton and cornmeal, or, better still, take out intestines, etc., and fill cavity 
with cornmeal, but never fill abdominal cavity with meal or other absorbents until 
the sex has been determined.! 
* Spread the wings from the body, to do this it is sometimes necessary to break arm-bones near shoul 
der joints. 
t Although the sex of many birds may frequently be distinguished by either the plumage or size, it is 
always safer to determine sex by dissection During the breeding period, this can readily be done as the 
reproductive organs of both sexes are greatly enlarged, but the sex of young birds and even some old 
