INTRODUCTION 
XXIX 
Skinning. — Place the bird on its back with its bill to your left, 
and part the feathers along the breast and belly. In most species a 
strip of naked skin will appear. Holding the feathers back with 
the thumb and finger of the left hand, cut with a down stroke of the 
scalpel just through the skin from alaout the middle of the sternum 
back to the vent. Catch the edge of the skin at one side, and with 
the end of the scalpel handle or your fingers work it back from the 
body until the knee-joint of the leg appears, sprinkling in plenty of 
corn-meal as you go to absorb blood and juices and keep your fingers 
dry and the feathers from sticking. Cut the bone at the knee-joint 
with scissors or knife, and draw it up out of the flesh, which can 
be cut off nearer the heel and left fast to the carcass. Loosen the 
skin farther back, then treat the other side in the same manner, fre¬ 
quently using corn-meal. 
Then turn the bird’s bill from you, and cut across below the tail 
to the bone, and either unjoint or snip the bone with the scissors 
just in front of the base of the quills, keeping the forefinger of the left 
hand at a point opposite on the outside as a guide to prevent cut¬ 
ting the skin, and work the skin up over the rump. At this point 
a small hook, suspended in front and hooked into the bird’s rump, 
will help the beginner, but he will soon learn to hold up the body 
between the tips of the first two fingers of the left hand, using the 
thumb and third or little finger of the same hand to draw down the 
skin as he cuts with the scalpel in the right. Work the skin from 
the edges, being careful not to stretch it. As the wings are reached 
draw them back out of the skin to near the second joint, break the 
first bone in the middle and remove the flesh. Keep the body well 
sprinkled with meal, and work the skin carefully down over the 
neck to the head until the ears appear, picking them out rather 
than cutting them off ; then working the skin along mainly with the 
finger nails over the eyes (cutting the transparent membrane without 
injury to the lids), and carrying it down to the base of the bill. 
Next remove the eyes and cut off the base and lower part of the 
skull, which can be done so as to leave brains, tongue, and fleshy 
part of mouth attached to the neck, and the skull and bill clean and 
free attached to the skin. If any bits of flesh or fat have been left 
on the skin, remove them, and then dust dry arsenic over the inside 
of the skin, fill the eye sockets with pellets of cotton, and reverse 
the skin by pushing the bill carefully back through the neck. With 
the beginner the skin will become dry before it is ready to be 
turned back, and will need moistening, but after some practice the 
