10 
THE NATURALISTS’ COMPANION. 
TAXIDERMY. 
A serial on preparing and preserving 
animals, birds, reptiles, insects, etc. 
QUADRUPEDS. 
SCALPEL OR CUTTING KNIFE. 
The above cut is intended to give the reader some idea of 
the shape of the scalpei. A very' good scalpel may be made 
by breaking the blade of a jack-knife about 1 1-2 inches from 
the handle, filing the blade in the shape shown above. 
M HEN a quadruped is killed, 
and its skin intended for 
stuffing, the animal is lajed on its 
back, plug up its mouth, nostrils, 
and any wounds it may have 
received, with cotton or tow to pre¬ 
vent the blood from soiling the skin. 
An incision is made between 
the fore-legs and continued m as 
straight a line as possible until be¬ 
tween the hind-legs. In this opera¬ 
tion the incision should be made just 
deep enough to cut the skin,and the 
hairs should he parted as the incision 
is made, and none of them cut if 
possible. The next operation is to 
separate the skin from the trunk, 
which is easily done by inserting the 
handle of the scalpel between them,' 
assisted occasionally by the blade. 
After the skin has been removed in 
every direction as far as possible 
without stretching it,a plentiful sup¬ 
ply of flour is dusted over the meat 
to keep the fur from adhering, and 
each of the thighs removed by sep¬ 
arating them at their junction with 
the pelvis, that is, by the head or 
ball of the thigh-bone. That part 
of the bone still attached to the skin ' 
should be drawn, out as far! 
as the foot, and cleaned of all fleshy 
matter, and after powdered with 
hour returned to its place in the skin. 
The tail is then severed as closedo 
the trunk as possible. The skin is 
separated from the back,as far up as 
the-shoulders, by inserting the han¬ 
dle of the scalpel between the skin 
and body. The whole hinder parts 
of the animal being thu s out of the 
skin,the next operation is to remove 
the fore-legs, by separating them 
from the body at the shoulder-joint. 
When the joint of one shoulder has 
been separated from the trunk, the 
flesh is removed from the leg-bones, 
and the bone again inserted in the' 
skin, repeating the operation on the 
other limb, which is also returned. 
The skin is then drawm over the neck 
and head with the aid of the scalpel 
just far enough to admit the remov¬ 
al of the eyes ; wdiile great care must 
be taken not to injure the eye¬ 
lids or stretch the skin, and to cut, 
the ears as close to the skull as pos¬ 
sible. 
All this having been done, the 
Read and trunk of the animal is com¬ 
pletely separated from the skin. 
The neck is next severed close to the 
skull The fleshy matter is then 
removed as mucti as possible from 
the head and face by the use of the 
scalpel; and a hole should also be 
made in the back of the skull and 
the eyes and brains carefully remov¬ 
ed, and arcenic or arcenical soap in¬ 
serted. The tail is removed by pul¬ 
ling the tail-bone gently, but firmly 
forward until tne fifth joint is reach¬ 
ed, then insert a cleft stick between 
the .bone and skin, forcing it until 
the extremity of the tail is reached, 
jthen the bone wdll easily come out 
I of the enveloping skin or sheath. 
