PREPARING SKINS OP MAMMALS. 
19 
5. -—Lay the skin on a board or piece of cork, draw out the fore 
paws forwards, and pin them down to the board by a pin passed 
boldly through the middle of the paw. Take care that they are 
pinned close in to the sides of the neck or head, in order to prevent 
their claws catching in other skins when all are packed together in 
boxes. Similarly, pin back, soles downwards , the hind feet by the 
sides of the tail. It is of considerable importance that neither fore 
nor hind feet should project laterally outwards, nor should curl up 
in drying, and that the fingers and toes should be kept close together 
and parallel, not spread out sideways. 
6. _As the skin dries, try to get the face to assume as natural 
a shape as possible. The ears in Foxes, Hares, Eats, and Mice may 
be neatly folded backwards; in Bats, Squirrels, and other animals 
they should stand up in an erect position. 
7. _Disarticulate the skull from the trunk, label it with your 
initials and the corresponding number to that on the skin, and then 
let it diy. In a dry climate this may be done almost without any 
cleaning; and even in a wet one, if the skull be dropped into some 
sawdust artificially dried, little cleaning need be done : in any case 
the tongue should always be left in to protect the palate-bones. 
In a general way try to do as little to the skull as the climate will 
admit of—but, of course, it must not be allowed to become rotten. 
Drying naturally or artificially is the best, and arsenic or other 
chemicals should not be put on it, insects being kept off by the 
use of naphthaline or other disinfectant. Fly-blown skulls should 
not be dropped into the same box with other drying skulls, nor 
should fresh skulls be shut into tightly closed boxes. A convenient 
way to dry the skulls is to place them immediately they are taken 
out and labelled into a muslin bag with a little sawdust, and then 
to hang the bag in the air, sun, or before the fire, so as to dry them 
without exposing them to the attacks of blow-flies. 
8. —Pack the skins up carefully in small boxes when they are dry, 
in layers, with enough wool between them to prevent their shaking 
about. Do not roll them up separately in paper. 
It is a good plan to have with you an ordinary cork-lined insect- 
box, in which the pieces of cork can be pinned for travelling. When 
the skins are partly dry, they can be taken off the separate pieces 
