NATURAL HISTORY. 
89 
wards closed by two or three stitches. The bones then remaining in each 
wing must be cleaned, which must be done without loosening the quill- 
feathers. It is much better to take out the flesh by making an incision 
on the outside of the skin along the flesh on the inner side of the wing. 
The inside of the skin must now be washed with the soap, and a neck of 
cotton (not too thick) inserted by means of the long narrow forceps, 
taking care to fix the end well inside the skull, and withdrawing the 
empty forceps without stretching the skin of the neck, and thus dis¬ 
torting the shape of the bird. Skins need not be altogether filled up with 
cotton or any other material, but laid, with the feathers smoothed down, 
on the boards of the drying-cage until they are ready to be packed in 
boxes. Each skin should be kept in a separate roll of brown paper, and 
store boxes should be lined with brown paper, which is avoided by insects. 
In very humid climates, like that of Tropical America, oxide of arsenic in 
powder is preferable to arsenical soap, on account of the skins drying 
more quickly; but it cannot be recommended to the general traveller, 
owing to the danger attending its use.* 
In mammals the tail offers some difficulty to a beginner. To skin it, the 
root (after being severed from the spine) should be secured by a piece of 
strong twine, which should then be attached to a nail or beam; with two 
pieces of flat wood (one placed on each side of the naked root), held firmly 
by the hand and pulled downwards, the skin is made rapidly to give way 
generally to the tip. The tails of some animals, however, can be skinned 
only by incisions made down the middle from the outside. The larger 
mammal skins may be inverted, and, after washing with the soap, dried in 
the sun; as before remarked, it is often necessary to roll them up and 
preserve them in spirit. 
The skins of small mammals and birds, after they are quite dry, may be 
packed in boxes, which must be previously well washed inside with 
arsenical soap, lined with paper, and again covered with a coating of the 
soap and well dried in the sun. This is the very best means of securing 
the specimens from the attacks of noxious insects, which often, to the 
* For further information about collecting birds, formula for making arsenical 
soap, &c., we may refer the traveller to Hume’s 4 Collector’s Yade Mecum * 
(Quaritch, London. Price 2s.), and 4 Directions for Collecting Birds ? ’ issued by 
thp Smithsoipaq Institution, Washington, 1891-92. 
