SKINNING AND PRESERVING SKINS.
With a suitable specimen at hand it is for us to decide if we shall
mount it or preserve it as a skin temporarily or indefinitely. To
illustrate we will presume that we have a muskrat just from the trap
which is to be mounted at once.
Before skinning it is best to get some measurements to guide us in the
later work. In this case where the skin is to be mounted immediately a
simple outline is sufficient, as we will have the body in the flesh and
all the leg bones, etc., to guide us in rebuilding the creature.
To get such outline, lay the animal on its side on a piece of blank
paper, put the feet and legs in some natural position, fasten them in
place with a few pins and mark around the entire animal with a pencil.
The eye, hip and shoulder joints, and base of skull may be indicated on
this outline sheet. Our muskrat is a trapped and drowned one so we will
not have to replace the shot hole plugs with fresh ones, as would be
best if it had been killed with the gun. Also it has been dead long
enough for the rigor mortis to prevent the free flow of blood and body
juices which bother the operator if it has been killed but an hour or
less.
[Illustration: OUTLINE OF MUSKRAT. HIP AND SHOULDER JOINTS MARKED]
Laying the animal on its back, make the opening cut by pushing the knife
point through the skin at the juncture of neck and chest. Run the blade
down between skin and flesh, separating the skin in a long clean cut to
the root of the tail. Open the tail also along the under side from the
tip to within an inch or so of its base. Slit open the sole of each foot
from the middle toe to the heel and further if necessary so the leg skin
may be turned down over the foot.
Beginning at this central cut, skin back each side until the shoulder
and hip joints are encountered. Bending the limb will show the exact
joint where the muscles are cut apart and the legs severed from the
body. Cut off the tail near its base, leaving it in the skin for the
present. Loosen the skin from back and shoulders and turn it wrong side
out over the head. Skin down until the ears are reached, cutting them
off close down to the head and continue on to the eyes. Work carefully
around these and cut close to the skull to avoid hacking the eyelids.
Cut through the nose cartilage, and when the lips are reached cut them
away close to the gums, leaving both their inner and outer skin on the
pelt. Cutting them off at the edge of the hair is a frequent cause of
trouble as they are full and fleshy and should be split, pared down on
the inside and when mounted, filled out to their natural shape to
perfect the anatomy.
[Illustration: SKINNING SMALL ANIMAL FOR MOUNTING. CUT ON DOTTED LINES.]
Now the skin of each leg may be turned wrong side out down to the toes
and all flesh and muscle cut away from the leg bones with knife and
scissors. The tail also is to be removed from its skin and the ears
turned wrong side out to their tips. In skinning no flesh of any
consequence should be left adhering to the skin and it should never be
pulled off by main strength, but rather separated by the knife or
fingers, pushing the flesh away from the skin rather than the reverse.
The skull should now be cleaned as the leg bones were and if a number of
specimens are being prepared at the same time the heads may be put in a
kettle and boiled a short time, when on trying with a fork or awl the
flesh becomes tender and may be rapidly removed with a knife.
The brain may be removed with a hooked wire, the skull well rinsed
inside and out and given a good coat of arsenical paste or other
preservative. The next step is determined by what you intend doing with
the skin. If it is to be kept for purposes of study without mounting it
should be made up as a scientific skin. If to be mounted at once or in
the near future it should be put in the jar of salt and acid or alum. It
can of course be mounted at once without this bath but I believe it is
well worth any extra work it entails.
Some young furred animals and others with very delicate skins do not
work up well from the bath and had best be mounted without it, being
handled more as bird skins are.
In skinning the larger quadrupeds we make two additional cuts, from the
right to the central line and out to the left fore foot and a similar
cut connecting the hind feet. These opening cuts are on the back and
inside of the legs, you will understand.
With most large subjects another cut from the shoulders up the back of
the neck is necessary. On animals having horns or antlers this is
terminated in a Y or T shape, reaching the base of the antlers. After
loosening the skin around the antlers the head is removed through this
incision. As it is hardly possible to make an outline sketch of a large
animal, as full a set of measurements as possible is useful in all
cases.
[Illustration: SKINNING LARGE ANIMAL FOR MOUNTING. CUT ON DOTTED LINES.]
The bones of the legs will be in the way attached to the skin and the
two upper bones of each leg may be detached and if lack of space or
transportation make it necessary, thrown away, though if the bones of
one hind leg and one front leg are preserved artificial duplicates may
be carved.
[Illustration: SKINNING BIRD-BREAST CUT.]
In skinning birds, after fresh cotton plugs have been put in place the
feathers are parted and the opening incision made through the skin only
from the middle of the breast to the root of the tail. Separate the skin
and flesh on each side until the knee is reached, push this up until the
knife or scissors can be passed under it and the leg severed at the
joint. A little corn meal sprinkled on the exposed flesh and the
operator's fingers will prevent the feathers adhering and becoming
soiled as the work proceeds.
Cut off the flesh in which the tail quills are rooted leaving it on the
skin with one or two of the last vertebrae. Use care in this or you will
cut the skin above the tail too. The body may now be hung up by a cord
tied to the stump of one of the legs and both hands used in separating
and turning the skin back until the wings are reached. The skin is
loosened around these and they may be severed at the elbow joint unless
the bird is to be mounted with wings spread, when it will be best to
unjoint at the shoulder and preserve the entire wing bones.
[Illustration: HOODED MERGANSER.]
With the wings detached we skin on to the base of the skull. In some of
the ducks, and other water birds, woodpeckers and owls the neck is so
slender and the skull so large that it is necessary to cut the neck off
here and making a cut down the back of the head and neck continue the
skinning of the head through it. Do not cut or tear the membrane of the
ears but pull it out with the forceps and work down over the eyes,
cutting the membrane connecting the skin but not the lids or eyeball
itself. The liquid contents of the eye are particularly sticky and
difficult to remove from feathers.
Continue skinning to the base of the bill, scoop the eyes from their
sockets and cut loose the forward part of the skull from the neck. This
is usually accomplished with four snips of the scissors much easier to
practice than to describe.
Make one cut on each side of the head, through the small bone connecting
the base of the lower jaw with the skull, another through the roof of
the mouth at the base of the upper mandible and between the jaws of the
lower, and the last through the skull behind the eyes and parallel with
the roof of the mouth. This will free the skull of the neck and most of
its flesh and muscle.
In most cases the head should be returned to the skin as soon as
possible to avoid its drying out of shape and giving the feathers a
wrong set. After cleaning and poisoning the skull and filling the eye
sockets with cotton this reversing is undertaken. If working on a small
bird the learner is apt to come to grief here, as only by careful and
patient work without the application of some force is the returning
process accomplished successfully.
The wings and legs may now be skinned down to the first joint and all
flesh and muscle removed from the bones. This is done expeditiously by
snipping off the end of the leg bone and stripping it down with adhering
flesh to the ankle joint where it (the flesh) is cut off.
The wings are skinned to the first joint, stripping the wing primary
feathers from their fastening on the bone with the thumb nail, clipping
off the large bone near the end and detaching the small bone with all
flesh and muscle adhering. If this is clipped off at the wrist joint the
entire wing is cleaned. This method applies to all small and medium
birds not wanted with spread wings.
[Illustration: OPENING CUT ON BIRD.
Opening and Cleaning Wing from Underneath For Spread Wing Mounting.]
In case wing spread is wanted the primary feathers are not disturbed but
that part of the wing is cleaned from a slit in the under side of the
wing. All but the smallest birds should have the tip joint of the wing
slit open on the under side and some form of preservative worked in the
opening. Specimens the size of a crow and larger should have a cut made
in the bottom of the foot and the tendons of the lower leg drawn out
with an awl, and in the case of very large birds it may be necessary to
soak the unfeathered part of the legs and feet in a pan of strong pickle
for 24 hours, to prevent decay and damage from insects. Our bird is now
entirely ready for the application of such preservatives as we may be
using.
The main principle in the preserving of skins may be stated thus: All
skins must be removed and cleaned of flesh so the preservative may be
applied to every part of the inner surface, where it will act directly
on the roots of the hair or feathers.
The preservative applied, we must decide on the next step, whether it is
to be mounted at once, in a short time, or laid away indefinitely as a
scientific skin.
If we have to lay it away until tomorrow, put a little cotton inside to
prevent the inner surface sticking together, wrap in a damp cloth and
unless the weather is very hot it will be all right.
If very hot or it is necessary to lay it aside for some days, the inner
side should be well coated with the carbolic and glycerine mixture. As a
scientific skin it should be made up at once, tagged with a full set of
measurements taken before skinning and laid aside to dry. These
measurements are not needed if we mount it at once, as the skinned body
is at hand for comparison, but the sex, date, locality and collector's
name should be attached to the completed specimen.
Alligators and the lizard family are skinned like the other four-footed
species, as are snakes and fish, with the exception they have no limb
bones to be cleaned and preserved. Fish are better opened along one side
than the central line of the body.
Reptile skins if not put in the pickle jar had better be packed in salt
after poisoning as when entirely dry they are practically ruined. Skins
of fish are best kept in either a saturated solution of salt (water with
salt added until no more will dissolve), alcohol or formaldehyde
solution. Whatever method is used the delicate colors will vanish and
unless you can have a fresh specimen at hand when mounting it you should
make the best color record you are able. This is true to some extent at
least of all coverings of fur, feathers, or scales, and the stronger the
light the more damage. I have seen a mounted mink placed in direct
sunshine, bleached to a drab and the yellow feathers on a 'flicker faded
almost white.
In order to preserve turtles, after killing with chloroform preferably,
it is necessary in the case of the box or land turtles to cut a square
opening in the under shell through which the body may be removed and the
legs and neck skinned.
The water species can have the lower shell detached from the upper at
the side and after cutting the skin around the rear two-thirds this
shell is turned over to the front and the skinning and cleaning
proceeded with.
If not mounted at once make into a dry skin after poisoning or small
turtles may be put in alcohol.