Taxidermy and Zoological Collecting. W. J. Holland

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      Many hundred beautiful and curious quadrupeds are shot every year and allowed to perish utterly for lack of the little knowledge and skill which would enable the hunter to remove and preserve their skins. The operation is simple and easy, the requirement in tools and materials quite insignificant, and the operator has only to exercise a little patient industry to achieve good results. There are few circumstances under which a determined individual finds himself thwarted in his desire to remove and preserve the skin of a dead animal. In nineteen cases out of twenty the result hinges on his own disposition. If he is lazy, a thousand things can hinder his purpose; if he is determined, nothing can. A sharp pocket-knife, a little powdered alum and arsenic in equal parts, or failing that, common salt alone, will do the business in lieu of a better outfit, for any small mammal that ever lived.

      I begin with small mammals, because it is squirrels, rabbits, cats, woodchucks, weasels, opossums, raccoons, and foxes that the beginner will fall in with long before he is called upon to wrestle with such subjects as deer, bear, elk, or buffalo. These general directions apply to the skinning of all terrestrial quadrupeds up to the size of a setter dog, and the preservation of their skins in a mountable condition.

      Measurements.—The following are the most valuable measurements to take of a small mammal.

      1. Length, from end of nose to root of tail. This is to be taken with the head stretched out straight as far as it will go. Measure from the tip end of the nose to the point where the tail joins the body. In my judgment it is always best in determining this latter point to take the angle made by the tail (underneath) and the rump when the tail hangs or is bent down at an angle of forty-five degrees to the spinal column. This point is always fixed and constant, and can be quickly and accurately determined by bending the tail down and sticking a pin or awl at the angle. To measure an animal like a monkey on the top of the tail is to attempt the location of a point which can rarely be determined twice alike. For this reason I have always taken this measurement in both large and small mammals underneath the tail.

      2. Length of tail, from root to end of vertebræ.

      3. Length of hind foot. Bend the heel at a right angle, and measure from the outer extremity of the angle to the tip end of the longest toe, including the nail.

      4. Height at shoulders, if the animal be not too small. To take this, lay the animal on its right side, then, as nearly as you can, place the right leg and foot in the position they would assume if the animal were standing erect (the sole of the foot must be parallel to the axis of the body), and measure in a straight line from the bottom of the heel to the top of the shoulders. Record, also,

      5. The color of the eyes, and the other soft parts.

      6. Weight, in certain cases.

      Do not forget what has been said in Chapter III. about outlines and sketches. On one corner of the outline-sheet we record the name of the specimen, locality, date, sex, measurements, color of eyes, lips, feet, etc. It takes but a few moments' time, and the result is a complete and accurate record of what the animal was in the flesh. These sheets are numbered and filed away, the skin is numbered and put in the bath, and even though it be not until five years later that we are ready to mount it, we can tell as accurately what the animal was like as if it had been received only the previous day. If the specimen is a baboon, for example, with several colors on its face, it was for years my practice to make a rough sketch of the face and put upon it the various colors that belong there, in oil-colors, usually, though sometimes with water-colors. It was also my custom to spend half an hour or so in taking a mould, and making a quick cast in plaster Paris of the face of every monkey or baboon which came to me, unless I already had one which would answer as a model to copy in finishing the face.

      Skinning Small Quadrupeds.—Lay the animal flat upon its back, head to your right. Hold your knife with the edge up, and push the point through the skin of the throat, precisely in the middle of the neck. Now push the point of the knife forward under the skin, between it and the flesh, and divide the skin in a straight, clean cut along the middle of the neck, breast, and body, quite to the base of the tail. If the animal has a large, fleshy tail, like a dog or raccoon, it must be slit open along the under side (without cutting the hair) for its entire length, except an inch or two at the base. If the tail is small, slender, or bony, like that of a squirrel or a rat, it can usually be slipped out of the skin by pulling the bony part between two sticks held close together against the skin of the tail.

      The sole of each foot must be slit open, lengthwise, from the base of the middle toe straight back to the heel, and in case the foot is large and fleshy, like that of a dog, the cut must be continued on up the leg, perhaps one-third of the way to the knee, to enable the skin of the leg to be turned wrong side out over the foot.

      Having made all the opening cuts, begin at the abdomen, catch one edge of the skin between thumb and finger, and with the knife cut it neatly and cleanly from the body, leaving as little flesh as possible adhering to the skin. In using the knife do not go at it in a daintily finical way, as if you were picking birdshot out of the leg of a dear friend; for, if you do, it will take you forever to skin your first specimen, and there will be no time left for another. Learn to work briskly but carefully, and by and by you will be able to take off a skin with a degree of neatness and rapidity that will astonish the natives. It is not a dissecting touch that is called for in taking off a skin, but a firm, sweeping, shaving stroke instead, applied to the inside of the skin, and not to the carcass. This applies to all skinning operations on all vertebrates except birds.

After starting at the abdomen, we come very soon to where the foreleg joins the body at the shoulder, and the hind leg at the hip. Disjoint each there, and cut through the muscles until each leg is severed from the body. Skin each leg by turning the skin wrong side out over the foot quite down to the toes. That done, cut the flesh away from the bones of the leg and foot, neatly and thoroughly.

      Never leave the foot of an animal unskinned, unless it happens to be a very small one, like a chipmunk, or smaller, and the proper way is to skin the flesh out, even then.

       Fig. 2.—A Squirrel partly Skinned, showing Process.

      Be careful to leave all the bones of each leg attached to each other by their ligaments at the joints (see left hind leg in Fig. 2), and to the skin itself at the toes. Never throw away the leg bones, unless the skin you are preserving is to be kept as a pelt or a rug.

Detach the skin from the back, shoulders, and neck, and when you come to the ears, cut them off close down to the head. Turn the skin wrong side out over the head, until you come to the eyes. Now be careful or you will do mischief. Work slowly with the knife, keeping close to the edge of the bony orbit, until you see, through a thin membrane under your knife edge, the dark portion of the eyeball—iris and pupil. You may now cut fearlessly through this membrane and expose the eye. If your work has been properly done, you have not cut the eyelids anywhere. If you are ever in doubt when operating on the eye, thrust the tip of one finger fairly into the eye and against the ball, from without, and cut against it. This is always an excellent plan in skinning large mammals.

      Skin down to the end of the nose, cut through the cartilage close to the bone, and cut on down to where the upper lip joins the gum. Cut both lips away from the skull, close to the bone, all the way around the mouth. The lips are thick and fleshy, and must be split open from the inside and flattened out so that the flesh in them can be pared off. Do not mutilate the lips by cutting them away at the edge of the hair, but leave the inside skin, so that in mounting you can fold it in (with a little clay replacing the flesh) and thus make a mouth anatomically correct. Do not shave off the roots of the whiskers, or they will fall out. Gash the flesh between them (they are set in rows), СКАЧАТЬ