How to stuff birds and animals

Transcriber's Note:
Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible. Some changes have been made. They are listed at the end of the text.

HOW TO STUFF BIRDS AND ANIMALS
A VALUABLE BOOK. GIVING INSTRUCTION IN COLLECTING, PREPARING, MOUNTING, AND PRESERVING BIRDS, ANIMALS AND INSECTS
NEW YORK FRANK TOUSEY, Publisher 24 Union Square

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1902, by
FRANK TOUSEY,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C.

When a quadruped is killed, and its skin intended for stuffing, the preparatory steps are to lay the animal on its back, and plug up its nostrils, mouth, and any wounds it may have received, with cotton or tow, to prevent the blood from disfiguring the skin. The fox will serve admirably our purpose as an example. Therefore, Reynard being procured, we need not say how, lay him on his back in the same position as before recommended; and, having first stuffed the mouth with cotton and tied it up, and measured his neck and body with rule and calipers, and noted them, proceed. Make an incision from the last rib nearly to the vent, but not quite up to it. Having done so, proceed to raise the skin all round the incision as far as the thighs, first skinning one side and then the other, using the flat end of the knife in preference to the blade to raise the skin. Having reached the hind legs, separate the latter at the femur or thigh-bone, close to the backbone, leaving the legs attached to the skin. Now skin the head-quarters close up to the tail, and separate from the body at the last vertebræ, taking care not to injure the skin. Pull the skin over the heads of the hip-joints, and now the carcass may be suspended by the hind-quarters, while the skin is stripped by pulling it gently and cutting towards the fore-quarters. The fore legs are separated from the body, as the hind ones had been, close to the shoulder-bone, and the skin pulled fairly over the head and close to the nose, when the head is separated from the body by cutting through the last vertebræ of the neck. Reynard is now skinned, the head, legs and tail being all attached to the skin, from which the carcass is separated.