How to stuff birds and animals

by Aaron A. Warford

Immediately after a bird is killed, the throat and nostrils should be stuffed with tow, cotton, or fine rags, and a small quantity wound round the bill to prevent the blood from staining the plumage; but should any get on the feathers, notwithstanding this precaution, the sooner it is removed the better, which should be effected by a sponge which has been merely moistened in water. Too much dispatch cannot be used in removing the skin, if the bird is shot in a warm climate; but, in temperate regions, the bird may be allowed to cool.

Fig. 2.

Manner of holding the hands in skinning a bird.

In proceeding to skin the bird, it should be laid on its back, and the feathers of the breast separated to the right and left, when a broad interval will be discovered, reaching from the top to the bottom of the breast-bone. (See fig. 2.)

(See fig. 2 for the manner of separating the feathers and using the scalpel.) A sharp pen-knife, or scalpel, must be inserted at the point of the bone, and cut the outer skin from thence to the vent, taking care not to penetrate so deep as the flesh, or upon the inner skin which covers the intestines. The skin will then easily be separated from the flesh; in larger specimens, by the fingers, or, in smaller ones, by passing a small blunt instrument betwixt the skin and body, such as the end of the scalpel-handle; with this you may reach the back. The thighs should now be pressed inward, as in the common method of skinning a rabbit, and the skin turned back, so far as to enable you to separate the legs from the body, at the knee-joint. The skin is then pulled downwards, as low as the rump, which is cut close by the insertion of the tail, as shown in fig. 2, but in such a manner as not to injure its feathers. The skin is now drawn upwards the length of the wings, the bones of which must also be cut at the shoulder-joints; it is then pulled up, till all the back part of the skull is laid bare, when the vertebræ of the neck are separated from the head, and the whole body is now separated from the skin. You next proceed to remove the brain, through the opening of the skull, for which purpose it may be enlarged by a hollow chisel, or other iron instrument. The eyes must then be taken out, by breaking the slender bones which separate the orbits from the top of the mouth, in which you may be assisted by pressing the eyes gently inwards, so as not to break them. In skinning the neck great care must be taken not to enlarge the opening of the ears, and not to injure the eyelids. The whole of the flesh is next to be removed from the under mandible.

Fig. 3.

Bird suspended for skinning.

Several species will not admit of the skin being thus pulled over their heads, from the smallness of their necks; some Woodpeckers, Ducks, etc., fall under this description; in which case a longitudinal incision is made under the throat, so as to admit of the head being turned out, which must be neatly sewed up before stuffing. The flesh from the head, wings, legs, and rump, must then be carefully removed with a knife, and the cavities of the skull filled with cotton or tow. The whole inside of the skin, head, etc., must be well rubbed with arsenical soap, or preserving powder, or spirit of turpentine, or the solution of corrosive sublimate. When it is wished to stuff the bird, it may now be immediately done, as it will easily dry, if in a warm climate; but in low, damp countries, it will require artificial heat to do it effectually.