out the body, and cutting
off the neck from the inside, cut with the strong scissors a
triangular piece away from the base of the skull, from which extract
the brain, and then compress the sides of the face (mandibles) between
your finger and thumb from the outside, at the same time endeavouring
to "slip" the head (now somewhat elastic by the removal of the base of
the skull) through the neck.

Do this whenever possible; but for those birds whose mandibles resist
any amount of moderate pressure, of which the larger ducks,
woodpeckers, etc, are examples, the second plan must be adopted, which
is to cut (after the removal of the body) on the crest of the head of
a specimen--if a crested bird--or along the sides of the face if
failing in this particular; the head may then be carefully skinned,
leaving it attached as much as before directed, brains cleared out,
eyes extracted, etc, then painted with the preservative, head nicely
stuffed with chopped tow, and returned in the skin, and finally very
neatly sewn up. If this latter operation be well performed, and
especially if the stitches are drawn tight, the seam ought not to
show.

A more tedious method is to extract the brain and eyes through the
roof of the mouth, or from the back of the head (after the neck has
been cut off), but neither of these plans will bear comparison with
"slipping," or with cutting on the crest, or by the side of the head,
as by these latter methods you do not miss any flesh by the sides of
the face in skinning out.

Let me give an instance. In the eider duck, the flesh of the face is
protracted along the sides of the bill; if, therefore, you fail to
open on the crown, or by the side of the face, you must of necessity
miss these, or have ten times more trouble in feeling your way to it.
If the processes by the side of the face are entirely missed, the
consequences are an unsightly and inartistic shrivelling; it is as
well, therefore, to make a note of all birds having such a
peculiarity.

Amongst the birds which may be instanced as having heads too large to
pass the neck in the usual manner, we may place the whole of the
ducks, geese, and swans, though the heads of the herons and divers,
which appear to be as large and yet have as small necks as the former
birds, pass easily. Again, the head of the great or crested grebe
passes, while that of the little grebe sticks. Of the three
woodpeckers found in Britain, the heads of the great-spotted an