hrough skin on outside
of joint. Repeat on other leg. Apply cornmeal or fine sawdust if blood
or juice starts.

Next set bird on end, tail up. Bend tail over backward and cut through
vent lining, tail muscles, and vertebrae forward of the large quills.
Use care not to cut skin around tail, as at knee.

With bird still held on end, start peeling skin down over back and
sides. Use scalpel if skin adheres tightly.

When pelvis is uncovered, if a small bird, take rump between two
forefingers and thumb of left hand; if a large bird, hang up on a wire
hook and cord, and skin down to shoulders.

Press wings forward strongly to loosen joint muscles. Cut through one
shoulder joint and then other, going carefully as at knee and tail, so
as not to cut skin on opposite side.

Plug with cotton or dry with meal wherever necessary to stop flowing
blood.

Next peel the neck skin down over head to bill, pulling out ear linings
when met with and using care to work close to skull when cutting eyelids
free.

When this is done, cut off base of skull. With this the skin is free
from the body and inside out.

If the specimen is of a species with neck skin too small to peel over
the head, turn head and neck back right side out when neck is only
partly skinned down. Make an incision from middle of back of head down
nearly half length of neck, alongside where nape is bare of feathers.
Through this incision turn and clean the head.

With the skin removed, turn attention to details of cleaning away leg,
wing, and tail muscles, removing eyes, brain, and jaw muscles from skull
and scraping out whatever fat is in the skin.

To clean leg bones, skin out the thick, meaty shins, using thumb nail
and scalpel to aid where necessary, down to heel joint or upper end of
tarsus. Just above this joint sever the tendons, front and back, and
peel leg muscles off.

In owls skin on down the tarsus to as near foot, or toes, as possible
and clean out tarsus muscles.

In large birds, next split ball of foot, insert point of a steel spindle
under base of tarsus tendons beside hind toe and draw these cords out.
This will sometimes require a strong pull.

Always do this after the leg above has been cleaned. In small birds it
is not necessary to split ball of foot nor to remove these tendons.

Next remove the wing muscles. Peel skin down to elbow. Cut tendons free
just above elbow and strip muscles off. To clean forearm in a small
bird, use the thumb n