Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 2433 Sonia ([-])
"Let's restore this sailfish specimen first," said Sonia, who decided to start with this fish.Relatively speaking, the restoration of this swordfish is the easiest, which not only saves time, but also gives apprentices a chance to practice their skills.

Apprentices gathered around——as future staff of remote exploration teams and natural museums, learning how to make and repair specimens is considered basic business learning.

The main problem with sailfish specimens is the splitting of the skin.In fact, it is caused by excessive drying of the leather.So the first thing is to restore the elasticity of the skin.

Sonia first used a duster to dust off the dust accumulated on the specimen, and then asked two apprentices to carefully brush off the dust and dirt on the surface with a fine brush.

"The dirt that can't be brushed off can be ignored temporarily." Sonia said, "We can remove it with water when we do the surface softening treatment later."

After removing the dust, Sonia asked the apprentices to bring clean cloth strips, soak them in water and wrap the entire specimen.This step allows the specimen's hide to absorb water, softening it and restoring some of the tension in the hide.

The time required for this step does not depend entirely on the personal experience of the specimen restorer. Sonia has some experience in restoring fish skin skinned specimens, and she set a time for the alarm clock in the herbarium.

"It will take a certain amount of time for the skin to absorb the water. Taking advantage of this time, let's first complete part of the process for a new specimen." As she spoke, she motioned to Dawen: "Bring specimen No. 171."

The specimen she is going to make is the bird specimen collected during the recent expedition to Taiwan: the Taiwan blue magpie.

Sonia first displayed a natural painting of the Taiwan blue magpie on the easel:
"This was collected in the mountains of the Taitung Rift Valley. It belongs to the unique bird of Taiwan Island. The Latin name is Urocissa caerulea. It belongs to the subclass of present bird, corvidae, genus blue magpie, and species of blue magpie in Taiwan. You can get closer Look—the picture is relatively small."

The crowd gathered a little.Sonia continued:

"In this natural painting, you can clearly see: the head, face, neck, throat, and chest of the Taiwan blue magpie are all black, the black pupils are surrounded by yellow eyes, the bright red beak, feet, body The visible part of the upper part and the abdomen of the lower part are bright blue. There are twelve tail feathers. The longest two feathers are blue-rooted and white-tailed. .Its tail feathers are exceptionally long, accounting for two-thirds of its overall length."

"Like all corvids, the Taiwanese blue magpie has a noisy personality, with a loud and loud call. When flying, it generally moves forward in a straight line, and often moves in pairs or small groups. It is widely distributed in Taiwan Island. Its specimens have been collected in all locations. It generally moves in the lower mountain jungles, and it is rare in the plains.”

Sonia spoke eloquently, like a seasoned university professor.In fact, she had never taught anyone a lesson in the past, but she had taken one of her apprentices, and it was still informal—after all, she was too young, and it would inevitably give the colleagues in the guild the impression of being "arrogant".After arriving in Lingao, under the influence and encouragement of Lin Hanlong, he slowly began to teach others his professional knowledge.Especially after she can master the Chinese language better, most of her free time is spent teaching by herself or teaching others.Teaching experience has also been accumulated.

"This blue magpie is so beautiful!" a girl interjected.

"That's right, the blue magpie is indeed beautiful in appearance. Like the corvids, it is smarter. It can be domesticated as an ornamental bird, but its cry is too ugly."

"Then why don't our museum domesticate a few live animals? It's more vivid than looking at specimens or pictures."

"There is no need to repair the specimen..."

Most of the apprentices are women, and they chatter endlessly as soon as they open their mouths.

"Keeping live animals is a zoo's business, we are not a zoo." Sonia said, "Maybe we will set up a zoo in Lingao in the future." She pulled the topic back, "According to observations during several inspections: his personality is fierce , like to gather in groups. They often move in small groups. Flying lines line up, and the flocks of Taiwan blue magpies are together all year round. They are highly territorial and will drive away other species of birds that invade."

Just as he was talking, Dawen had already brought over the collected specimens.

The Taiwanese blue magpie was placed in a large shallow enamel basin with a cover. Sonia put on gloves and carefully moved the collected body from the plate to the tiled specimen preparation table.

"Everyone can first observe the appearance and characteristics of the Taiwan blue magpie, and then compare it with other birds of the genus Blue magpie. Xiaowen..."

Xiaowen immediately displayed the natural history paintings of the other five species of blue magpies—this was prepared by Sonia in advance for today's herbarium class.

"Before making a specimen, we first measure its size. The length measurement standard for each part of a bird is as follows:
Body length is measured from the tip of the beak to the end of the tail; beak peak length: the straight-line distance from the base of the beak to the apex of the upper beak; wing length: the distance from the wing angle to the longest flight feather to the apex; tail length: from the tail feathers The linear distance from the base to the longest tail feather to the tip; tarsal toe length: from the midpoint behind the tibial and tarsal toe joints to the lower edge of the entire scale in front of the tarsal toe and the middle joint.

She opened the tape measure and measured the length of the specimen in turn: the body length was 64.5 cm, the wingspan was 20.3 cm, and the tail was usually 39.7 cm...

According to the numbers she dictated, Xiaowen began to record the production diary.

"Before we start production, we must first make preparations, first of all, to do a good job of protection." Sonia said, "All birds and animals carry parasites, bacteria and viruses, and some of them are zoonotic. Yes. So we have to wear these white coats, gloves, masks and other protective equipment. Please check your protection again."

There was a rustling in the house.Then it was quiet again.

"We made bird specimens this time. Before that, the collected specimens had been refrigerated for 72 hours and soaked in insecticide for 24 hours, which fully killed the bacteria and parasites attached to them .”

She said, spreading the blue magpie on the production table.

"Now, let's start the first step, the separation of skin and flesh. Please pay attention."

Sonia placed the sterilized bird on its back on the workbench, divided the feathers from the chest to the abdomen to the two sides, and then raised a sharp scalpel to cut neatly on the blue magpie's chest, cutting along the midline Open to the abdomen, forming a superficial opening.

"Attention should be paid when going down to the island. Don't cut too deep, so as not to open the abdomen directly - in this way, the contents of the abdominal cavity will leak out and contaminate the skin and feathers. The depth is roughly the right cut for the epidermis, and the length is one to the distance from the anus. Two centimeters."

She used tweezers to uncover the epidermis, clamped the cortex with tweezers, and tore apart the flesh and fur bit by bit.

"...Be gentle when peeling the skin. Be especially careful when peeling the fur of birds. Its appearance is mainly on the feathers, so you must not damage the feathers when peeling."

As the stripping proceeded, the bird's blood began to flow, and there was excrement from the anus.Dawen wiped it with absorbent paper at any time.

"Pay special attention to keeping it clean to prevent contamination of the feathers and affect their appearance."

Sonia's fingers are nimble and strong, and her movements are steady and fast, seemingly very relaxed.When encountering joints or tight adhesions, she picks up a scalpel and cuts and peels them off.

She starts to peel from the chest and abdomen to the head and tail respectively. When peeling to the shoulders, she first peels off the fur at the root of the wing, cuts off the muscle at the root of the wing with scissors, cuts off the joints, and then continues to peel off to the end of the wing until there is no muscle tissue Cut the bone and muscle together with scissors.When peeling the legs, first peel off the fur at the base of the legs, cut off the muscles and joints with scissors, and then continue to peel off the front of the legs until there is no muscle tissue, and cut off the bones and muscles together with scissors.

When she got close to the tail, she stopped temporarily, and wiped off the blood and fat under the skin and between the muscles with absorbent paper.Be careful here, don't peel it to the bottom, otherwise it is easy to damage the tail and the cloacal hole, so as to avoid the loss of tail feathers and the leakage of excrement and fat.

So she only stripped down to near the base of the tail, leaving some muscle tissue.Instead, start peeling the upper skin.Peeling off the skin on the head was a difficult point, and she was more careful when she started, until the entire head was peeled off, leaving only a little place where the beak was connected.Then pick up the scissors and cut cleanly at the base of the beak.

In this way, a complete Taiwan blue magpie's bird feather skin is completely peeled off.Lay flat on crafting table.

The apprentices looked at it very seriously, and they couldn't help holding their breath every time they reached a critical point. At this time, the entire production room was silent.

Sonia picked up the scalpel, and neatly cut off the peeled bird's head, and put it in a small porcelain basin beside it.

"If conditions permit, the skull can be kept, so that when making specimens, the head has a basic support, and the degree of restoration is better. But it must be embalmed." She used a scalpel to remove the bird's skull. Brain tissue, eyes, tongue and muscles.

"Take it and boil it to remove the bone." She took care of Dawen.Then he picked up the fur and said: "After the fur is peeled off, the second step is to clean. To clean, use saponin powder and water to mix." The speaker soaked the fur in an enamel basin and rubbed it gently.

"When cleaning, the inside and outside must be clean. At the same time, check the cortex. If there is residual muscle tissue, you can continue to remove it. Be careful not to use too much force to prevent the feathers from falling off."

After cleaning, Sonia hung the fur of the blue magpie on a special rack and placed it in the shade to let it dry naturally.

The peeled fur is easy to lose water and harden, which will affect the later production, so it can't be left for too long. Generally, the peeling is completed in the morning, and it is cleaned and dried until the afternoon before filling.It's already past four o'clock in the afternoon--I can only work one more shift today.

(End of this chapter)