than if you cut them with your
knife. Slip your knife between the leg and the body, and cut to the
bone, then with the fork turn the leg back, and, if the fowl be not a
very old one, the joints will give way.

[Illustration: _Fig. 3._]

After the four quarters are thus removed, enter the knife at the breast,
in the direction _c d_ (_fig. 3_), and you will separate the
merrythought from the breast-bone; and by placing your knife under it,
lift it up, pressing it backward on the dish, and you will easily remove
that bone. The collar-bones, _e e_, lie on each side the merrythought,
and are to be lifted up at the broad end, by the knife, and forced
towards the breast-bone, till the part which is fastened to it breaks
off. The breast is next to be separated from the carcass, by cutting
through the ribs on each side, from one end of the fowl to the other.
The back is then laid upward, and the knife passed firmly across it,
near the middle, while the fork lifts up the other end. The side bone
are lastly to be separated; to do which turn the back from you, and on
each side the back-bone, in the direction of _g g_ (_fig. 4_), you will
find a joint, which you must separate, and the cutting up of the fowl
will be complete.

[Illustration: _Fig. 4._]

Ducks and partridges are to be cut up in the same manner; in the latter,
however, the merrythought is seldom separated from the breast, unless
the birds are very large.

Turkeys and geese have slices cut on each side of the breast-bone, and
by beginning to cut from the wing upwards to the breast-bone, many more
slices may be obtained than if you cut from the breast-bone to the
wings, although I do not think the slices are quite as handsome as if
cut in the latter method.

[Illustration: _Fig. 6._]

Pigeons (see _fig. 6_) are either cut from the neck to _a_, which is the
fairest way, or from _b_ to _c_, which is now the most fashionable mode;
and the lower part is esteemed the best.

[Illustration: _Fig. 7._]

There are two ways of carving a hare. When it is young, the knife may be
entered near the shoulder at a (see _fig. 7_), and cut down to _b_, on
each side of the backbone; and thus the hare will be divided into three
parts. The back is to be again divided into four parts, where the dotted
lines are in the cut: these and the legs are considered the best parts,
though the shoulders are preferred by some, and are to be taken off in
the direction of _c d e_. The pieces sho