You truly need to learn the basics before learning to taxi. I would suggest a ruddy duck or a coot for first birds. Skinning and fleshing will teach you what is most important....anatomy, how to skin, and how to flesh. The coots anatomy is different than a duck, but the skin is like leather. This allows you to learn wheeling (get or make a wheel) on a skin that is very forgiving. A ruddy duck has thick skin as well, is a small bird, so you don't get in too deep, and they very rarely have pinfeathers to deal with. The best thing, is neither bird is one you wouldn't mind tossing when you make your mistakes. After learning how to skin, flesh, and the fundamentals of taxidermy like running wires, then gradually work into birds that have less forgiving skin. Mallard, teal, shovelers, wood duck are a bear for newbies, but I can flesh them without holes. Their skin is certainly thin, but there fat is far less viscous, and is somewhat a trade off. I flesh a wet skin, and took Pat's advice, and flesh from the head working to the tail, removing the membrane that wants to wrap around the wheel. Skinning a bird around the bill of the duck allows you to invert the entire bird, making fleshing that much easier.