APPENDIX. 



A few words will not liere be out of place on the important ques- 

 tion of collecting and preserving Reptiles. Two things should be 

 borne in mind. Firstly, to collect every species procurable in the 

 neighbourhood, how common soever some may seem ; and, secondlif, 

 to collect systematically and not in a desultory fashion as is too fre- 

 quently the case. 



Many persons may think that common species are of little value, 

 but this is a great mistake, as loell preserved specimens of our com- 

 monest reptiles would be acceptable even in our Calcutta Museum, 

 and equally so in the numerous Museums in Europe and America, 

 whose name is legion. It is hardly possible, therefore, to collect too 

 many specimens of anything, if only they are well preserved. In- 

 attention to a few points, I shall now advert to, is the cause of so 

 many of our Museum specimens, being in poor condition, dissolved^ 

 fulpy, value-less, and a fault of an opposite character is observable in 

 others, which are shrunken and look much like dried sprats. This arises 

 from the specimens having been dried from the evaporation of the 

 spirits, owing to faulty stoppers. 



Not 10 per cent, of the bottles in the Museum are air-tight, and 

 a constant evaporation of spirit consequently goes on. The spirits 

 are replenished from time to time to the great injury of the speci- 

 men. If this process of refilliug is delayed, and the specimen dries 

 completely and enters into the dried-sprat phase of its existence, no 

 subsequent cunning will avail to restore the shrunken outlines, and 

 the specimen is permanently spoiled. The simple expedient of ceiling 

 the stoppers with wax never seems to have suggested itself to 

 the minds of either Council, Curators, or Taxidermists, hence all this 

 ruin ; hence these tears. 



Any one commencing to collect systematically should provide 

 himself with a number of glass or stone-ware bottles of two 

 sizes. The large size should be of not less than four inches in 

 diameter; currant bottles, for instance, well stoppered. In such 

 jars snakes up to five feet in length may be stowed. Larger snakes, 

 young crocodiles, turtles, &c., may be accommodated in large stone 

 jars, specially provided for them. The second size bottles may be 

 about the size of common lozenge bottles, but the great thing is 

 always to proportion the bottle to the specimen and vice versa. Some 

 persons seem to think that the specimens are never to come out again. 



Another thing to bear in mind is, that when once the muscles are set, 

 no re-arrangement of the coil is possible. The specimen must be ur- 



