ranged in a bottle such as it is destined permanently to occupy, and 

 with some attention to its comfort as it were, or, as Isaac Walton 

 expresses it of the worm, " as though you loved it.^' The spirits 

 used should be from 20 to 40 over proof (weaker spirits are not to be 

 depended on in this climate,) and for scientific purposes, such 

 spirits can always be procured from the distiller free of duty (say 

 about Ks. 2-4 a gallon). 



First catch your snake. This is easily done by pinning him down 

 with a walking stick, and then seizing the nape of the neck. The 

 snake being then secured, either divide the vertebra of the neck with 

 a pair of nail scissors, or make a slit in the cardiac region, and pluck 

 out the heart with the finger and thumb. I prefer the latter plan. 

 In about 20 minutes the snake will be nearly or quite dead, and 

 should then be slit up, and the viscera extracted. If all muscular 

 contractility has subsided, coil it, head down and belly up, in a proper 

 bottle, and fill up with spirits, hoisting the bottle, so as to eliminate 

 all air bubbles. If the stimulus of the spirits causes the snake, to coil 

 irregularly, take it out again and recoil it, as it is of importance that 

 it should set in a proper shape. After 24 hours either pour 

 off the spirits and add fresh, or else transfer to a fresh bottle. 

 It is imperative with large or moderate specimens, if they are to keep 

 well, that both the abdomen be opened and the spirits changed once. 

 The first used spirits will do several times, as they merely seem to 

 absorb and remove the aqueous and other impurities of the freshly 

 killed specimen. Small snakes, frogs, and lizards may be simply 

 opened without removing the viscera. The bottles should be packed 

 in a box with compartments filled with paddy husk, and the corks or 

 glass stoppers well ceiled down with several coatings of wax 

 and oil in the proportion of three to one. 



Before bottling up, a note should be made of the length, size, 

 and coloration of the specimen, with such other detail as the specimen 

 may suggest. The viscera should be examined for Entozoa. 



Young turtles should be preserved in spirit, previously making a 

 slit in front and behind to ensure the free penetration of the spirits. 

 As a matter of humanity, they should be killed before placing in 

 sjoirits by dividing the nape with nail scissors. They will, of 

 course, retract their heads at the sight of the scissors ; but if the 

 scissors partly open are firmly forced down along the top of the head, 

 they will enclose the neck near its junction with the upper 

 shell, and severance is then easily effected. Large turtle may be 

 treated in the same manner, only the strongest tin plate cutters are 

 requisite. It requires care too, approaching in front a large TrionyXj 

 as it has a most powerful and remorseless bite. The plan that I 

 adopted with a large Trionyx which I once got at Bhagulpoor, was to 

 make a slit behind the thigh and, thrusting in one arm, seize and tear 

 out the heart. It is a ticklish job, however, to hold the animal securely, 

 as he evinces great dis])leasure and wrath at having his privacy thus 

 trespassed on ! Anything, however, is better than the plan which I 

 once heard of being resorted to, of boiling the animals alive. The best 



