Appendix. iii 



plan, however, is patiently to watch with a noose and catch the 

 animal's head when protruded. If cleverly done, the head can be now 

 pulled out, and the creature decapitated with a chopper. 



The shell should be well cleaned of flesh, anointed with arsenical 

 soap and dried in a shady place. The head, feet, and viscera of a 

 fair specimen should be preserved in spirit. The coloration should be 

 noted during life, and an endeavour made to ascei'tain the limits of 

 growth to which each species attains. 



Young crocodiles should be preserved in spirit after opening the ab- 

 domen. The heads of larger ones may be simply dried, and the skeletons 

 of large ones also. All that is requisite is to roughly clean the larger 

 bones of flesh, and then hang them up in the sun to dry, first of all 

 brushing them over with arsenical soap, to preserve the ligamental 

 attachments. The head and legs may be separated, and the spinal 

 column divided in several places for convenience of packing. Note 

 the dimension and sex of specimen, and also the arrangement of the 

 scutes on the neck, which is a specific character. The skin may easily 

 be preserved flat, if brushed over with arsenical soap inside. For 

 stuffing, specimens 8 or 10 feet in length will be found most convenient. 

 Search the viscera for Entozoa. If, as is often the case, these parasites 

 are attached, they should not be pulled off, but the piece of skin cut 

 out, to which the animal is affixed. 



The best work for the student is unquestionally Giinther's Catalogue 

 of the Keptiles of British India, —after this, the British Museum 

 Catalogues — especially that of " Lizards" and Griinther's " Colubrine 

 Snakes." The Journal of the Asiatic Society may be ransacked 

 with advantage, and much interesting information gained from the 

 papers of Cantor, Blyth, and Jerdon. Enough has, I trust, now been 

 said to induce some naturalists to enter the tempting field of Herpe- 

 tology, and to convince the most sceptical or listless of the great aid 

 to science that almost any one in this country might afford, by a little 

 well directed energy, perseverance and zeal. 



