STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 121 



To empty eggs, if fresh, is easily done b}^ making a hole in one side 

 and blowing out the contents with a small tube, bent at the end, the egg 

 being held over a vessel of water with the opening downwards, and the 

 tube insei*'ted with the bent end pointing upwards, the hole being large 

 enough to allow the contents to escape around it. The puncture is best 

 made with a small-pointed steel drill, but a needle will do if a circle of 

 small holes is made with it and a round piece extracted. For large eggs, 

 a fine rat-tail file may be used to smooth the edges of the opening. If 

 an embryo is in the egg, the opening must be made larger to extract it. 



REPTILES, FISHES, ETC. 



Lizards, if very large, may be skinned like other quadrupeds, and 

 stuffed, covering the skin with varnish to keep its color, or putting it in 

 alcohol. Snakes ma}^ also be skinned, if large, by making an incision 

 along one side of the body at its thickest part, separating it' for a few 

 inches, and then pulling it off like a glove over both ends at once. 

 The tail, however, must be skinned separately, as it is more firmly adhe- 

 rent. The head must be cleaned like that of a bird, the arsenic applied, 

 and the skin again turned right side out. To assist in this, it is best to 

 tie a lono; cord at the neck and beo-innino- of tail before skinnino;, which 

 prevents tearing it at those points, and makes it easy to turn the skin 

 back again. 



Turtles usually require to have the breastplate sawed across on each 

 side; though our single California species maybe cleaned out through an 

 incision near the fore and hind leg on one side. 



Large frogs may be made to look much more natural by stuffing and 

 varnishing than in alcohol. 



Pishes may be stuffed also, or one half the skin only pi-eserved, being 

 cut around so as to retain all the single fins, tail, etc., attached. 



Dry skins and skulls of our fishes are very desirable, as well as those 

 j)reserved in alcohol, and the bones of the throat, which generally have 

 teeth on them, should be left attached to the skulls. A series of the fish 

 of any locality may be preserved hj salting down halves, prepared as 

 above, and packed in a keg, wnth rock salt in layers. There are many 

 kinds of salmon, trout, sturgeon, and others, in fresh water, too large 

 usually for alcohol specimens, which may be thus j)acked until ready to 

 be prepared for the museum. 



SKELETONS AND FOSSILS. 



Skulls and skeletons of all animals are important, much of their classi- 

 fication and other interesting facts being learned by- the study of the 

 bones, which are also valuable for comparison with fossil remains. Bones 

 found in the earth at great de])ths, in the floors of caverns, gravel banks, 

 along rivers, etc., should be carefully preserved and labelled, as they 

 often prove on comparison to be those of animals no longer living here — 

 such as the elephant, rhinoceros, tiger, etc. All human remains from 

 such locations are especially interesting, and if found with those of large 

 animals, the mode of their occurrence should be most carefully noted. 

 Skeletons should not be divided, as is often done, but all the bones kept 

 together and sent to the society's museum. 



If crumbling, bones may be hardened by boiling in strong glue. 



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