METHOD FOR IDENTIFICATION OF GUINEA-PIGS 545 



It will be noted that the entire description of the animal is 

 recorded without raising the pen or pencil from the paper. 



Since this system is based upon abbreviations, the question 

 may be asked, why not go still further and use shorthand charac- 

 ters? It is true that shorthand once learned would consume less 

 time, but it would require considerable training for a new assist- 

 ant to become sufficiently famihar with shorthand characters to 

 write them rapidly and accurately. In the author's experience, 

 on the other hand, it has not required more than two or three 

 fifteen-minute periods to instruct any new assistant in the satis- 

 factory use of the above method. 



