64 COPEIA 



water. Aquatic forms behave in a natural way, and 

 terrestrial animals do no more than struggle to get 

 out. All die without contorted muscles or an abnor- 

 mal amount of glandular excretions. Toads, frogs and 

 salamanders usually succumb in 5 or 10 minutes, but 

 reptiles survive longer, occasionally a half hour or 

 more after submersion. Chloretone is especially use- 

 ful in killing such snakes, Charina for example, as 

 are apt to die under chloroform with the muscles in 

 a state of extreme contraction, the body then present- 

 ing a knotted and crooked appearance. A solution 

 will keep for years in a closed vessel, requiring only 

 the occasional addition of a few crystals of the drug, 

 and filtering to remove accumulated matter. 



Chloretone is not recommended as being equal 

 to alcohol in killing fishes for the reason that the latter 

 acts quickly and serves at the same time as a fixing 

 agent of the tissue of the scale pockets. 



J. O. Snyder, 

 Stanford University, Calif. 



Edited by J. T. Nichols, American Museum of Natural History 

 PRICE FIVE CENTS 



