38S ; Taxidermid. 
count is sand so much to be preferred as the agent in filling, 
for it rons equally into every crook and cranny, without leay- 
ing void spaces or distending the skin too much. If you 
wish to be convinced of this by ocular demonstration, try 
the experiment, and stuff two frogs, one with sand and the 
other with tow or cotton. All seams are to be avoided as 
much as possible ; they disfigure the specimen very much, 
and when they cannot be avoided, as in tortoises, let the incis- 
ion be made no larger cab is actually ee and then 
let it be sewed up with all possible care and neatnes 
The eggs, also, of the larger amphibia, may be a pre- 
served, such as the eggs of tortoises. These, it is well known, 
~ are not covered like the eggs of birds with a hard calcareous 
shell, but with an elastic parchment-like skin, which would 
shrivel up if dried empty. 
f you wish to preserve such eggs in your cabinet, pierce a 
small hole at one end, press out all the contents through this 
opening quite clean, insert the barrel of a quill and blow it 
out round, then, with e assistance of a small funnel, pour 
in fine sand, and by filling and blowing alternately you will 
Macca’ 3 in filling them completely. Then, after being quite 
ne by the heat of a stove, let the sand run out and the work 
Section 22.—Of Snakes. 
The reptile amphibia, or snakes, are more easily prepared 
pes any 
soditgeand i lizards. But since. much. caution is neces 
in meddling with the poisonous kinds, as the téeth may-oc- 
casion serious injury, even after the animal has been long 
dead, and since there are some species whose bodies are too 
thick towards the middle to be drawn out through the jaws, 
we are either to enlarge the opening of the jaws towards the 
bases and afterwards to sew it up neatly, or we may pursue 
The jamal being dead, make a very small incision on the 
belly, in the middle, where. the body is thickest, about a fin- 
ger’s length, and then endeavor, by the assistance of a flat 
handled knife, to — off the skin from both — and entire- 
