HANDBOOK OF SHELLS. 43 



as possible. The gum used should always have nearly one-sixth 

 of its bulk of pure glycerine added to it j this prevents it from 

 becoming brittle when dry, otherwise your specimens would be 

 liable after a time to break away from the card and get lost. If 

 the shells will not stay in the position you require, wedge them 

 up with little pieces of cork until the gum is dry. 



When the shells are mounted, you must try, if you have not 

 already done so, to get the proper names for them ; it is as 

 important to be able to call shells by their right names as it 

 is to know people by theirs. The commoner sorts you will be 

 able to name from the figures of them given in text-books, 

 such as those quoted in the list at the end of this little work ; but 

 some you will find it very difficult to name, and it will then be 

 necessary to ask friends who have collections to help you, or to 

 take them to some museum and compare them with the named 

 specimens there exhibited. When the right name is discovered, 

 your label must then be written in a yery small, neat hand, and 

 gummed to the edge of the tray or on the card if your specimens 

 are mounted. At the top you put the Latin name, ruling a line 

 underneath it, and then, if you like, add the English name ; next, 

 put the name of the place and the date at which it was found, 

 thus : 



Helix aspersa (Common snail), 



Lane near Hampstead Heath, 

 July loth, 1882. 



A double red ink line ruled at the top and bottom will add a 

 finished appearance to it. 



MOW TO CLASSIFY THE SHELLS FOR THE 

 CABINET. 



All the foregoing processes, except the naming of your speci- 

 mens, are more or less mechanical, and are only the means to the 

 end a properly arranged collection. For, however well a collec- 

 tion may be mounted, it is practically useless if the different shells 

 composing it be not properly classified. By classification is 

 meant the bringing together those kinds that most resemble each 

 other, first of all into large groups having special characteristics 



