be made by placing a slidiii«^ pane of glass in the top of a shallow, 

 light wooden box. The pane of glass serves as a window through 

 w^hich the animals may be observed, and also as a door through 

 which they may be taken in or out or food introduced. It is always 

 best to have the glass on top so that it can be opened temporarily 

 without danger of the inmates escaping, and holes should be bored 

 thru the side of the box and covered with screen, so as to provide 

 air. Water in a small dish fastened to the bottom of the cage 

 should always be present. 



Turtles (except the box turtle) should be placed in a metal tank 

 in shallow water with stones upon which they may climb. No cov- 

 ering is necessary if the sides are reasonably high or the edges 

 turned inward. The box turtle should have a dry cage. 



Specimens should be fed shortly after being placed in the cage, 

 and rather regularly thereafter, for if they can be induced to eat 

 there will be no trouble in keeping them alive. Water should be 

 kept in the cages at all times. 



Preservation of Specimens: The animals captured alive should 

 be killed by immersing, while still in the bags, in a pail of water. 

 When dead they should be removed from the bags and either in- 

 jected freely (snakes and lizards along the belly, turtles behind the 

 fore legs and in front of the hind legs) with 4% formalin, by means 

 of a hypodermic syringe, or if a syringe is not available, slit open. 

 Several slits about an inch or two inches long (according to the 

 size of the specimen) should be made along the ventral surface of 

 the snakes (none on the tail). One short slit will serve for the 

 lizards, and the turtles may be slit open in front of the hind legs 

 and behind the fore legs. The formalin solution may l>e made by 

 adding 24 parts of water to 1 part of the 40% solution of formalin 

 sold as pure, and the results are much, better if the better grades of 

 formalin (i. e., Shering's) are used. The specimens should then 

 be placed in pans (do not crowd) and covered with the same solu- 

 tion. When well hardened thev mav be transferred to "lass iars or 

 covered crocks and covered with 75% alcohol. In the case of large 

 specimens of turtles the shell only need be saved. 



A label should be attached to each specimen, giving the locality, 

 date of collection, collector and habitat, but if a notebook or cata- 

 log is kept, the specimen may be given a serial number and the data 

 kept in the notebook or catalog opposite the corresponding number. 

 The label should be tied about the body in the case of lizards and 

 snakes (about one-third of the way back from the head in snakes 

 and just behind the forelegs in lizards) and on the left hind leg in 



