272 THE SNAKES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



How TO Preserve Snakes. 



The preservative fluid commonly used is alcohol of 70 per cent, 

 strength ; Cape Dop brandy, or any other kind of strong alcohol, 

 will do. Lay out your specimen, abdomen uppermost ; make an 

 incision of one to two inches along the middle part of its abdomen 

 longitudinally. Search for and remove the gall. On reference to 

 the illustration of dissection of a Puff Adder you will find the 

 locality of the gall. It is a roundish bag of greenish-yellow fluid 

 attached to the liver. If there be anything in the alimentary 

 (food) tube, remove it. It is not necessary to remove the gall- 

 bladders of small snakes. It is advisable to do so with large 

 specimens, as gall frequently escapes into the spirit and discolours 

 it. The next operation is to inject some spirit into the snake's 

 body, through the incision. An ordinary glass syringe will do. 

 Plug up the incision with cotton-wool, and, if necessary, bring the 

 edges together with a few stitches. After washing the snake 

 clean, place it for one or two days in a jar or bottle of spirit 

 to soak. The object of this preparatory pickling is to allow of 

 the spirit taking the place of the natural water of the snake's body. 

 The reason snakes so frequently go bad in pickle is because this 

 precaution is not observed. The water from the snake's body 

 naturally weakens the preservative fluid, and sooner or later the 

 specimen decays. The permanent specimen jar or bottle should 

 be of clear glass, and with a glass stopper if possible. For private 

 collections ordinary round bottles will serve the purpose. In 

 museums these are no longer used, as they distort the specimens. 

 Jars with flat sides are better. Do not cram the specimen into 

 the bottle carelessly. Arrange its body neatly in coils. Open 

 the jaws and erect the fangs, if the snake be a venomous one. 

 Fill your bottle up with spirit and cork it. Your next business is 

 to write its name, the locality where it was captured, and the 

 date. Affix the label on the bottle and write the same data on a 

 small neat tag and drop it into the bottle in case the other label 

 should peel off and get lost. This is an important detail. Valuable 

 collections have been rendered practically valueless by neglecting 

 to do this. Keep a catalogue of your specimens, and write 

 down everything of interest connected with them. Write all the 

 interesting information about them which you can cull from 

 books or discover by jicrsonal observation. If you cannot 



