8 INTRODUCTION. 
little or nothing (though a great exception must be made 
in favour of sand-hills by the sea coast) ; nor do shells live 
in pine-woods—the resin, perhaps, being distasteful to 
them; nor among bracken. Calcareous districts, on the 
other hand, are especially rich fields for search. 
Preparing Shells for the Collection. 
The ‘‘ booty ” should be cleaned as soon as possible after 
being captured. Plunge the shells into boiling water, and 
extract the animal with a pin. My most serviceable ex- 
tractors for small species are fine needles stuck head first 
into the wood of common matches. The points of the 
needles are bent into curves of different shapes and sizes 
to reach the interiors of shells into which the animals 
sometimes shrink or remain broken. Care should be taken 
to wash the mouths of small shells with a paint-brush. 
The larger water shells are often improved by a gentle 
application of soap and hot water with a moderately soft 
tooth-brush ; but it is a fatal mistake to use acid in any 
form. 
It will be found, especially at first, that the animals of 
many shells break inside, which spoils the appearance of 
the transparent Zonites, &c. This cannot always be helped, 
but may to some extent be avoided if the animals are 
drawn out, before they cool, very slowly and steadily. 
They should not be boiled too hard, but only plunged for a 
few seconds into boiling water. 
