100 
SOME HINTS FOR BEGINNERS ON COLLECTING AND 
PRESERVING NATURAL HISTORY SPECIMENS. 
By E. Comper. 
(Read before the Bombay Natural History Society on 16th January, 1900.) 
INTRODUCTION. 
In offering the following paper to the members of the Society, let me at once 
explain that I do not in any way lay claim to originality for the information 
contained therein: for, in attempting the task, it has essentially been my 
endeavour to gather together in asimple and practical form, the experience 
of the best authorities, and which has mostly been published already in some 
form or another. In so doing I have tried to supply what I have often felt 
to be a want of a very large number of members of the Society, who have not 
made a special study of Natural History in any of its various branches, but 
yet who take a general interest in the work done, and in the articles published in 
our journal, by those who have studied and collected specimens of some group 
or special section. 
For proof of the valuable additions to Indian Biology by many members of 
the Society, one need only refer to the pages of our journal, which continually 
contain papers setting before the scientific world the results of their researches 
and the additions to our knowledge of the animals and plants that are found 
in the country. 
Compared, however, with the total number of our members, these “ workers ’ 
are few indeed, and the field of their investigations must necessarily be-to a 
great extent limited to the neighbourhood in which their ordinary vocations 
in life place them ; for in a country like India there are not many who can 
devote more than a certain portion of their spare time to the study of Natural 
History, while still pursuing those duties that provide them with a means of 
livelihood. How many others, however, are there who, while taking, as I say, 
an interest in the general subject of our work, have never attempted to help 
to any practical extent, and yet are often placed in peculiarly favourable 
positions for doing so ? 
It is to appeal to and assist this section of our members that I have tried to 
collect in as small and convenient a space as possible, the advice of practical 
naturalists as to the collection and preservation of specimens illustrating the 
different branches of Indian Zoology, in the hopes. that by so doing I may 
in some degree, encourage those who have the opportunities to add their 
quota, however small it may be, to our researches. 
T do not think that many of us realize the fields, in almost every branch of 
Natural History, that ave still open to practical field workers ; for we are all 
inclined to be somewhat overcome by what appear at first sight full and 
detailed descriptions of each species that are given in the many works that 
have been published, and itis only when one comes to work in detail with 
