BULLETIN 39, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. [8] 



Two or three stout liomeopathic vials, with good long corks, may be 

 put in the vest pocket. A thread may be put through the top of the 

 cork and tied to the neck of the vial, thus obviating the necessity for 

 hunting a dropped cork in the underbrush, or a few spare corks may 

 be carried. Either method is preferable to delay and possible loss of 

 temper when collecting is good. 



A couple of Avide-mouthed two-ounce bottles, with strong corks, will 

 serve for somewhat larger species, while for snails of the size of Helw 

 albolabris wooden pill boxes, or small tin boxes, such as mustard or 

 yeast powder is put up in, will be found convenient. A little cotton 

 or moss should be put in the bottom of the box before it is used for shells. 



If it is desired to study the living animals the vials or boxes into 

 which the specimens are dropped should be dry and clean, but for ordi- 

 nary collecting it will be found more convenient to have the vials for 

 small species half filled with alcohol diluted with one third its volume 

 of water. This alcohol abstracts the moisture from the soft parts, so 

 that they may be dried afterward without making an offensive odor, 

 and prevents the snails from adhering to each other and to the glass,^ 

 which otherwise they are very apt to do, when it is difi&ciilt to separate 

 them or get them out of the vial unbroken. The larger species do not 

 need this precaution and may be treated later, at home. For collecting 

 the minute Pupidce and similar species a small net is very convenient. 

 This should be made of stout (say ^ inch) steel or brass wire,, 

 circular, with a projection fitted to screw into a socket fastened 

 to a stout cane or stick. The frame may be i)ermantly fastened to- 

 the stick if preferred and should be 10 or 12 inches in diameter. 

 The net may be made of brown linen or cheese cloth in the form of a 

 cone sewed over the frame at its base, and should be twice as long as 

 the diameter of the frame. The coarse grass and high sedges of moist 

 places, on which the little moUusks love to creep up, may be beaten 

 with the net, into which they fall, and afterward the net turned inside 

 out over a newspaper, the larger rubbish rejected and the remainder 

 shaken into a box to be examined at leisure. The moist leaves which 

 collect on the ground where meadow and woodland meet may be put 

 into a sack, taken home, dried, well shaken, and the dirt collected from 

 them when picked over will often afford large numbers of the minute 

 species in which the collector delights. Loose moss from favorable 

 localities may be treated in the same way and will often well repay 

 the trouble. 



Over most of the United States no further equipment is necessary for 

 collecting land shells, but if the collector is in a particularly rich field 

 where the larger species abound it may be convenient for him to take 

 a garden trowel for digging in the soft earth under fallen logs, and a 

 miniature pick with one end hatchet- shaped, such as are used for trim- 

 ming ice by housekeepers. The latter he will find convenient in prying* 

 off" the bark from stumps and fallen logs, the surface of which, as well 



