A SHORT NOTE ON THE INDIAN RATS. 3 



are the feet and the tail. When about an inch of the tail has 

 been skinned back the reversed portion should be firmly grasped 

 with a duster or any old rough piece of cloth ; it will generally be 

 found that the skin will slip off quite easily like a glove from a 

 finger. In large, thick-skinned rats like the bandicoot, in which 

 the skin is very adherent and threatens to break, it may, however, 

 be necessary to slit the tail on the lower surface and dissect the 

 skin off. 



In the hands and feet the skin must be reversed right back 

 to the fingers and toes and the flesh scraped off the bones of the 

 palms and soles. It will be found impossible to get the skin 

 back over the limb unless a string has been previously tied to 

 the toes or fingers. The limbs should be disarticulated at the 

 hip and the shoulder and the bones roughly cleaned with a knife. 

 The slit in the belly should be kept as small as possible. Pow- 

 dered alum should be well rubbed in, with particular attention 

 to the feet and tail ; or if this is not available wood ashes may 

 be used. The muzzle, ears and the feet should be brushed over 

 with a little strong carbolic of a strength of one in three. Two 

 or three days will be found sufficient to train any ddm to skin 

 perfectly well. 



PREPARATION OF SKULLS. 



The very first thing is to secure a label with a number cor- 

 responding to the skin; I have had constantly to reject skulls 

 owing to skinners neglecting this precaution. It is most con- 

 veniently affixed by means of a needle and thread passed under 

 the zygoma, the arch of the cheek bone. In a young skull in 

 which the arch is incomplete, the thread must be passed right 

 round the skull. The skull is boiled for some hours and then the 

 brains and remaining flesh are removed with a piece of turnedup 

 copper wire, a crochet hook or the like. It should always be 

 insisted that the skinner should remove part of the neck with the 

 skull ; unless this is done he is liable to cut away the back part 

 of the skull, rendering it useless for purposes of measurement. He 

 must also be cautioned not to damage the back part in removing 

 the brains through the opening for the spinal cord. The lower 

 jaw should be secured to the skull with thread. 



PRESERVATION OF SPECIMENS. 



Spirit is the most reliable medium in which to preserve 

 specimens, if skins cannot, for any reason, be prepared, but no 

 time must be lost after the animal has been killed, or putrefac- 

 tion may proceed even in the spirit, and plenty of spirit must 

 be used. The amount of spirit used is most important. If the 

 bodies of the rats occupy more than half the receptacle so 

 much of the spirit gets absorbed by the tissues that the remain- 

 ing fluid is too weak to prevent putrefaction. To pack rats 

 into a jar and then fill up the interstices with spirit, as is 



