REPTILES. 65 



in Massachusetts may be handled with impunity, with the 

 exception of two species, which are very rare. I refer 

 to the Copperhead and Eattlesnake. The prettily marked 

 Milk Snake, or Checkered Adder, and the imaginary ter- 

 rible Water Snake, are quite harmless, although we are 

 everywhere informed by those who are ignorant upon this 

 subject that they are. exceedingly venomous. So long as 

 people are erroneously educated in this belief, so long will 

 the poor snakes suffer unjustly. Snakes, with but few 

 exceptions, are neutral regarding the interest of man. 



The best method of preserving snakes is to put them 

 into alcohol moderately strong, as otherwise the scales start 

 easily. Snakes may be benumbed by thrusting a pin into 

 their brains; in this way they may be carried from place to 

 place more readily than if they were iminjured. 



Snakes may be skinned after making a longitudinal in- 

 cision, about two inches long, in the largest part of the 

 body, on the belly; then by drawing back the skin, the 

 body may be divided, and the parts drawn out each way. 

 The head should not be skinned. The eyes are removed, 

 as in the fishes, from the outside. The skin is now cov- 

 ered with arsenic and turned back. It is then fiUed with 

 bran to the natural' size. It may, after sewing up the 

 incision, be placed in any position desired. Artificial eyes 

 are fixed in the head. 



If the head is to be raised, run a sharpened wire 

 through the top of it, and through that section of the 

 neck and body that is to be elevated, through the skin into 

 a board, cut off the protruding end, and close the skin of 

 the head over it. After the skin becomes dry, the wire 

 can be taken out of the board, and cut off close to the body. 



Turtles may be preserved in alcohol, or they may be 

 skinned and mounted thus : With a small steel saw cut 

 out a square section on the under shell ; remove this and 

 draw the intestines, bones, and flesl^ of the legs, etc., out 



