Quadrupeds. 5311 



tbus preserved, the caterpillars were pre-eminent ; their unchanged forms, delicate 

 colours and characteristic attitudes, looking exactly like life. 



" Thinking that British entomologists would be glad to be able to add to their collec- 

 tions similar specimens, I determined, before quitting Vienna, to learn the process by 

 which they were prepared. Unfortunately, however, I found that the director, Herr 

 Kedtenbacher, to whom I looked for information, was absent; but this circumstance 

 was, to a great extent, remedied by the kindness of my friend Dr. Ernst Briicke, 

 Professor of Physiology in the University of Vienna, who, in a letter lately received, 

 has given me the following information, derived from Herr Kedtenbacher: — 



" The caterpillars, he says, are eviscerated through the anus, and the skin is then 

 blown out, being fixed upon a tube (* man bloss sie an einen Tubiiliis befastigt 

 aiif '), and carefully held all the while over a pan of hot coals, until they become 

 quite dry, and are no longer liable to change their form. Caterpillars with peculiarly 

 delicate colours, such as green or pale rose, are liable of course to lose their colours in 

 this drying process. To replace them, a mass of wax, of the natural hue of the 

 insect, is poured in through the opening by which it was eviscerated. 



"The Professor adds, that the beauty of these preparations, as seen in the 

 Imperial cabinet, depends less upon the nature of the method than upon the manual 

 dexterity of the operator, assisted by long practice. I doubt not, however, that many 

 members of the Entomological Society possess this dexterity to an extent quite great 

 enough to produce specimens equal to those I have described, especially when the 

 hope of enriching their cabinets has induced the practice necessary to the attainment 

 of perfection." — E. S. 



Long-tailed Field-mouse. — The Rev. Gilbert White mentions having witnessed a 

 female of this species travelling with her young attached to her teats. This anecdote 

 always appeared to me extraordinary, and I had many times thought that the good 

 old historian must have been mistaken ; for, having seen many hundreds of nests, 

 parent animals and their young, during the breeding-season, I had never met with a 

 similar circumstance. But the historian of Selborne is probably correct. One day 

 during the summer which is just passed I found a nest of this mouse in a clover-field 

 which had just been mown. Upon disturbing the nest, the female made her escape 

 through the stems of the clover, having attached to her hinder parts (but whether to 

 the fur or teats I cannot positively say, though I tried hard to ascertain) three young 

 ones, about a third of her own size. The young were all close together, with their 

 backs upward; and the four might have been mistaken for a single animal, or a large 

 brown reptile trailing through the grass. The mouse, although thus encumbered, 

 travelled with considerable speed, but scarcely so fast as it usually does. She showed 

 much affection for her young; and when, having travelled many yards, the young 

 became detached from her person she would not leave them, and could scarcely be 

 frightened from the spot.— John Joseph Briggs ; Kingh Newton, Derby. 



