190 PRACTICAL TAXIDERMY. 



Large snakes, siicTi as rock snakes or boas, must be cut on tbe 

 old system, viz., under the belly and skinned out, working up 

 and down, as tbe muscles bave so firm an attacliment that the 

 slipping-out process cannot be resorted to, but each inch will 

 have to be laboriously cut away from the skin. 



Sawdust, mixed with a little sand, will be found very useful for 

 stuffing the larger snakes, as the weight of so large a quantity of 

 sand, or plaster, is too great to successfully manipulate. 



A few hints as to snakes and snake bites may not be out of 

 place here. To distinguish the only venomous snake found in 

 the British Isles is an easy matter, if you have the opportunity 

 of examination. In the first place, the viper appears to have a 

 more spade-like and flatter head than the common snake, and 

 has a black cross from near the neck running up to the centre 

 of the head, where it terminates in a black, oval-shaped spot. 

 But the greatest distinction, perhaps, is that a decided pattern 

 runs down the centre of the back, appearing as a chain 

 of obtusely-shaped diamond markings, joined together, and 

 somewhat confused in places. Again, it has in the upper jaw 

 two fangs or poison teeth, which in rest lie folded back; on 

 pulling them down with a needle, or by the crooked awl, they 

 appear as fleshy lobes, out of the apex of which is thrust a little 

 glittering point like a small fish bone. This small bone or fang is 

 hollow, and through it the poison is ejected by a process too com- 

 plex to describe in the pages of this work. The slow-worm, 

 common snake, and the one other rarer species found in Britain, 

 have merely the ordinary holding teeth, and are all perfectlj'- 

 harmless. Should anyone be so unfortunate as to be bitten or 

 scratched by a viper's fang, a speedy application of liquor 

 ammonioe fort (strong ammonia) to the wound, with the further 

 application of a ligature above the bitten part will be found of 

 benefit, and perhaps avert serious consequences until surgical aid 

 is obtained. Ipecacuanha has been recommended, powdered and 

 applied as a j)0^i^ltice, with an internal administration at the 

 time also, of the same drug, but that requires medical know- 

 ledge as to the extent and frequency of the doses. 



To skin frogs, they must be plunged for an hour or so into the 

 hardening solution, No. 15, and then skinned out from the mouth. 

 This requires a finer hand and greater patience even than 



