220 PEACTICAL TAXIDEEMT. 



Fig. 36 (the invention o£ Mr. Anld, in Science Gossip for 1872). 

 A A are pieces of watcli spring tied on tlie thick part of the 

 blowpipe, and holding the caterpillar by pressure on the last 

 segments when the point B is inserted. 



Mr. Anld, I see by his article, nsed a spirit lamp under a 

 glass jar to form a drying chamber while blowing ; but I have 

 myself found a "box iron" a most convenient arrangement. 

 The inner iron, being heated in the fire, is placed in the chamber 

 or " box," which it thoroughly heats ; then removed, and the 

 larvsD introduced and blown out in the hot air, but not so full as 

 to unnaturally distend the segments. A certain loss of colour 

 inevitably takes place in preserved larvae, which in the larger 

 ones may be restored by colouring inside them with powder 

 coloui's mixed in turps. Coloured wax is sometimes injected, 

 and makes the skin very firm, but it is a delicate operation, 

 requiring great skUl in application. "When finished, they may 

 be "mounted" on green silk-covered wire, or, more naturally, 

 on nicely modelled leaves of their various food-plants, by gum 

 attached to their claspers. 



It is often necessary to plunge the more delicate larvse into 

 a weak solution of carbolic acid, or alum and water, to harden 

 them before preservation. 



Skeletons op Animals. — Many people being under the im- 

 pression that it is only necessary to remove the flesh of any 

 mammal or bird in order to get a perfect skeleton, it may be as 

 well to point out that as the flesh rots, so do the ligaments 

 which hold the bones, and consequently the skeleton falls to 

 pieces. When, therefore, you have made your skeleton by the 

 means recommended by various authors, such as exposing it in 

 an ant-hill, a wasp's nest, or to the attacks of the "blow-flies" 

 or " mealworm " (the larvse of a beetle), to " tadpoles," or — as 

 is the usual way with the bone preservers — by maceration in 

 water for a lengthened period (after removal of a great deal of 

 the flesh, the skin, and entrails), you will, after the careful 

 removal of the flesh still remaining, and subsequent drying of 

 the bones in the sun and air, find that nearly every bone will 

 have to be attached to its fellow by fine brass wire, and in tho 

 case of the bones of large animals, each bone "vvill have to bo 

 neatly drilled and coupled with brass wire of greater strength. 



