246 PHACTICAL TAXIDEEMY. 



for use. Several of tlie bladder-wracks or " sea-grapes " will dry 

 nicely, as also will tlie egg cases of tlie whelk and tlie "sea 

 purses " and " skate barrows," really tbe egg bags of tbe dogfish 

 and skate. 



The starfish, or " five fingers," will, after washing, dry well, 

 or can be plunged in any one of the hardening solutions 

 mentioned in Chapter TV. The various sea urchins {Echinii), 

 if emptied of their contents, make pretty objects, either with 

 or without their spines. The beautiful sea anemones are, 

 however, impossible to preserve as dried objects, but must be 

 modelled in glass or wax, as imitations. Yarious shells 

 come in handily also ; amongst those may be mentioned the 

 common razor shells {Solen ensis and siliqua), several of the 

 Yenus shells, the common limpets, the chitons, several of 

 the trochi, and last, but not least, the shells of the speckled 

 scallop {Pecten varius). 



Many freshwater, as also land shells, come in for decorating 

 cases of littoral birds. Amongst those of the first we may 

 instance Limnma stagnalis, palustris, peregra, &c., Dreissena 

 pohjmorpha, Planorhis corneus, &c. ; the various IJnios, anodons, 

 and many others. 



Amongst the land shells very m.any of the Helices, such 

 as the gaily-coloured nemoralis, or its variety horfensis^ 

 caperata, arhustorum, cantiana, &c., as well as many other 

 specimens. 



The preservation of most freshwater and land shells is 

 exceedingly easy, the greater number of specimens requiring 

 only to be plunged into toiling water, and the contents removed — 

 an easy operation in the case of the bivalves, and the contents 

 of univalves or snail-like shells being also easily wormed 

 out with a pin or crooked awl.* For works on shells see 

 " Manual of the MoUusca," by Dr. S. P. Woodward, J. Gywn- 

 Jeffreys' " British Conchology," Lovell Reeve's " British Land 

 and Freshwater Mollusks," and several clever articles in 



* Mr. K, B. Woodward, F.G.S., frc. in one of the very best and most practical of those 

 ■wonderful little penny "Handbooks" for young collectors, advises a large spoonful of 

 salt being added to the boiling water, for two reasons, one, because it puts them out of 

 pain at once, and also makes their subsequent extraction more easy. "It is a good plan 

 (says he) to soak the smaller shells in cold water [without salt), before killing them, as they 

 swell out with the water, and do not when dead retreat so far into their shells." 



