662 MANUAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



holes and tubes they form ; the shells must be care- 

 fully broken out, and, when a tube is attached, it 

 must also be preserved with a portion of the 

 rock. 



Most Mollusca are killed by plunging them into 

 hot water ; when, however, they are very delicate, 

 the water should be added gradually. The animal, 

 when dead, is removed with a pin or piece of crooked 

 wire, or, if a bivalve, with the point of a knifa 

 The operculum, when present, must be carefully 

 wrapped up in paper and placed in the mouth of 

 the shell ; the bivalves must be tied together with 

 string or thread. The marine shells may be soaked 

 in water before being put away, to extract the salt, 

 but no cleaning process, or oiling of the specimens, 

 should ever be attempted. 



Shells are best packed in shallow boxes of mode- 

 rate size, so as to contain but a single layer, these 

 shallow boxes may then be packed in bulk with 

 saw-dust or shavings between them. In packing 

 the boxes, cotton must be placed between the spe- 

 cimens, and very fragile individuals must be placed 

 separately in pill-boxes, and the pill-boxes stowed 

 in the shallow boxes. When the animal is removed 

 from a large shell, it is sufficiently valuable for pre- 

 servation. If for anatomical purposes, it should be 

 placed in spirits, to which a little ammonia has 

 been added, to keep it soft ; if for zoological obser- 

 vation, simple alcohol will answer the purpose. 



