15 
With regard to the sharks and skates, it will be best to take the 
jaws and vertebral column as well as their skins. But, as it very 
often happens that bodies in a state of decomposition are met with 
upon the beaches or shores, it should then never be neglected to take 
these hard parts. The tail of skates is also desirable. If convenient, 
some vertebrae and teeth may be preserved in spirits for microscopic 
examination. 
Keptiles, as already observed (p. 9), should be preserved in liquids 
when their size does not forbid this mode of preservation. Persons 
at leisure may find pleasure in preparing the skins of many small 
kinds as a double series. 
A collection of birds in alcohol or spirit would be a valuable acqui- 
sition to a public collection, as much is still to be learned with regard 
to their anatomical structure. There are no birds, with the exception 
of the large ostriches, which could not be collected for that purpose. 
This is a matter to which the collector should be especially attentive. 
Skins, however, of the first few individuals of rare species should be 
secured. And on a march it will not often be convenient to preserve 
specimens in spirit, as the space allotted for collections in alcohol is 
generally required for reptiles, fishes, small mammalia, and inverte- 
brata. 
3. INVERTEBRATA. 
Insects, Bugs, &c. — The harder kinds may be put in liquor, as 
above, but the vessel or bottles should not be very large. Butter- 
flies, wasps, flies, &c, may be pinned in boxes, or packed in layers 
with soft paper or cotton. Minute kinds should be carefully sought 
under stones, bark, dung, or flowers, or swept with a small net from 
grass or leaves. They may be put in quills, or small cones of paper, 
one in each. They may be killed by immersing the bottles, &c, in 
which they are collected, in hot water, or exposing them to the vapor 
of ether. 
It will frequently be found convenient to preserve or transport 
insects pinned down in boxes. The bottoms of these are best lined 
with cork or soft wood. The accompanying figures will explain, 
better than any description, the particular part of different kinds of 
insects through which the pin is to be thrust: beetles (Fig- 1) being 
pinned through the right wing cover or elytra; all others through the 
middle of the thorax, as in Fig. 2. 
