REPTILES. 
65 
in Massachusetts may be handled with impunity, with the 
exception of two species, which are very rare. I refer 
to the Copperhead and Eattlesnake. The prettily marked 
Milk Snake, or Checkered Adder, and the imaginary ter- 
rible Water Snake, are quite harmless, although we are 
everywhere informed by those who are ignorant upon this 
subject that they are exceedingly venomous. So long as 
people are erroneously educated in this belief, so long will 
the poor snakes suffer unjustly. Snakes, with but few 
exceptions, are neutral regarding the interest of man. 
The best method of preserving snakes is to put them 
into alcohol moderately strong, as otherwise the scales start 
easily. Snakes may be benumbed by thrusting a pin into 
their brains; in this way they may be carried from place to 
place more readily than if they were uninjured. 
Snakes may be skinned after making a longitudinal in- 
cision, about two inches long, in the largest part of the 
body, on the belly; then by drawing back the skin, the 
body may be divided, and the parts drawn out each way. 
The head should not be skinned. The eyes are removed, 
as in the fishes, from the outside. The skin is now cov- 
ered with arsenic and turned back. It is then filled with 
bran to the natural size. It may, after sewing up the 
incision, be placed in any position desired. Artificial eyes 
are fixed in the head. 
If the head is to be raised, run a sharpened wire 
through the top of it, and through that section of the 
neck and body that is to be elevated, through the skin into 
a board, cut off the protruding end, and close the skin of 
the head over it. After the skin becomes dry, the wire 
can be taken out of the board, and cut off close to the body. 
Turtles may be preserved in alcohol, or they may be 
skinned and mounted thus : With a small steel saw cut 
out a square section on the under shell ; remove this and 
draw the intestines, bones, and flesh of the legs, etc., out 
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