8 
WARD’S NATURAL SCIENCE BULLETIN. 
HOW TO SKIN TURTLES. 
For skinning purposes, turtles may be divided 
into three groups. First, sea turtles, having a 
moderate sized lower shell, or plastron; flippere, 
and practically non -retractile neck and legs. 
Second, turtles which, like the snapping turtle, 
have a small plastron and partially retractile neck 
and legs, and lastly, those with a large under 
shield, and the power to draw the neck and legs 
under cover. This third group comprises the 
large majority of turtles and those most difficult 
to skin. To skin a turtle you must have a small 
saw of some kind. If wealthy you buy a small 
dissecting saw, which costs twice as much as it 
ought to. If poor you purchase a hack saw 
blade, break it off to the right length — about 
three inches — and fit it to a wooden handle. 
Draw the temper at one end so as to punch holes 
for the rivets. If you wish to be luxurious, add 
to your outfit a pair of bone forceps. These will 
prove a great convenience in detaching the neck 
and legs, and they are wonderfully handy in 
skinning large birds and small mammals. 
For a sea turtle, saw through the low 7 er shell 
on either side, and with a knife continue the cut 
clear around the hinder portion of it. Leave suf- 
ficient skin attached to the plastron to enable you 
to readily sew the edges of the cut together when 
the specimen is mounted. Continue the cuts 
towards the shoulder far enough to allow the 
plastron to be turned forward, thus exposing the 
interior of the body. Make a cut under each 
flipper and the last half of the tail. Disjoint 
and skin the legs, removing by the cut on the 
underside, what flesh cannot be readily reached 
from within, and working as far down towards 
the end of flipper as possible. Leav» all the leg 
bones attached to flippers. With your bone 
forceps or an old chisel, separate the hip bone, 
or pelirs, from the upper shell, and skin the tail, 
removing the bone. Sever the neck from the 
body, skin to base of skull, disjoint the neck 
bones and remove the brain. Scrape out as much 
flesh back of the eyes as you can. The eyes of 
all turtles must be removed from the outside, 
care being taken not to cut the eyelids. Care- 
fully remove the small muscle at outer hind por- 
tion of jaw: otherwise it shrinks in drying and 
forms an upsightly depression. Snapping turtles 
and others with small plastrons, are skinned in 
the same manner as sea turtles, only it is not 
positively necessary to make a cut on the under- 
side of the foot. Still this will be found to 
greatly facilitate turning the legs. Tortoises and 
other turtles whose legs are concealed beneath a 
large under shield, can not be skinned by the 
method just described, owing to the impossibility 
#f sewing up a cut along the edge of the plastron. 
For these it is necessary to saw out as large a 
section of the under shell as possible, drawing 
out the legs to their fullest extent to lessen the 
danger of cutting through the skin. Turtles of 
this last class are much the most difficult to skin, I 
but the absence of any unsightly seams after the 
animal is mounted, repays for the trouble. The 
preceding diagrams show just where the cuts 
are to be made. Poison well around the head 
and feet, and if possible let the skin soak for two 
or three days in a bath of salt and allum, the 
same as that used for mammal skins. F. A. L. 
SPECIMENS FROM JAPAN. 
We lastmonth received from Japan direct eleven 
large cases of Specimens in all departments. Of 
the splendid crystals of Stibnite (Sulphuret of 
Antimony) we have spoken elsewhere. 
The zoological series were unusually rich. 
Among, mammals were two skins and skeletons 
of Macacus speciosus, the great monkey with rudi- 
mentary tail and bare face of a bright vermilion 
color, and clothed with long, bushy hair. This 
monkey, which inhabits Dai Niplion, up to the 
41st parallel, is we believe, the most northerly 
in its range of any member of the order of Quad- 
rumana. It presents to the traveler the strange 
spectacle of a monkey dwelling out doors through 
a cold winter, and plunging through snow drifts 
in search of its food. It is allied to the Barbary 
Ape. Then came skin and skeleton of Nemerhodes 
crispa, the rare Goat- Antelope of Japan, and Sus 
leucomystax, the Japanese Wild Boar. Another 
strange form was Nyctereutes procyonoides, or 
Raccoon-Dog, a most peculiar animal common to 
Japan, Northern China and Amoorland, in 
which countries it is the counterpart of our 
American Raccoon. There came no less than 
eight specimens — skins and skeletons — of this 
interesting animal. There was also Ursus Japon- 
icus — skin and skeleton— a peculiar form allied 
to the Formosa and Himalaya species. Then 
there was Unhydra marina — skin and skeleton — 
from the Kurile Isle, Sea Otter, so interesting to 
systematic zoologists and so famous for its rich 
fur, — a full grown skin constantly bringing the 
enormous price of $200 to $300. 
Besides these were smaller mammals, such as 
the Yesso Hare, Fox, Weasel, Martin, Badger, 
Squirrel, Flying Squirrel and Mole. The latter — 
Talpa wogura — closely resembles the common 
mole of Europe, but has six incisors instead of 
eight in the lower jaw. Then were further (pre- 
served in alcohol) five interesting and valuable 
Foetuses from the Kurile Isles. Three of them 
were of the Fur Seal ( Gallorhinus ur sinus), the 
Sea Lion (Uumetopias Stelleri), and the Sea Otter 
(Unhydra Marina). These embryos are still within 
the chorion or uterine sac. 
Among birds was Ciconia Boyciana — the stork 
which figures so largely in the drawings and the 
art-designs of the Japanese, and is by them em- 
balmed in poetry and invested with religious rev- 
erence. It is a fine, stately bird, with elegance 
and grace. Then there was, the Uurinorhynchus 
pygmaeus a most rare and quaint little snipe — wfith 
its long, slender bill curiously terminated in a 
shovel-like expansion. There were over 200 
Pheasants of three species — Phasianus versicolor, 
P. Soemeringii and P. torquatus. In their elegant 
beauty of breast, back, side feathers and tail these 
birds vie with their near relatives — the Gold and 
the Silver Pheasant of China. 
DENTAL ABNORMALITIES. 
In a preceeding number of the Bulletin are 
recorded a number of osteological abnormalities, 
and in this I shall note a few dental peculiarities. 
These are of rarer occurrence than skeletal mal- 
formations, although this is probably partially 
owing to the fact that they might be more readily 
overlooked. The lower animals appear to be 
freer from accidents to their teeth than their 
higher relatives, and although a rodent occasion- 
ally gets into trouble through the loss of an 
incisor, it is a thing of infrequent occurrence 
considering the large number of these small ani- 
mals. Frank Buckland tells of a Rat whose 
upper incisor, from lack of a lower one to wear 
against, continued to grow until it formed a com- 
plete semicircle, pierced the skull and caused 
death. While a case so bad as this has never come 
under my notice, yet among a number of Wood- 
chuck skulls prepared a few years ago, there were 
two which were more curiously, if less fatally, 
malformed. Some wrench to the jaw had appar- 
ently caused the rami to separate at the symphysis, 
causing the lower incisors to stand out at an angle 
and not oppose the upper cutting teeth at all. 
The more singular of these skulls is here figured, 
and it will be noticed that one incisor had grown 
until it formed a complete circle. How the ani- 
mal could eat at all is somewhat of a problem, 
but it is pretty evident that he did not enjoy life 
as well as he might have done. A rare and in- 
teresting case of abnormal growth in an incisor, 
is the development of a second tusk in the Nar- 
whal. The museum of Hamburg possesses a fine 
example of this in the shape of a skull with both 
incisors equally developed, and about three and 
a half feet in length. 
The malformed jaw of a hog, mentioned in our 
last issue, is herewith figured, and it will be no- 
ticed that the most singular feature of it is the 
fact that the base of the right canine had pierced 
the wall of its alveolus, thus transferring the pulp 
cavity from a point within to a point without the 
jaw. The dentition of the Orang is very apt to 
be aberrant, by possessing an extra molar in one 
or both sides of the upper or lower jaw, usually 
the latter. 
So frequently does this occur, that about one 
case will be found in every seven or eight adult 
skulls. It has never been noticed by me in a 
young example. The last of these few cases of 
dental variation, is one where a canine and an 
incisor had changed places. The animal was an 
adult male Gorilla, and the full number of inci- 
sors was present, thus showing that the incisor 
had not been lost in youth, and the diastema 
filled by the growth of the next tooth. F. A. L. 
