When the specimens are thoroughly cleaned, the next process is to sort
out the different kinds, placing each description in a different tray,
and then to get them ready for mounting, for no collection will look
well unless each kind is so arranged that it may be seen to the best
advantage, and is also carefully named. Where you have a good number,
pick out first the largest specimens of their kind, then the smallest,
then a series, as you have room for them, of the most perfect; and
finally those which show any peculiarity of structure or marking. Try,
too, to get young forms as well as adult, for the young are often very
different in appearance from the full-grown shell. Mark on them,
especially on such as you have found yourself, the locality they came
from, as it is very important to the shell collector to know this,
since specimens common enough in one district are often rare in
another. Either write the name of the place in ink on a corner of the
shell itself, or gum a small label just inside it, or simply number
it, and write the name of the place with a corresponding number
against it in a book kept for the purpose. Next select a tray large
enough to hold all you have of this kind; place a piece of cotton wool
at the bottom, and lay your shells upon it. For small shells, however,
this method is not suitable, as the cotton wool acts on them like a
spring mattress, and they are liable on the least shock to be jerked
out of their trays and lost. This difficulty may be met by cutting a
piece of cardboard so that it just fits into your tray, and then
gumming the shells on to it in rows; but remember that, in this plan
of mounting, it is impossible to take the shells up and examine them
on all sides as you do the loose ones, and so you must mount a good
many, and place them in many different positions, so that they may be
seen from as many points of view as possible. The gum used should
always have nearly one-sixth of its bulk of pure glycerine added to
it; this prevents it from becoming brittle when dry, otherwise your
specimens would be liable after a time to break away from the card and
get lost. If the shells will not stay in the position you require,
wedge them up with little pieces of cork until the gum is dry.
When the shells are mounted, you must try, if you have not already
done so, to get the proper names for them; it is as important to be
able to call shells by their right names as it is to know people by
theirs. The commoner sorts you will be able to name from the figures
of them given in text-books, such as those quoted in the list at the
end of this little work; but some you will find it very difficult to
name, and it will then be necessary to ask friends who have
collections to help you, or to take them to some museum and compare
them with the named specimens there exhibited. When the right name is
discovered, your label must then be written in a very small, neat
hand, and gummed to the edge of the tray or on the card if your
specimens are mounted. At the top you put the Latin name, ruling a
line underneath it, and then, if you like, add the English name; next,
put the name of the place and the date at which it was found, thus:--
=====================================
Helix aspersa (Common snail),
-----------------------------
Lane near Hampstead Heath,
July 10th, 1882.
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A double red ink line ruled at the top and bottom will add a finished
appearance to it.