PACKING AND TRANSPORTATION. 23 



Do not give merely the man's name and town and imagine because he is a 

 valued friend of yours, and known to naturalists, that he is by any means as 

 equally well known to the Post-Office carriers, who have enough to do with- 

 out doing hours of work that you might perhaps save them by a scratch of 

 the pen. I always direct all letters in full, and of the thousands I have 

 written, I can. recollect of but four failing to reach the parties addressed, and 

 in the case of two of these it was owing to the parties having removed to 

 parts unknown ; bear these few hints well in mind, and you will save the 

 Post-Office officials, your correspondents, and yourself much trouble and dis- 

 appointment, and perhaps in some cases loss to yourself. 



The packing of moths must be managed differently, for to fold their wings 

 back like the day butterflies is unnatural and compresses the back of the 

 thorax destroying much of the beauty; they should be put on pins; where 

 it is absolutely necessary three or so may be put on one pin, leaving a little 

 space between each; but I would advise this only where it is necessary to 

 make the package containing them as small as possible ; it is infinitely bet- 

 ter to put but one on each pin ; these can be pinned tightly into a flat segar- 

 box, lined with cork at the bottom ; force the pins in with the forceps, force 

 them through the cork into the wood of the box even, if you choose, for if 

 only one gets loose during transportation it will ruin probably the contents 

 of the whole box ; before putting them in see that the abdomens are all tight ; 

 if one be loose put a little dissolved Gum Tragacauth on below where it is 

 joined to the thorax, this you do of course with a small camels-hair pencil 

 or toy paint brush. With the larger moths and Sphingida? it is necessary to 

 secure the abdomen by a little raw cotton drawn over it and secured by pins 

 forced into the bottom of the box, so if the abdomen should get loose from 

 the thorax it cannot move from its position or do harm ; I will allude further 

 to this in my remarks on packing expanded and prepared specimens to send 

 to foreign parts; when the specimens are all tightly pinned in the box, 

 paste it shut. But in this case, where your examples are on pins, you must put 

 your segar-box, containing them, into another larger box of light wood or 

 stout pasteboard, and have the space between the two filled with raw cotton, fine 

 marsh hay, tow or kindred soft material ; if you neglect this, your correspond- 

 ent will have the mortification of receiving the examples without their 

 antenme or abdomens, as it is the soft packing, between the inner and outer 

 boxes, that acts like a spring and breaks the jarring that, of course, anything 

 is subject to during transportation by railway or coach ; the space between 

 the box containing the Lspidoptera and the outer box should not be less than 

 one inch. When all is packed, direct it, ask your Postmaster the amount of 

 stamps requisite, see that he carefully weighs it, see that you rub the stamps 

 tightly on with your thumb nail don't just wet one corner and give them a 

 dab with the end of your finger and let them go these are trifles, you will 

 say, but attention to them may save, perhaps, much time and vexation. 



