8 DAY BUTTERFLIES. 



THE MODUS OPERANDI OF USING THESE IMPLEMENTS. 



In catching butterflies the net can be put over them whilst sitting on 

 flowers, bushes, &c., or with practice they can be secured whilst flying, by 

 sweeping the net towards them and the moment they are in it giving it a 

 quick turn that the upper end of the net which encloses the butterfly will 

 hang over the rim, thereby preventing its escape before you have an opportunity 

 to secure it. If the net is put over the butterfly whilst at rest it is well to 

 bear in mind that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the butterfly always 

 flies upwards, so that by taking the end of the net in the fingers and stretch- 

 ing it upwards, the insect instead of creeping or flying out below as it might 

 do if it had decent instinct, will fly upwards to the end or point of the net 

 where it will get imprisoned past all hope. 



When they are in the net you can easily kill them by pressing the thorax 

 between the thumb and index finger, (see fig. XIV, plate I,) the wings being 

 always folded back ; do this whilst they are in the net; in so doing the gauze 

 of the net will be between your fingers and the butterfly, but that makes no 

 difference; do not attempt, to put your hand inside of the net and commence 

 a chase of the captive which will end either in i(s escape, or what is equally 

 as bad, in its tearing and ruining its beautiful wings; even in securing them 

 through the net, in the manner I recommend, it requires some care and dex- 

 terity to do so without mutilating or rubbing off the scales which constitute 

 the beauty of their colouring, but with a little practice it is easily done, for 

 after all experience is the best of all teachers, though withal at times a little 

 expensive. 



The large butterflies, such as the swallow-tails, (Papilio), mother-of-pearls, 

 (Argynnis), &c., &u. ; are easily killed, when in the net, with but little danger 

 of damaging them ; but there is a class of most interesting little fellows yclept 

 Skippers, (Hesperidae), so called from their jerking, short flight, which when 

 they get into the net keep up a most intolerable nuisance, not content to sub- 

 mit quietly to their fate, and with no appreciation of the fact that they are to 

 serve the great ends of science, they do all to defeat those ends and exasperate 

 the collector by flying and buzzing to a maddening extent; but, as says the 

 German proverb, " there are more chains than bad dogs," the way to manage 

 the little fellows is, the moment they are in the net, to hold it at both ends 

 and stretch it across the knee so that the butterfly is gently pressed between the 

 folds, then you can finish his existence by pressing the side of the thorax 

 uppermost, the other side being against your leg or knee, with your thumb 

 nail; or what is a still better plan is to have with you a small glass jar as 

 wide, or nearly so, at mouth as at bottom ; it should be about 6 inches high 

 and o in diameter (see fig. XIII, plate I,) which is a size convenient to carry 

 in a lunch-coat pocket ; this jar should have a tin cover or top to it, and in the 

 bottom you should have a lump of raw cotton saturated with chloroform ; 

 when you have the small butterfly (Hesperia) in the net, grasp the folds 

 in which he is enclosed in a lump in your hand, and hold them over, or if 

 possible push them into the mouth of the jar; the odor of the chloroform will 

 produce a state of repose in the unruly butterfly in which condition you can 

 take him out of the net and kill by pressure, but I would advise you not to 

 delay the killing too long, for it takes but a comparative'}- short time for them 

 to recover from the effects of the drug more tenacious are they of their 

 worthless lives than are we greater human things. 



