HEARING INSECTS. 261 



purposes card-board boxes answer sufficiently well. It is a good plan 

 at the beginning of a season to strengthen all your boxes by a crossed 

 strap of tape or calico firmly glued at the top and bottom. For a 

 killing-box any tin box or canister, with a closely-fitting lid, capable 

 of containing one hundred pill-boxes will be found to answer. 



" Setting-boards can be bought ready-made of the smallest sizes. 

 They are made by gluing a strip of thick cork on a thin slip of deal ; 

 the cork must be thick enough to enable a groove to be cut into it, 

 deep enough to hold the bodies of the insects to be set, and to leave 

 sufficient depth for the pin to hold firmly without reaching the deal. 

 The cork on each side of the groove should be smoothed off with a 

 gentle curve, so that the wings dry in a good position. The deal 

 backing projects beyond the cork so as to slide into a groove if re- 

 quired, and it is convenient to have a deal cupboard of drying-boxes 

 with handle at top and perforated zinc door, having grooves on each 

 side into which the setting-boards can be slid. Each board should 

 be papered with thin white paper. 



" At the beginning of a season setting-boards may be washed or 

 brushed over with advantage with a weak solution of oxide of zinc ; 

 it fills up old pinholes and makes them look clean. 



" Always set your insects as soon as you kill them; they are then 

 much more easy to set, and retain their position better when dry. 



"When pill-boxes are filled, keep them cool to prevent the insects 

 from fluttering ; if glass boxes, keep them also in the dark. 



" Many species when first taken will flutter in the boxes and injure 

 themselves ; for these it is well when collecting to carry a small phial 

 of chloroform and a zinc collecting-box, cork-lined, into which you 

 can at once pin your captures ; the cork should be damped to keep 

 them fresh. Touching a pill-box with a finger moistened with chloro- 

 form will kill the insect inside. Too much chloroform is apt to stiffen 

 the nerves of the wings and interfere with setting. 



" By breeding Micro-lepidoptera, many species not otherwise easily 

 obtainable may be added to a collection, and the habits of others in 

 the larva state may be studied with much interest. For this purpose 

 a few wide-mouthed glass bottles should be obtained with corks to 

 fit, so that the small larvae can be placed in them with fresh food and 

 the food kept fresh by exclusion of air. If mould should appear, the 

 cork can be replaced by muslin or a net tied over. I would hardly ad- 

 vise a travelling collector to attempt this method, although I have 

 adopted it with some success; but in a stationary camp it is most inter- 

 esting and comparatively easy. 



" Cork-lined store-boxes are of course required into which to re- 

 move the insects when sufficiently dried on the setting-boards. These, 

 as well as the pins and setting-boards with drying case to hold them, 



