PRESERVING INSECTS. 239 



when it is closed. A similar box with a wooden rabbet is 

 used at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge; 

 but it cannot possibly be so tight, and requires hooks on 

 the sides to keep the cover down; it has the advantages of 

 greater cheapness, as it can be made of soft wood, but is at 

 the same time clumsier. My own drawers are made of 

 cherry sides, and have also a false front attached to them, 

 furnished with mouldings and handles so as to present a not 

 inelegant appearance; and, exclusive of the cork with wuich 

 they are lined, cost $2.65 each; they measure inside 18f 

 inches long, 14 inches wide, and If inches deep, not includ- 

 ing the cork lining." 



In the drawers in use by the U. S. Entomologist at the 

 Department of Agriculture there are on the sides within, 

 deep grooves kept constantly filled with naphthaline. 



For constant use, boxes made of thin, well-seasoned wood,* 

 with tight-fitting covers, are indispensable. For Coleop- 

 tera, Dr. LeConte recommends that they be twelve by nine 

 inches (inside measurement). For the larger Lepidoptera 

 a little larger box is preferable. Others prefer boxes made 

 in the form of books, which may be put away like books on 

 the shelves of the cabinet, though the cover of the box is 

 apt to be in the way. 



The boxes and drawers should be lined with cork cut 

 into thin slips for soles; such slips come from the cork- 

 cutter about twelve by four inches square and an eighth of 

 an inch thick. 



Other substitutes are the pith of various plants, especially 

 of corn; "pita" and palm wood; and " inodorous felt " is 

 used, being cut to fit the bottom of the box. 



LeConte recommends that, "for the purpose of distinguish- 

 ing specimens from different regions, little disks of variously- 

 colored paper be used; they are easily made by a small 



* Bass-wood, or that of the poplar, tulip-tree, or even mahogany, is 

 better than pine, as the resin in the latter sends off exhalations which 

 eventually combine with the fat of the specimens enclosed in the bos 

 and render them greasy (Psyche, i. 64). 



