HAEDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



147 



A leather-cloth edging all round is advisable, and 

 the bag should be cut long enough to prevent the 

 possibility of the contents jerking out. Another 

 very good plan for securing the frame to the ferule 

 is to have both ends of it soldered together into a 

 deep square-sided plug, fitting into a corresponding 

 hole in the ferule. The small cross-screw or pin is 

 here also to be used, but the angles of the plug 

 naturally keep a much tighter hold than the worm 

 of a screw. Such a frame as this cannot, of course, 

 be folded. 



f For water-beetles, a similar net to that last- 

 mentioned is effective, but it should be stouter and 

 with a flat front, for dredging closely against the 

 sides and bottoms of ponds. The best substance 

 for its bag is fine sampler canvass ; and a very large 

 stout bamboo cane is at once light and strong for 

 its stick. To avoid friction, the bag may be affixed 

 to small wire rings let^into holes on the lower edge 

 of the frame, or running on the frame itself. 



A sieve is one of the most remunerative imple- 

 ments, and may be procured either simple or fold- 

 ing. It consists of a stout wire- framed circle, con- 

 nected by a strong linen baud, six inches deep, 

 with the bottom of an ordinary wire sieve, the 

 meshes of which are wide enough to allow any 

 beetle to pass through. Leaves, grass, flood-refuse, 

 ants' nests' materials, cut-grass, sea-weed, haystack 

 and other debris, are roughly shaken in this over a 

 sheet of brown paper, which should invariably form 

 part of a Coleopterist's apparatus. A stout piece 

 of double water-proof material may be substituted ; 

 and, in marsh-collecting, must be used as a kneel- 

 ing-pad. 



For ordinary bark-collecting, a strong ripping- 

 chisel (of which the blade is well collared, so as not 

 to slip) is as useful a tool as can be i)rocured; but 

 for real tree-working, no ordinary portable imple- 

 ment is thoroughly effective. Light steel hammers 

 witiialever spike may delude the collector; but a 

 woodman's axe, a saw, a pickaxe or crowbar, will 

 often be found not too strong. For cutting tufts, 

 fee, a strong garden pruning-knife is good, and an 

 old fixed-handled dinner-knife (carried in a sheath) 

 better. 



For holding the results of the operation of these 

 instruments, the collector needs but one or two 

 collecting-bottles, — one rather small and circular, of 

 as clear and strong glass {not cast) as can be got, 

 with a wide mouth and flat bottom. Its neck should 

 not slope, but be of even width, or the cork will 

 often get out of itself. This cork should be a deep 

 one, and be perforated longitudinally by a stout 

 and large round quill, the bottom of which should 

 be level with the bottom of the cork, the top pro- 

 jecting some inch and a half, with the upper orifice 

 not cut off straight, but slightly sloped diagonally, 

 so as more easily to scoop up beetles from the net 

 or hand. It is closed with an accuratehj-fiUincj, soft, 



wooden plug, rather longer than the quill, reaching 

 exactly to the bottom of it, but with its top pro- 

 jecting above the top of the quill, and broader than 

 it, so as to be easily pulled out by the teeth when 

 the hands are occupied. Tlie bottle should be 

 secured by stout twine to the buttonhole, enough 

 play being left for it to reach the net in any ordinary 

 position. I usually secure the external junction of 

 quill and cork with red sealing-wax, and have more 

 than once found the bright red catch my eye when 

 I have lost my bottle. [N.B. This loss will always 

 happen to every collector ; generally after a peculiarly 

 lucky day's work : so use the string-preventive.] 

 The body of the bottle may usefully be half-covered 

 with white paper gummed on. A few stout, plain 

 glass tubes, papered in like way, and with plain 

 corks, should be carried for special captures ; and a 

 cyanide-bottle, as mentioned at p. 121,* or one con- 

 taining bruised and shredded young laurel-shoots, 

 will be found useful for safely bringing home larger 

 species, or such as would devour their fellow- 

 captives. Put in these latter, beetles almost instantly 

 die and become rigid, needing a stay of two days 

 or so to become relaxed, in which condition they 

 will then safely remain for a considerable period. 

 In the first collecting- bottle a piece of muslin should 

 be put, to give the contents foothold : these are 

 brought home alive, and killed by bodily immersion 

 in boiling water, after which they are placed on 

 blotting-paper to drain off superfluous moisture. 



Good things should always, when practicable, be 

 set out at once, as the pubescence is apt to get 

 matted if they are consigned for too long a period 

 to the laurel- or cyanide-bottle ; but such as remain 

 unmounted can be put in a little muslin bag, and 

 deposited in laurel until a more convenient oppor- 

 tunity. Beetles also, when taken in large numbers 

 durinj an expedition into a productive locality, ma.y 

 be collected indiscriminately into a bottle containing 

 sawdust (sifted to get rid both of large pieces and 

 actual dust), and a small piece of cyanide of potas- 

 sium. Each night, on reaching home, these will be 

 found to be dead, and they can then be transferred 

 to a larger bottle or air-tight tin can, partially filled 

 with the same materials and a little carbolic acid to 

 check undue moisture. Filled up with sawdust, 

 this will travel in safety for any distance, and almost 

 any time. 



Species of moderate size, say up to that of an 

 ordinary Harpalus, are in this country usually 

 mounted on card. Much is to be said both for and 

 against tuis ijractice ; it enables the proportions 

 and formation of limbs to be well appreciated, and 

 it preserves the specimens securely"; but there can 

 be no doubt that it prevents an inspection of the 



* " Killing-bottles," containing a layer of cyanide of 

 potassium and gypsum, may be bought at most natural- 

 history apparatus dealers, and are useful as relaxing depots. 



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