THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 16 



leather or linen may be tied over the cork. It must be remembered that 

 the active principle of cyanide of potassium being prussic acid it is 

 intensely poisonous— any left on hand after the bottle is made should be 

 at once destroyed. 



Insects put in this bottle will be killed in a few seconds by the poison- 

 ous fumes given off by the cyanide of potassium ; they should then be 

 taken out and packed away whilst soft and pliable. After a few days 

 they become dry and are very easily broken. If there are only one or 

 two specimens these may be wrapped in soft paper or cotton wool, and 

 put away in a suitable box. If the collector, however, is likely to get 

 several specimens, it will be well to prepare a box or bottle on purpose. 

 Beetles or bugs may be preserved for a long time in clean saw-dust 

 dampened with alcohol ; grasshoppers, ants, wasps, bees, flies, etc., 

 although they are far better preserved by being pinned at once after 

 killing, may be packed away like beetles and bugs in tubes of paper. 

 These are made by winding two or three thicknesses of a strip of paper 

 i^ inches wide around a lead pencil, leaving about one-quarter inch 

 over the end, which is turned in and pressed flat before taking the case 

 off the pencil. Into this short, hollow tube drop the specimens and turn 

 in the other end with the tip of a pencil, or fill up the mouth with a plug 

 of cotton wool. Several specimens, according to their size, may be 

 placed in each tube, and the date and locality having been written on the 

 outside they are ready to be packed away in a dry place. Being slightly 

 elastic and very light they pack closely, and a large number can be sent 

 by mail at the same time. 



Moths, butterflies and dragon-flies may be killed in the ordinary 

 " cyanide bottle," and then placed in three-cornered envelopes made by 

 taking small squares of paper and folding them across, almost in the 

 middle, so as to make a triangular form with one flap a little smaller than 

 the other, when the insect is placed between the two flaps, the two edges 

 of the larger one are folded over the lesser, and the specimen is then 

 ready to have the date and locality written on it and to be packed away 

 where it will not be disturbed. 



Relaxing. — The easiest way to soften insects is simply to place them 

 in a covered jar upon damp sand for from 12 to 24 hours. A few drops 

 of camphorated spirits dropped on the sand will prevent mould from 

 forming on the specimens. Pinned specimens can be either placed in the 

 §and jar or pinned upon a piece of cork and floated on water in a closed 



