110 HINT8 TO INSECT COLLECTORS. 



denying himself every little luxury; such a course of conduct will sooner 

 or later meet its reward. The son of the poor man and the working 

 man must pursue the same course of self-denial; they should endeavour 

 to induce a few companions to club together, and purchase Ingpen's ^'In- 

 structions in collecting," and the simplest apparatus. 



A ring for a net may be formed of four feet and a half of iron wire, 

 a little thinner than a common pencil; fashion it into a hoop about thirteen 

 inches in diameter, leaving about seven inches at each end of the wire to 

 form a handle; fasten these in two grooves cut in a walking-stick, by means 

 of a stout cord wetted, and tighten the latter by a nail or peg of hard 

 wood used as a wrench, securing the whole with a string. A still cheaper 

 style may be to take a stout walking-stick, bore two holes on the same 

 plane, one foot apart, first with a small gimlet, then with a red-hot 

 skewer; put an iron wire three feet long into the fire till it is red-hot, 

 when cool it will bend nicely; pass it through the two holes in the stick, 

 and tie or weld the ends together. A rattan cane, which costs a half- 

 penny at the saddler's, if steeped in boiling water for an hour and 

 slightly thinned down, fitted to the above is better for use than to pine 

 after expensive apparatus: the stick across the ring need not be a grave 

 objection. 



There are three descriptions of net used; one of cheese cloth, fourteen 

 inches deep, for water-insects; another of the same dimensions of stout 

 unbleached cotton, for sweeping herbage; and the third a bag of white net or 

 book muslin, with meshes wide enough to admit the passage of a pin's 

 head, about twenty-seven inches deep, fashioned like a sugar-loaf, for all 

 flying insects. These nets are sewed to the ring, and their removal is a tedious 

 operation; but where expense is no object, a net- ring and handle like an 

 angler's landing net, and a series of nets provided with welts, will admit 

 of a ready substitution. Besides these nets, a pocket net may be made 

 of thin copper wire, with a bag two and a half times the diameter; with 

 such a tiny affair the writer has taken many good insects in his daily 

 walks, not forgetting the ever ready forefinger and thumb wetted for the 

 occasion if the capture is a Beetle. 



An umbrella is useful for placing below bushes and hedges, for such 

 insects as may drop down when these are beaten with a stick. For 

 Beetles, a wide-mouthed bottle, about three inches high, with a cork fas- 

 tened by a string, containing a little spirit of any sort; or else dry and 

 furnished with several small pieces of blotting paper, and a cut leaf of 

 the common laurel or some morsels of camphor; a few tin boxes or tubes 

 for the larger kinds, and a few quills stopped at one end with wax and 

 fitted with a cork, for the smaller species. Pill boxes, which can be pur- 

 chased in nests or sets from the apothecary, but cheapest in packets con- 



