HINTS TO INSECT COLLECTORS. 131 



To relax specimens that have become stiff, before setting, place them 

 on damp sand, or on a bag containing fifty young and juicy leaves of 

 the common laurel, bruised by a mallet, in a covered vessel. A greasy 

 specimen should be immersed in spirit of turpentine, and placed on a bed 

 of calcined magnesia to dry: a piece of sponge dipped in spirit of turpentine 

 helps to exclude mites. Specimens attacked by these pests should be 

 baked in an oven, or anointed with a drop of this mixture: — Equal 

 parts of alcohol, oil of anise, and oil of thyme. A muslin or gauze cover 

 sewed to a light framework of wire will keep off dust whilst the specimens 

 are drying, and at the end of- a week or so, they will be fit for the 

 store-box. The toy-shop, the grocer, the fruiterer, and the milliner can 

 supply many little boxes, which, when lined entirely with cork, or even 

 strips or little points of cork will answer every useful purpose. 



The width of the columns into which the store-boxes are divided, is 

 regulated first by the width of the labels, which must always be written 

 or printed in a distinct manner on a slip of paper an inch and a quarter 

 by half an inch; and secondly by the relative size of the specimens, and 

 according to these rules: — Large beetles and crickets in pairs side by side; 

 bees, flies, and dragon-flies, singly, placing the males first. Of butterflies, 

 two specimens of each, male and female, one of each set in the natural 

 way and the other displaying the under side of the wings. Two or more 

 specimens of other insects that are less than the breadth of the labels arc 

 placed side by side in the columns. Measure the width of the labels or 

 of the specimens when large, set off these points from left tO right of the 

 store-box in two lines, one parallel with the hinge and the other with the 

 front, and rule with a pencil. 



I would earnestly advise all students to number and register all their 

 specimens after the following method: — Rule a sheet of paper into little 

 squares of a quarter of an inch each, in the upper part of each square 

 write the number from 1 up to thousands, and in the lower part 56 — the 

 year of capture: a new series should be commenced in 1857. He should 

 also get a penny pass book, such as tradesmen use; on the left-hand side 

 of the right-hand page rule three columns; write the year above these 

 columns, in the first column write the number of the specimen, in the 

 second the number of the month, and in the third the number of the day 

 of the month; the rest of the line is left blank for the name when ascer- 

 tained; on the next line below write the locality thus: — 



In another note-book under date of April 10th., the following entry may 



