64 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [April, 



ment. In places where you cannot get your collecting-bottle you 

 can readily take them by this means. Do not take a net for any 

 moth, it spoils all the beauty. Your next and last article is a 

 sapling about four or five feet long, which you can cut in the 

 wood from a bough of a tree or undergrowth; trim it clear of 

 leaves and switches; this is for rubbing or beating the trees to 

 disturb any you have overlooked. 



Place your collecting-bottle in your right hand coat pocket, the 

 gig over your ear as a clerk would a pen, the sapling in your 

 right hand, and start through the wood. First we come to some 

 undergrowth or brushy beech tree, rattle among the leaves with 

 your rod and watch results; should you disturb any watch where 

 they alight and go for them, if not move on and try again. We 

 now come to a large tree, examine carefully the bark as far as the 

 eye can reach to the ground, note the layers and fissures of the 

 bark; should you see any V-shaped marking or inverted /\ ex- 

 amine closely, the chances are a Catocala; use your bottle or 

 stabber; after taking off all you see, or if none, then take the rod 

 and go around the tree rubbing it up and down the bark, or beat 

 it a few sharp raps; if any they will fly to a near by tree, watch 

 and go for them, step lightly, move cautiously, steady your hand, 

 you have it. The best time to hunt for them is on a close, hot 

 afternoon b'etween two and five o'clock, more particularly if there 

 has been three or more successive hot days. Yet you can find 

 some at any time of day, I have taken some as early as five 

 o'clock A.M., and all along until sun down, but as the day grows 

 on towards night, the wood becoming dusk, they are prepared 

 for flight and on the alert, and it becomes hard to follow their 

 flight. It is almost useless to go hunting for Catocalae after a 

 heavy rain or a thunder gust; you may capture a few, but nearly 

 all are battered and torn. I was never successful in this locality 

 by baiting, sugaring or night hunting, having tried several for- 

 mulae, perhaps, however, it was because I could not give it the 

 time for a successful issue. My esteemed friend, Dr. James S. 

 Baily (now deceased), was exceedingly fortunate at baiting, near 

 Albany, N. Y., capturing hundreds of fine specimens. The bait 

 he used was composed of sour beer, molasses and brown sugar; 

 he would paint the trees with this mixture during the afternoon 

 and make the captures between 8 o'clock and midnight; some- 

 times it would be nearly a week before they would take to the bait. 



