COLLECTING IMAGOES. 



sion into the thorax of the insect with the point of a crow-quill 

 pen dipped into the solution, is not to be highly commended, 

 as the acid changes the color of the specimen, and, after it has 

 been pinned, corrodes the pin. Likewise when specimens have 

 been kept too long 1 in a jar charged, with ammonia, and are 

 pinned immediately after they have been taken out, the pins 

 are liable to be corroded and eaten through. 



The collector having provided himself with nets and killing- 

 jars, will not be thoroughly equipped for field work until he 

 have added to his outfit the necessary conveniences for carrying 

 his captures with him uninjured. The writer, after long experi- 

 ence as a collector in many lands, is inclined to think that the 

 best appliance is a tin box lined with cork, and provided with a 

 compartment in which a cyanide cake* may be placed before 

 going to the field, and in which, after the return, when the cya- 

 nide cake has been withdrawn, a sponge may be put, which 

 should be saturated with a weak solution of carbolic acid for 

 the double purpose of keeping the specimens from drying out 

 too rapidly and from moulding. The box should not be more 

 than 10 x 8 x 3i inches inside measurement, and should lie 

 divided into two equal parts, hinged at the side which is car- 

 ried uppermost, and hung over the shoulder by a strap. A 

 pincushion filled with pins may be attached to the belt. A 

 belt arranged like a cartridge-belt, with pockets to carry pill- 

 boxes about one and one-half inch square and three-quarters 

 of an inch deep should also be provided. These boxes should 

 have glass bottoms. They are to be used in "boxing" the 

 smaller lepidoptera and other delicate insects which, if killed 

 and pinned on the field, would be too dry upon return from 

 the chase to make good cabinet specimens. Boxed specimens 

 may be kept for a day or two, and killed and mounted at leis 

 ure. A bag containing 1 several small boxes may also be c;ir 

 ried. These boxes should have in them a supply of paper en- 

 velopes, for papering specimens in the way hereafter to be 

 described. A loose sack-coat, with an abundance of capacious 

 pockets inside and out, is indispensable. A small poisoninir 

 jar for beetles should be carried in the right hand pocket of the 



* The cyanide cake is made by pouring plaster of Paris into a mould of proper size 

 and imbedding in it before setting a number of lumps of cyanide of putash. 



