THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 13 



Have not less than four wide-mouthed bottles, two of them of suffi- 

 cient size to be placed over any Catocala without rubbing him. Have 

 each of these last provided with a large, well-fitting cork, to the bottom 

 of which firmly tack a small piece of sponge. This sponge is to be 

 moderately supplied with chloroform. The other bottles are to be filled 

 for one-fourth of their depth with small fragments of Cyanide of Potas- 

 sium, thoroughly covered with plaster of Paris in the usual way. 



A hunting-coat which is provided with numerous pockets will be found 

 a great convenience, the chloroform bottles occupying the side pockets, 

 and the Cyanide bottles the hip pockets. For the completest success a 

 dark lantern is almost indispensable. This should depend from a strap 

 passed around the waist, so that both hands may be left free for purposes 

 of manipulation. The moths are with no difficulty covered by the chloro- 

 form bottle, the effect of the chloroform being almost immediately 

 apparent. Then the moths thus temporarily anaesthetized are transferred 

 to the Cyanide bottles, whose contents complete the work so well begun. 

 The two Cyanide bottles are a great convenience in keeping apart the 

 large and the small specimens, and these being kept constantly in an 

 upright position, the danger of injury from rubbing is reduced nearly to 

 a minimum. The two chloroform bottles are to be used alternately as 

 occasion seems to require. 



The collector will soon find that while many of the moths will bear a 

 brilliant light, many others will start as soon as light enough is thrown 

 upon them to make them fairly visible. Pie must therefore be exceed- 

 ingly wary of starting these timid ones, even though his present quest be 

 among those which bear the greater amount of light, for oftentimes the 

 fluttering of two or three will start from the tree nearly every individual, 

 and hundreds will be in the air on the shortest notice. I have never 

 succeeded with ale, stale beer or rum, in so intoxicating any species of 

 Catocala that it would bear light or noise without indicating dissatisfac- 

 tion. This leads me to remark that one will invariably meet with the best 

 success when he works alone. Conversation will surely start the moths 

 from any enticements of sugar that can be devised. I have even been 

 much annoyed by a cat which would persistently precede me from tree to 

 tree, and in her anxiety to get food (for she devoured the moths greedily), 

 would thus startle the very ones which I was particularly anxious to cap- 

 ture. On one occasion a chipmunk visited one of my trees and kept it 

 completely cleared of the bait with which I had supplied it, becoming at 



