116 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



satisfactory. Scrape a few grains of cyanide into the cavity in the cork 

 and then insert a small wad of damp cotton wool or sponge. The fumes 

 will be readily given off, and it is only necessary to occasionally renew the 

 cyanide. As Dr. Williston suggests, it is well to have several bottles, but 

 it is sometimes impossible for the collector to take more than the minimum 

 amount of apparatus, and he will then limit himself to two, reserving one 

 of them for delicate or small insects. Bees should never be placed in a 

 bottle with previous captures, as honey is often disgorged, and the speci- 

 mens greatly injured by the matting of pubescence and soiling of the 

 wings ; the pollen which the bees so generally carry is almost as bad in 

 its effects. The safest and most desirable plan is for the collector to 

 carry a supply of small pasteboard pill boxes, and transfer his specimens 

 frequently to these, putting only one specimen of such insects as Bombus 

 in a box. These boxes can be obtained of very small sizes, permitting a 

 sufficient number to be packed in a small space. Their use ensures per- 

 fect specimens and enables the collector to keep a better record of them 

 by numbering the boxes, and in his field note-book entering full particulars 

 of the contents of each. When possible, it is better to pin the insects 

 before they stiffen, but if time or circumstances do not permit of this, they 

 will keep safely in the boxes, and may be at any time easily relaxed in a 

 damp atmosphere, care being taken not to allow them to become wet. In 

 pinning it is not at all necessary to set the wings and feet symmetrically, 

 unless one has plenty of time and desires pretty specimens. The wings, 

 however, should be separated, so as to admit of a full examination of the 

 venation both of the anterior and posterior ones, and of the metathorax 

 and the basal segments of the abdomen. 



BOOK NOTICES. 



It is a cheering sign of the zeal and energy and ability that are being 

 brought to bear upon Entomology that there should be so rapid an increase 

 in the literature of this department of Natural Science. Though several 

 works of importance have been recently noticed in these pages, there are 

 still many others which we desire to acknowledge, and to bring before the 

 notice of our readers. This, however, we can do but briefly, as so much 

 space has of late been given up to literary notices. 



