194 APPENDIX. 



will yield their quota; the garden too, the vegetable field, 

 and even the roadside puddles must not be neglected. 



One soon learns to capture with a dexterous turn of the 

 net, and no description of the method is worth anything 

 beside a very little ex23erience; when captured the net 

 should be turned to prevent escape and the butterfly 

 gently seized from outside the net, with the wings back to 

 back to prevent its struggling and so bruising itself; it 

 should then be removed to the cyanide bottle, where, 

 especially if placed in the dark pocket, it will soon be 

 motionless, and speedily dies; this is the quickest and 

 easiest mode of death, besides leaving the insect in the 

 most perfect condition. The '^cyanide bottle '' is simply 

 a phial with a mouth wide enough to readily admit the 

 largest specimens (a smaller size is better for the smaller 

 kinds), into which a little plaster of Paris has been poured 

 over a small lump of cyanide of potassium (a deadly poison, 

 be it noted) ; or, a lump of cyanide may be inclosed in a 

 piece of chamois-skin wrapped around and tied above 

 the cork, leaving the bottle clean. The cork should be re- 

 moved only when necessary and for as little time as pos- 

 sible; a season^s use will exhaust its best strength even 

 when the utmost care is taken. Some butterflies, espe- 

 cially those having yellow colors, should be left in the 

 bottle only a short time, for they are injured by too long 

 exposure to the vapors, the yellow turning reddish. When 

 removed, on reaching home, or sooner if needed, they 

 should be pinned through the thickest part of the thorax, 

 and in an hour or two, when the fixity of the wings which 

 follows their violent death has passed away, removed to the 

 setting-board. 



The best pins for butterflies are Nos. 2, 3, and 4 of 

 Klaeger's make. The setting-board needs no description 

 apart from the figure given [Fig. 9], more than to say that 

 beneath the groove a strip of cork or pith is attached to 



