Sugaring for Moths 
black and crimson. In the yellow light of the lantern the wings 
appear even more brilliant than they do in sunlight. How the 
eyes glow like spots of fire! The moth is wary. He has just 
alighted; he has not yet drunk deep. Move cautiously! Keep 
the light of the lantern steadily upon him. Uncover your 
poisoning jar. Approach. Hold the jar just a little under the 
moth, for he will drop downward on the first rush to get away. 
Clap the jar over him! There! you have doneit! You have 
him securely. He flutters for a moment, but the chloroform acts 
quickly and the flutterings cease. Put that jar into one pocket 
and take out another. Now let us go to the next tree. It is an 
old walnut. The trunk is rough, seamed, and full of knotted 
excrescences. See what a company has gathered! There are a 
dozen moths, large and small, busily at work tippling. Begin 
with those which are nearest to the ground. When I was young 
my grandfather taught me that in shooting wild turkeys resting 
in a tree, it is always best to shoot the lowest fowl first, and 
then the next. If you shoot the gobbler which perches highest, 
as he comes tumbling down through the flock, he will startle 
them all, and they will fly away together; but if you take those 
which are roosting well down among the branches, those above 
will simply raise their heads and stare about for a moment to find 
out the source of their peril, and you can bag three or four before 
the rest make up their minds to fly. 1 follow the same plan with 
my moths, unless, perchance, the topmost moth is some 
unusual rarity, worth all that suck the sweets below him. 
Bravo! You have learned the lesson well. You succeeded 
admirably in bottling those Taraches which were sucking the 
moisture at the lower edge of the sweetened patch. There 
above them is a fine specimen of Strenoloma lunilinea. Aha! 
You have him. Now take that Catocala. It is amasia, a charm¬ 
ing little species. Above him is a specimen of cara, one of the 
largest and most superb of the genus. Well done! You have 
him, too. Now wait a moment! Have your captives ceased 
their struggles in your jar? Yes; they seem to be thoroughly 
stunned. Transfer them to the other jar for the cyanide to do its 
work. Look at your lantern. Is the wick trimmed ? Come 
on then. 
Let us go to the next tree. This is an ash. The moist spot 
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