COMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS OF INDIA. I'J 



paper, not too thick nor yet too thin, fold it diagonally and 

 symmetrically across, so that an equal single margin remains on each 

 side, turn one of these margins over so as to make a triangular bag, 

 drop the insect in head first, its body along the longest side, then 

 close the open end of the bag by turning over the other margin also. 

 Hundreds of these bags, each containing a butterfly, can be packed 

 :i\vay in an empty cigarette tin without the smallest risk of damage, 

 many may be stuck into the leather band inside a hat or even be put 

 between the leaves of a pocket-book. 



The easiest and most satisfactory way of manufacturing a killing- 

 bottle is the following : Take a french prune bottle (or any other 

 which IS the same width all the way up), place some lumps of potassium 

 cyanide (prussic acid) in the bottom, cover it over completely with 

 a layer of cotton wool and put a circle of thickish cardboard paper 

 over the whole of a size to fit the bottle firmly when pressed into 

 j)lace on top of the wool. Such a bottle is easily made and remade 

 and sweats much less than the more expensive and troublesome plas- 

 ter of Paris one. When the cardboard becomes too damp it can be 

 replaced at once. It will become damp in time as the cyanide is some- 

 what deliquescent, absorbing moisture readily from the atmosphere, 

 for which reason the bottle should not be left open ; if it is, the 

 fumes will also escape and the bottle become useless for the required 

 purpose. An insect becomes very stiflf if left for more than a few 

 minutes in the bottle after it is dead but again becomes soft after 8 or 

 10 hours. '* Skippers " are extremely difficult to set without damage 

 if not quite soft. A slight pinching will often soften an apparentlv 

 rigid insect so as to render it setable. Some collectors will probably 

 prefer taking a killiag-bottle with them in their rambles so as to be 

 able to kill the captures without handling them and thus damaging 

 them to some degree as killing by thorax-pressure is of course 

 always liable to do. Such individuals will probably find it useful to 

 have, in addition to the large bottle, several small tube killing-bottles 

 to accommodate small " blues," and '* skippers " as these will die more 

 readily in a confined space and the smaller bottle is so much easier 

 to handle. Tubes of 21mm. opening and about GO mm. in length have 

 been found the most convenient : they will fit into the ordinary 

 cartridge pockets of a shikar coat. Such small killing bottles may be 



