CATCHING BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 98 



ficient ' sugar ' for your night's work, mix it well with sufficient 

 strong rum to give it a very decided odom-, and start oti' at dusk 

 with this and the other requisites just mentioned. 



The night chosen should be warm and calm, with a rather damp 

 atmosphere, and no moon preferred. Let your locality be a well- 

 wooded one ; abounding, if possible, with giant oaks and other trees, 

 and containing open spaces with plenty of underwood and rank 

 herbage. Such localities are to be met with at their best in forest 

 lands, and if you would do wonders at sugaring you cannot do better 

 than arrange for spending your holidays in such a spot as the New 

 Forest, taking with you sufficient ' sugar ' for several nights' work. 



Having reached a likely spot of no very great extent, you pre- 

 pare for real work. Light up the lamp, and get out your sugaring 

 tin and brush ready for action. Take your course along some 

 definite track that you are sure to remember, painting vertical strips 

 of sugar, about a foot long, on the trunks of trees or on palings, 

 and hanging strips of rag that have just been steeped in the sugar 

 on the branches of small trees and shrubs where you do not find 

 good siu-faces for the brush. 



After satisfying yom'self concerning the amount of sugar dis- 

 tributed, retrace your steps, examining every patch of sugar as you 

 go. It will not be long before signs of life appear. Earwigs, spiders, 

 centipedes and slugs will soon search out the luscious feast, but 

 imless the time and the locality are ill chosen, the lantern will soon 

 reveal a goodly number of moths, with eyes glaring like little balls 

 of fire, greedily devouring the bounteous re2:)ast. These will consist 

 chiefly of Noctuce, but S^iliiiigrs, Geometra', and numerous small 

 species also join the company. 



Some will exhibit a restless disposition, either darting off before 

 you make a close approach, or keeping their wings in rapid vibration 

 as if to be fully prepared for a hasty retreat when occasion demands. 

 These must receive your attention first ; and, having secured them, 

 proceed to box as many as you require of the more lazy and 

 gluttonous species. 



As a rule, moths thus engaged are easily pill-boxed, but the 

 livelier ones will not submit to such treatment withoi;t attempting 

 to escape. The best way to secure these is either to cover them 

 with the opened cyanide bottle (or its substitute), and replace the 

 cork as soon as a favourable opportunity occurs ; or to perform the 

 same feat with a glass-bottomed pill box. 



The advantage of the latter over the ordinarv boxes will be 



