CATCHING BVTTEBFLIES AND MOTHS 95 



It is certainly advisable to take a friend, whether an entomologist 

 or not, on such expeditions ; and it' you intend working on private 

 grounds, always make previous arrangements wdth the property 

 owner, that you may fear no foes and dread no svu'prises ; for a 

 sugarer is far more sure of success in his work if he keeps a cool 

 head and has nothing to think about for the time being but his 

 moths and his boxes. 



A few hours at this interesting employment pass away very 

 rapidly, and when midnight arrives there is often no great desire to 

 leave off, especially when it is known that some species of moths 

 are not very busy till very late at night. Still it is not advisable 

 to surfeit oneself with even the sweets of life. Perhaps it is better 

 as a rule to work the early species only on one night, and reserve 

 another for the later ones. The searchings are then always carried 

 on with vigour throughout, and the labours that are thus never 

 made laborious ever retain their attractiveness in the future. 



It has often been observed tliat, when sugaring has been carried 

 on for a few successive nights in the same locality, the success is 

 greater each night than on the one preceding it. Hence it is a 

 common practice to work a chosen ' run ' for two, three, or more 

 nights in succession ; and some collectors even go so far as to lay on 

 the bait for a night or two previous to starting work. For the same 

 reason it is often advisable to continue the use of a fairly productive 

 beat rather than to wander in search of a new one. 



In the neighbourhood of large towns one may often meet with 

 patches of sugared bark that mark the course and extent of a 

 brother entomologist's beat, and such are valuable to an inex- 

 perienced amateur in that they give him some idea of the nature of 

 the localities that are chosen by more expert collectors. But it 

 must be remembered that each entomologist has a moral right to a 

 run he has baited, and that it is considered ungentlemanlj^, if not 

 unjust, to take insects from sugar laid by another. I have sometimes 

 seen cards, bearing the names of the collectors and the date of 

 working, tacked on to baited trees and fences, thus establishing 

 their temporary exclusive rights to the use of their runs. Such 

 precautions are not necessary in large tracts of forest land, where 

 the choice of runs is practically unlimited. 



There are two other modes of capture available to the moth 

 collector — the use of decoy females, and the employment of sugar 

 traps' — and both these may be used on the sugaring run, or at other 

 times either in the woods or in yoiu- own garden. 



