INSTRUCTIONS FOR COLLECTING INSECTS. 177 



localities in his neighborliood, and where particular species are to be 

 had in greatest abundance. When these are once ascertained, let him 

 learn to hunt quietly, and endeavor to bring into exercise his powers 

 of observation ; never moving until he has scanned every leaf and 

 object around him, noting the habits of the little people of the great 

 unknown world by which he is surrounded, their peculiar mode of 

 flight and concealing themselves, and the situations which appear 

 most agreeable to them. His net should always be in readiness to se- 

 cure everything which his motions and footsteps may startle, but should 

 he fail, let him not, to the infinite alarm of the minute inhabitants of 

 the forest, rush headlong after it through brambles, herbage, and 

 grass, and over the decayed trunks of trees, striking frantically this way 

 and that, until he glows with a heat above the summer point, and is 

 bathed in perspiration and fairly disgusted with Entomology, which 

 involves so many discomforts. Let him rather be self-possessed and 

 cool, mark where the coveted object alights, and he can easily secure 

 it without affecting the steadiness of his nerves, and perhaps rendering 

 the specimen worthless subsequently, during the operation of pinning. 

 This, of course, is advice to the incipient collector. 



The nocturnal Lepidoptera maybe taken by stratagem as well as by 

 coup de main. Prominent among the expedients used for this purpose 

 are what is called sugaring, and the use of light. 



To obtain moths by means of the former, a mixture of coarse oroiun 

 sugar and ale, with the addition of a little rum, should be made. The 

 mixture should have the consistence of treacle. The collector, with an 

 assistant, should take his mixture to the wood about sunset, or a little 

 before or after, and daub it on the trunks of the trees by means of a 

 brush, or saturate strios of cotton cloth with it and tack them to the 

 trunks. As soon as it gets dusk the sugared places should be revisited, 

 and the light from a bull's-eye lantern thrown on the sugared spots. 

 For several hours the moths will continue to arrive, sometimes in con- 

 siderable numbers, and may be taken with the net, which should, be 

 held beneath the sugared spot previously to turning on the light, as 

 many have the trick of falling; or captured, as they sit feeding on the 

 dainty bait, by means of a wide-mouthed bottle having ammonia or 

 chloroform od cotton or a sponge on the bottom. The noctuae are 

 principally obtained by this means, and one or two expeditions should 

 be made every week during the collecting season, viz: from early 

 spring until the latter part of autumn, avoiding localities where odor- 

 ous flowers are plentiful. The collector should not be discouraged if 

 troops of moths do not come at his first invitation, or even if he should 

 be compelled to return home rich in patience but very poor in specimens. 



The fascination of the " foolish moth" by light has a time-honored 

 use, having served to adorn many a tale and point many a moral ; and 

 yet there is beneath the iact a hidden meaning or moral, perhaps, 

 unsuspected by either poet or moralist. It is sufficient for the collector 

 to know they are fire-worshippers, and to avail himself of this tendency 

 to secure their fleeting forms in their season. This may be done by 

 taking a lantern into the open country near a wood, and suspending 

 it over a white sheet spread on the ground, thus showing their forms 



12 



