COLLECTING-BOX. 



435 



weak spirits of wine, into which dark-coloured beetles, 

 wasps, and bees, are put, the spirits instantly killing them, 

 and preserving them for future purposes ; and with a 

 pocket collecting-box or boxes for winged insects. An ob- 

 long chip wafer-box, lined at top and bottom with cork, and 

 covered with white paper, will form a very good collecting 

 box, taking care that it is neither too shallow nor too deep ; 

 but some have a square box, made of mahogany, deal, or 

 cedar, with hinges on one side and a spring on the other, 

 so that it can be opened by the left hand while an insect is 

 held in the right, and figured h at page 429. Sparmann, 

 when travelling at the Cape, used to stick his insect speci- 

 mens on the outside of his hat, to the consternation of the 

 simple Hottentots, who took him for a conjuror. A more 

 judicious plan is for a collector to have the crown of his 

 hat lined inside with cork, which will save him the trouble 

 of carrying a collecting-box. When a collector has not his 

 boxes with him, a bit of paper, twisted at each end, will 

 often answer every purpose. 



Chip collecting-box, opened- 



When an insect is caught, before it be placed in the 

 collecting box or the hat-crown, it is necessary to kill it, 

 and this circumstance has given rise to much prejudice, on 

 the charge of cruelty, — the objectors forgetting that most 

 of the insects so killed could not naturally survive many 

 days, and that their feelings of pain are, in all probability, 

 much less acute than those of animals furnished with a 

 brain and cerebral and vertebral nerves, of which thev 



