COLLECTING, PEESERVING AND APPLIANCES 21 



seem to have a special liking for suspending themselves 

 from the lower side of horizontal surfaces. 



For collecting in the open, the best time is the early- 

 dusk, but in shady gardens many species, notably Stegomyia 

 fasciatus (Fabr.), and S. scutellaris (Walker), are active and 

 vicious during the day, and in the autumn w^ill even venture 

 on short flights across patches of sunshine ; but I have 

 never met M^ith an Anopheles in the open during the day 

 in India; though like other Mosquitoes, they will always 

 leave the house if they can at sunset, and certain European 

 species are undoubtedly diurnal. 



Jungle and garden species, however, commonly harbour 

 during the day in ditches and under bushes, so that it is 

 necessary to disturb them by beating the bushes with a 

 stick. 



A number of pill boxes with glass bottoms should be 

 taken, as the Mosquitoes must be brought home alive, or 

 else portable setting materials must be carried, as delicate 

 insects such as these can only be satisfactorily set imme- 

 diately after killing. 



In this sort of shikar nothing in the way of a call-bird 

 is required, as the method of procedure resembles rather 

 the plan of big-game shooting known as " sitting up over a 

 kill," only the sportsman ofhciates as his own kill, " in 

 addition to his other duties," as the Gazettes have it. 



All that is required is to sit moderately still and the 

 Mosquitoes will come. 



Mosquitoes may be captured : — 



(a) By slipping over them a small wide-mouthed bottle, 

 as they sit on a wall or window, for which purpose a small 

 "killing bottle" is best, provided that each insect can be 

 set at once ; or the ingenious trap-bottle, devised by Ficalbi, 

 may be used. This is constructed on the principle of the 

 ordinary lobster pot, and consists of a wide-mouthed phial, 

 through the cork of which is passed the tube of a small 

 glass funnel, so as to project about ^-inch into the interior 

 of the bottle. The funnel should be somewhere about 2 

 ins. long, and about the same width at the rim, and the 

 narrow part must be fairly wide (about -i an inch), so that 



