14 



COLLECTING AND PRESERVING INSECTS. 



Fig. 12. 



thin slips for soles ; such slips come from the cork-cutter about 

 twelve by four inches square, and an eighth of an inch thick. 

 A less expensive substitute is paper stretched upon a frame. 

 Prof. E. S. Morse has given in the "American Naturalist" 

 (vol. i, p. 156) a plan which is very neat and useful for lining 

 boxes in a large museum, and which are designed to be placed 

 in horizontal show-cases (Fig. 12). " A box is made of the re- 

 quired depth, and a light frame is fitted to its interior. Upon 

 the upper and under surfaces of this frame, a sheet of white 

 paper (drawing or log-paper answers the purpose) is securely 

 glued. The paper, having been previously damped, in drying 

 contracts and tightens like a drum-head. The frame is then 

 secured about one-fourth of an inch from the bottom of the 

 hox, and the pin is forced down through the thicknesses of 



paper, and if the bottom 

 of the box be of soft 

 pine, the point of the pin 

 may be slightly forced in- 

 to it. It is thus firmly held 

 at two or three different 

 points, and all lateral 

 movements are prevented. 

 Other advantages are se- 

 cured by this arrangement 

 besides firmness ; when 

 the box needs cleaning 

 or fumigation, the entire collection may be removed by taking 

 out the frame ; or camphor, tobacco, or other material can be 

 placed on the bottom of the box, and concealed from sight. 

 The annexed figure represents a transverse section of a portion 

 of the side and bottom of the box with the frame. A, A, 

 box ; B, frame ; P, P, upper and under sheets of paper ; C, 

 space between lower sheets of paper and bottom of box." 



Other substitutes are the pith of various plants, especially 

 of corn ; and palm wood, and " inodorous felt" are used, being 

 cut to fit the bottom of the box. 



Leconte recommends that " for the purpose of distinguishing 

 specimens from different regions, little disks of variously col- 

 ored paper be used ; they are easily made by a small punch, 

 and should be kept in wooden pill-boxes ready for use ; at the 



