28- 



twelve or fifteen inches in length should be chosen. The skins of 

 larger ones may be put in liquor. It is important to collect even 

 the smallest. The same principles apply to the other vertebrata. 

 The smallest and most delicate specimens may be placed in 

 bottles or vials, and packed in the larger vessels with the other 

 specimens. 



3. INVERTEBRATES.* 



Insects, Bugs, &c. — The harder kinds may be put in liquor, as 

 above, but the vessel or bottle should not be very lai-ge. Butter- 

 flies, wasps, flies, &c., should be pinned in boxes, or packed in 

 layers with soft paper or cotton. Minute species should be care- 

 fully sought under stones, bark, dung, or flowers, or swept with a 

 small net from grass or leaves. They may be put in quills, small 

 cones of paper, or in glass vials. They can be readily killed by 

 immersing the bottles, &c., in which they are collected, in hot 

 water, or exposing them to the vapor of ether. Large beetles, 

 however, can generally only be killed by piercing with some poi- 

 sonous solution, as strychnine. 



When possible, a number of oz. or 2 oz. vials, with very wide 

 mouths, well stopped by corks, should be procured, in which to 

 place the more delicate invertebrata, as small Crustacea, worms, 

 raoUusca, &c. 



It will frequently be found convenient to preserve or transport 

 insects pinned down in boxes. The bottoms of these are best 

 lined with cork or soft wood. The accompanying figures will ex- 

 plain, better than any description, the particular part of different 

 kinds of insects through which the pin is to be thrust ; beetles 

 (Fig. 1) being pinned through the right wing-cover or elytra; all 

 others through the middle of the thorax, as in Fig. 2. 



The traveller will find it very convenient to carry about him a 

 vial having a broad mouth, closed by a tight cork. In this should 

 be contained a piece of camphor, or, still better, of sponge soaked 

 in ether, to kill the insects collected. From this the specimens 

 should be transferred to other bottles. They may, if not hairy, be 

 killed by immersing directly in alcohol. 



* A separate pamphlet in reference to collecting insects will be pub- 

 lished by the Institution, and a special chapter on marine invertebrates 

 will be found at the end of the present work. 



