A PORTABLE PRIl^TING PRESS 

 FOR THE ECOLOGIST 



Ky Z. p. Metcalf 



The writer has long regretted the deficiency of the present methods 

 of labeling insects on pins. Usually one of two or three systems is 

 followed. Either the labels are lettered by hand, a laborious and 

 expensive process or the labels are printed by the printer. In the 

 latter case one of two systems is usually followed. Either a general 

 locality label is printed such as IST. C. for ITorth Carolina or labels 

 are prepared for various separate places. It is not my purpose here 

 to enter into a discussion of the geographical limits that must be 

 established for any given locality. Practically speaking any insect 

 taken within a collecting radius of a given town may be said to have 

 been collected in that town. With this in mind labels should be used 

 only for localities that are large enough to be found in a standard 

 atlas. In the mountains elevations are often of importance and the 

 writer long ago adapted the practice of trying to label things on the 

 basis of 500 foot zones. Much other data may well be added to 

 labels of specimens such as the day of the month, the month of the 

 year and even the year, although the latter is frequently unnecessary. 

 Some divide the month into three parts, early, mid and late and 

 label their specimens accordingly, doing away with the day of the 

 month entirely. I have omitted all reference to that well known, 

 but to my mind reprehensible, system of giving specimens a catalog 

 number and recording the data in a catalog. Such specimens are 

 sure to get separated from their catalog and then the hidden mean- 

 ing of the catalog is sure to haunt some one all his days. Frequently 

 I have received a rare or interesting specimen labeled only with a 

 catalog number when I would have given almost anything to know 

 the real history of the specimen. 



With all of these points in mind I was very much interested in a 

 small hand stamp for printing pin labels in the ofiice of Mr. H. S. 

 Barber of the United States National Museum. The chief points 

 about Mr, Barber's outfit that interested me were that he used a 

 small metal holder in which the type was locked by means of a set 



