204 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



projection of an inch or more of pin intervening. English ento- 

 mologists have shown themselves able to study their captures to 

 very good purpose in the past, the drooping wings notwithstanding. 



2nd. " Preservation of specimens." — Do mites hop ? If they 

 do, it may be a good plan to perch insects an inch or more off the 

 bottom of the drawer ; but then, to be logical, they should also 

 be placed that distance apart every way, at which rate we should 

 want about three cabinets to every one now in use, and all our 

 boxes made deeper. If mites do not liop, and a space of a quarter 

 of an inch between each insect is considered sufficient, why will 

 not that space clear from the bottom of the drawer do also ? No 

 collector now sets his insects so that their wings shall touch the 

 drawer, yet this setting higher up on the ordinary pins Mr. Cant 

 stigmatises as "an unsuccessful attempt at the continental style." 

 I have seen foreign collections quite as badly infested with mites 

 as any English one, notwithstanding their length of pin. 



3rd. "Uniformity." — This is by no means such a desideratum 

 that more important points should be sacrificed to it, but I fail 

 to see how it would be furthered by the introduction of a system 

 known to be unpopular in England, and therefore only likely to 

 be taken up by a small proportion of collectors, whose insects 

 would be almost useless to the remainder, and vice versa. Besides, 

 all fairly good British collections have quite a uniform appearance, 

 and the insects are infinitely more graceful and natural-looking 

 than continental ones, for most of the uniformity in a foreign 

 collection is produced by setting the insects with the inner 

 margins of fore wings in a straight line at right angles with the 

 body, — this regardless of markings or shape of wings, — thus 

 making the naturally graceful outline of a butterfly as angular 

 and ungraceful as is possible. This alone, to anyone with an 

 artistic eye, would prove an insuperable objection. 



The upshot of the matter seems to be this, — that it is no 

 disadvantage to set on flat boards (for the slight after-droop of 

 the wings will take off from the stiffness), provided that the usual 

 English setting in all other points be adhered to. Very nice flat 

 boards can be had of Marsden, of Gloucester, at the ordinary 

 prices, the groove being of sufficient depth, nearly f in. in a 2|- in. 

 board, to allow of the insect being well off the bottom of the drawer 

 when placed in the cabinet. The fault of the usual oval boards is 

 that dealers will not meet the demand for a deeper groove, and you 



