1 European Butterflies and Moths. 



boxes which are not corked at tlie top, but have a piece of strong glass let into the lid to allow 

 the customs officers to examine the contents without opening the boxes, over the edges of which a 

 strip of paper or calico should be pasted to keep out dust. When insects are sent away in single 

 boxes, they should be marked " This side up." 



Store-boxes are also used for keeping surplus specimens, which may be useful to give away 

 or to exchange. A small muslin bag filled with camphor should always be pinned in one corner. 

 Boxes that are corked top and bottom must always be deep enough to prevent the insects which 

 they contain coming into collision. Practically, however, there is seldom any risk of this with 

 insects set low down on the pin in the English fashion. Some collectors use store-boxes instead 

 of a cabinet for keeping their collections. In this case the boxes are generally made of better 

 construction, and are covered with green cloth, and frequently lettered on the back to resemble 

 books. They are also sometimes fitted with movable glass lids, like cabinet drawers, and can 

 be ranged upright on shelves, like books. Some collectors use small single boxes, labelled and 

 piled upon one another, instead of book-boxes ; but this arrangement is not convenient for the 

 larger Lcpidoptcra. It may, however, be used for the Alicro-Lcpidoptera. Insects must never on 

 any account be kept in uncovered glass cases, as they soon fade when exposed to light, especially 

 to the direct rays of the sun. 



Cabinets may be made to contain any number of drawers, which may be arranged in one, 

 two, or three tiers. They are usually constructed to contain from twenty to fifty drawers, in 

 a double tier. They must on no account be made of cedar or any other resinous wood. The 

 drawers should be about eighteen inches square, and made of thoroughly seasoned wood. They 

 are lined at the bottom with sound cork, and are fitted with glass lids to keep out the dust. A 

 partition of thin wood runs along either the front of the drawers, the two sides, or all round. 

 This is perforated here and there with holes about the size of a shilling. Perhaps the commonest 

 arrangement is to have a partition along each side, with two openings opposite each other in 

 each partition. The bottom of the drawer and the inside of the partitions are covered with white 

 unsized paper, and holes arc pricked through the jiaper covering the openings in the partitions, 

 to allow the vapour of camphor, with which the camphor cells should be freely supplied, to 

 escape into the drawers. Another arrangement, sometimes used on the Continent, is to use 

 drawers constructed with glass bottoms as well as glass tops, upon which the insects are fixed by 

 pinning them on thin strips of cork, which may either be gummed in their places, or made to fit 

 into grooves in the frame. The advantages of this plan are that the collection is less liable to the 

 attacks of mites, and that the whole drawer may be turned upside down, to show the under 

 sides of the insects. But the last purpose may be better served by having a sufficient series of 

 specimens to show under sides as well. Although it is tolerably easy to arrange a cabinet to 

 accommodate a limited Fauna, such as that of the Biitish Islands, which only contain about 2,000 

 species of Lcpidoptcra, many of which are very small, yet, if we extend our collection to European 

 or foreign species, it will be impossible to calculate beforehand what space will be required for 

 each group, and the cabinet or cabinets will then require re-arranging from time to time. It is 

 therefore indispensably necessary that every drawer, not only in the same cabinet, but in every cabinet 

 belonging to the same collector, should be interchangeable ; and the larger the collection, the more 

 important this becomes. If the old cabinet gets too full, and a new one is procured, it will 

 probably be found that in a cabinet of, say, twenty drawers, fifteen will require no alteration 

 whatever, while the remaining five can well be spread out into fifteen or twenty. If the drawers 

 are made interchangeable, new drawers can easily be intercalated to any extent wherever they are 

 required, and the end drawers transferred to a new cabinet; but if they arc only made to fit in the 



