Introduction: li 



same places, almost every insect in the old cabinet will require to be shifted, perhaps two or three 

 times, and re-arrangement will become a work involving a vast amount of absolutely useless 

 labour, and considerable risk to the specimens ; for specimens cannot be constantly shifted, even 

 with the greatest care, without a certain amount of deterioration, and the risk of an occasional 

 accident. No cabinet-maker ought to be trusted to make a cabinet who will not undertake to 

 make the drawers interchangeable. 



When examining insects contained in large and heavy cabinet drawers, it is sometimes 

 convenient to place the drawer on a pad, sufficiently large to keep it steady, but which allows 

 of the drawer being turned, as on a pivot, in any required direction. 



On the Position of the Cabinet. — Cabinets should be kept in a dry room where there is a fire- 

 burning in damp or cold weather, and should not be placed against an outside wall, but either 

 against a partition wall, or back to back. If it should be necessary to place a cabinet against an 

 outside wall, it should not be pushed close up to it, but there should be a space left between to 

 prevent the immediate contact of the cabinet witli any damp from the wall. The cabinet should 

 also be constructed either with short legs or a small stand, to avoid direct contact with the floor, 

 and to allow of a free current of air beneath it, as well as at the back. When the cabinet has been 

 standing in an unheated room, and the drawers are brought into a warm room, they must be 

 allowed to stand for a considerable time till they are warmed through ; for if they are opened 

 without this precaution, the enclosed specimens will be very liable to contract damp. 



On Arranging and Labelling a Collection. — In order to study our collection properly, it is 

 necessary to have a sufficiently large number of each species to exhibit it in all its forms. In 

 species where the se.xes and under sides vary, we should place in our cabinets at least four specimens 

 — that \s, a male and female exhibiting the upper surface of the wings, and another pair set to 

 display the under surface. In cases where the sexes differ little, and where the under sides are not 

 remarkable, one or two specimens may serve to represent the species. Each specimen should be 

 ticketed with a small piece of paper attached to its pin beneath, bearing a number corresponding 

 with our journal, which will give us its complete history. Or the date, locality, &c., may be 

 written on a piece of paper and pinned under the insect in the same way ; but it is difficult to 

 write so much on a label without its being often too large to be concealed by the specimen, and the 

 collection would then look untid)-. And if the paper has to be folded, it will be much more 

 troublesome to examine than if we have merely to turn up the insect and glance at it. Continental 

 entomologists often write the names of their insects on small oblong pieces of card, which are 

 pinned through a long strip projecting from the middle ; but this plan is only applicable to 

 insects set in the Continental fashion, nor does it look so tidy as the method we are about 

 to describe. 



Specimens should be arranged in parallel columns, one beneath another, commencing with the 

 left-hand top corner of the first drawer in the cabinet. They must also be arranged and labelled 

 in systematic order, according to some book or catalogue. The names of the families and genera 

 are placed at the top of each, and the name of each species is placed beneath it. When a genus 

 fills more than one drawer, and part of it has to be arranged in a second, its name should be 

 repeated at the beginning of the second drawer. The names may either be written, or cut from a 

 printed list, and may either be fixed in their places with a touch of gum or paste, or by pins ; in 

 the latter case, many entomologists use pin-points. There are several lists of British Lepidoptera 

 arranged for this purpose by Doubleday, Stainton, and others ; for European Lepidoptera, a small 

 edition of Staudinger and Wocke's catalogue may be used ; or for European butterflies only, 

 Kirby's " Synonymic List." As we have said, the specimens must be arranged in parallel lines, and 



