NATURAL LOCALITIES OF BRITISH COLEOPTERA. 61 



net, and an umbrella. I used to find that the rings I bought at 

 ordinary makers were quite useless for the rough sweeping 

 necessary for Coleoptera. My nets were perpetually breaking ; 

 and there is nothing more annoying than to have one's net 

 rendered utterly useless in the middle of a good day's work, as 

 happened to myself one fine day in the New Forest. At last I 

 got one made at a gunsmith's, which has never failed ; it cost 

 about three times as much as an ordinary net, but has saved its 

 cost over and over again. The umbrella answers all the purposes 

 of a beating-net, besides being convenient if it comes on to rain, 

 while the butt end of the ring-net serves to beat with, so that by 

 a little management one can beat and sweep over the same 

 ground. The nets themselves should be furnished all round 

 their upper edge with stout rings, and not with a turned-down 

 edge of calico, as is the case with nets for Lepidoptera: by 

 adopting these, the nets are saved from being worn out, and are 

 easily run on and off the big rings, so that a water-net can in a 

 very short time be substituted for a calico sweeping-net, or vice 

 versa. The fern-trowel acts as digger, stone-turner, and bark- 

 ripper, and is indispensable where any dirty work has to be done. 

 For wood work a miniature sort of pick-axe (axe one side and 

 mattock the other) is necessary; Mr. Crotch, I believe, first 

 designed this very useful tool. 



The second great point on which coleopterists are always 

 going wrong is the laurel for killing and preserving; very few 

 seem to understand how to use it, and cannot keep beetles in it 

 for a fortnight without their turning mouldy, much less for a 

 year or two, as is very often done. The laurel must be gathered 

 on a warm, sunny day, and the young leaves only must be used ; 

 they should be chopped fine, and put into quite air-tight bottles 

 or tin boxes. The beetles should never be kept longer than 

 three or four days (the more fragile ones only one day) in contact 

 with the laurel, but should be picked out and put into muslin 

 bags, and placed in store bottles half full of chopped laurel, 

 which should be watched carefully to see that the laurel does not 

 get damp or mouldy. Every week or so each bag should be 

 opened, and the beetles thoroughly aired before being replaced. 

 If these directions are followed, there will be little fear of mould ; 

 should it, however, make its appearance, it is easily removed 

 either from unset or cabinet specimens by a mixture of one part 



