tHE ENTOMOLOGIST. 155 



to tliose cxtvaordinary brothers of the (silver) net who seem 

 to think it a pleasure to be cheated, and who are willing to 

 pay a high price for the doubtful gratification of spoiling their 

 collections for all scientific purposes by the introduction of 

 German specimens with a false pedigree. Tastes differ, of 

 course; but were I infected with this comical phase of the 

 " amor-habendi" mania, I should prefer manufacturing my 

 own "true British specimens" myself, rathei' than pay some 

 enterprising gentleman a premium of nineteen and sixpence 

 in the pound for performing so simple an operation for me. 

 — B. Q. Cole; The Common , Stoke Newington, N., June 7, 

 1876. 



Mode of Relaxing Insects. — A correspondent asks (Entom. 

 ix. 137) how best to do this. I venture to offer the following 

 suggestion, from the experience of an old collector. The 

 plan I have adopted for some years, and found very successful, 

 is at any rate a very simple one. I lay fine sand, about an 

 inch deep, on the bottom of a common vegetable-dish, and 

 saturate it with water. On this wet sand I lay a piece of cork, 

 and distribute over it the specimens to be relaxed, always 

 taking care that the wings do not touch the sand; and then 

 put on the dish-cover to concentrate all the damp air. In 

 twenty-four — or at most forty-eight — hours the insects will 

 be quite sufficiently relaxed for laying out. I have in this 

 way relaxed hundreds of specimens sent from abroad, chiefly 

 from India, which came to me with their wings folded 

 together and slipped into envelopes, and thus packed in 

 cigar or biscuit boxes. I once relaxed above one hundred 

 specimens from China, which had laid in their envelopes 

 above twelve years. I found the most obstinate of them give 

 way after being under the influence of this cold vapour-bath 

 a couple of days. — \_Rev.'] J. Cave-Broicme ; Detling Vicarage, 

 Maidstone. 



Mites and Grease (Entom. ix. 140). — The use of corrosive 

 sublimate is, in my opinion, always to be avoided: it rarely 

 fails to seriously damage the a])pearance of the specimens to 

 which it has been applied ; causing, moreover the subsequent 

 corrosion and briltleness of the pins. " En passant," it has 

 often occurred to me to ask what the supposed advantage may 

 be in the extreme pliability of the entomological pins ; rather 

 than an advantage, it seems to me a very great defect, as 



