472 INSECTS AT HOME. 



even the most skilful of entomologists is forced to refer to bis 

 books before he can, with any confidence, assign to some sixty 

 or a hundred Noctuse their exact names. 



As they mostly fly by night, and are always attracted b]? 

 light, these Moths form the greater number of those which are 

 captured by the familiar and most efficacious process of 

 ' sugaring.' This process may be briefly explained. The 

 intending sugarer mixes together the roughest and coarsest of 

 sugar — 'foots' as it is called — with water or beer, and boils 

 them together. I believe that water is quite as efficacious as 

 beer. He may then cork it up tightly in bottles, and keep it 

 until he wants to use it. 



On some dark, calm evening — the latter attribute being 

 absolutely necessary — the entomologist pours a sufficiency of 

 the mixture into a basin, adds a few spoonfuls of new rum, and 

 steeps in it ten to sixteen pieces of old rag. When the rags 

 are thoroughly soaked, he removes them, allows the super- 

 fluous moisture to drip from them, puts the saturated rags into a 

 tightly closed vessel, and pours the rest of the sweet liquid 

 into the bottle, in readiness for the next occasion. 



Provided with a number of pill-boxes, the ordinary net, 

 pins, forceps, and other entomological paraphernalia, the col- 

 lector further adds a dark lantern — not a ' bull's-eye ' — a box 

 of matches, and a small bottle of chloroform, or, in default 

 thereof, a 'laurel-bottle,' in which the pounded laurel leaves 

 are made up into little packets about as wide as a sixpence and 

 as thick as a penny. Arrived at a spot where there are plenty 

 of trees, the collector lights his lantern, takes the saturated 

 rags from the box, and pins them upon the trunks of trees, 

 taking care to arrange them as nearly as possible in a circle, so 

 as to concentrate the odour of the sugar and rum. When he 

 has pinned up the last piece of rag, he sees that his apparatus is 

 all in good order, and slowly goes round his former track, 

 always taking care to throw the light of the lantern on the rags. 



Should the night be favourable, an extraordinary sight 

 presents itself. Hundreds of Moths are converging upon the 

 spot from all directions, and as many others are gathered 

 round the sweet mixture, while every now and then the two 

 round eyes of some large Moth glow amid the darkness like 

 tAvo balls of fire. Some of tlie commoner kinds are often in 



