THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 117 



of the one will never succeed in making a convert of the ad- 

 vocate of the other. I can only say for myself that, having, in 

 the ivy-hunting alluded to above, had an opportunity of seeing 

 the pill-boxing method practically carried out, I am more than 

 ever persuaded of the superiority, on the whole, of the tin 

 box. Mr. Newman, in his note appended* to Mr. Gibson's 

 question, says, " I know of no way to be compared with ' pill- 

 boxing,' either for expedition or security." Mr. Newman 

 will, I am snre, excuse me if, while douhifully conceding the 

 expedition, I deny the secitrity. [Only last night I saw Mr. 

 Stewart unwittingly perform the horrid operation of decapi- 

 tating an Orthosia lota (he wanted the insect, but with a 

 head), the instrument wherewith the deed was done being a 

 pill-box. This evil deed was followed by another, wherein 

 a fine Xylinapetrificata was unhappily maltreated, the result, 

 however, being only the loss of half an antenna, and a serious 

 abrasion of the thorax. That some moths will flutter about 

 and spoil themselves in a pill-box is, I believe, admitted on 

 all hands. I may just observe, in passing, that this cannot 

 occur in the tin box. Upon my asking Mr. Stewart whether 

 he would trust, say Heliothis armigera, to the pill-box, his 

 answer was, " Oh, I should chloroform that at once." Having 

 seen now this operation of chloroforming, I am more than ever 

 prejudiced against it. The only thing I can allow is that its 

 operation is speedy. But there remains the insuperable ob- 

 jection that insects thus killed are rendered more or less 

 rigid and brittle. I have found it almost impossible to set 

 insects, killed in this way, the next morning. I am well 

 aware that many will be at once ready with the rejoinder, 

 " But we can." Possibly. Yet I find very few insects (thus 

 killed) which come up to my idea of good setting. I allude 

 especially to the antennae and legs. In whatever position 

 the anteimae and legs of a moth may be when chloroformed, 

 in that position they will remain, according to my experience. 

 Neither persuasion nor force will alter them. Again, I am 

 somewhat disposed to question even the superior expedition 

 of this method. I find the custom here to be, whatever it 

 may be elsewhere, after half-a-dozen boxes or so are filled, 

 to then stupify the insects by dropping a minute quantity of 

 chloroform into each box. The insects are then pinned, and 

 fixed in the collecting-box. What advantage, then, this 



