38 



FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT 



-| thick are then cut in around one of the halves, so that the edges 

 project and form a rabbet, which is beveled off and fits tightly against 

 the inside of the other half when closed. The inside is lined with 

 cork and paper, the back covered with stout linen or leather, which 

 forms a hinge, and the whole either painted or papered to suit the 

 fancy. It is neat, may be stood edgwise on a book-shelf, is easily han- 

 dled, and is, withal, valuable to the working student, because new 

 boxes may be added, in their proper places, as the collection increases ; 

 and the insects always kept in proper systematic order. Such 

 boxes are also readily packed and moved from one place to another, 

 and for this reason will commend themselves to the itinerant ento- 

 mologist. Those who are ingenious, and have the proper tools, can 

 make them at a less cost, but hardly with the same finish as does Mr. 

 Ridings. 



For beauty and security, and the perfect display of the larger 

 JLepidoptera^ I have seen nothing superior to a box used by Mr. Lint- 

 ner, of Albany, N. Y. It is a frame made in the form of a folio vol- 

 ume, with glass set in for sides, and bound in an ordinary book cover. 

 The insects are pinned onto pieces of cork, fastened to the inside of 

 one of the glass plates ; and the boxes may be stood on ends, in library 

 shape, lil^e ordinary books. For the benefit of those who wish to 

 make small collections of showy insects, I give Mr. Lintner's methodj 

 of which he has been kind enough to furnish me the following de- 

 scription : 



[Fig. 21.] 



Figures a, h and c repre- 

 sent, in section, the frame- 

 worlv of the volume — a 

 showino; the ends, b the 

 front, and c the back. The 

 material can be prepared 

 in long strips of some soft 

 wood, by a cabinet-maker, 

 (if the collector has the 

 necessary skill and leisure 

 lor framing it,) at a cost 

 of sixty cents a frame, if 

 a number sufficient for a 

 dozen boxes be ordered. 

 Or, if it be preferred to 

 order them made, the cost 

 should not exceed eighty 

 cents each. 



Before being placed in the hands of the bhider, the mitering should be carefully 

 examined, and any defect in fitting remedied, so that the glass, when placed in posi- 

 tion, may have accurate bearings on all the sides. The interior of the frame is covered 

 with tin-foil, made as smooth as possible before application, to be applied with thor- 

 oughly-boiled flour paste, (in which a small proportion of arsenic may be mixed), and 

 rubbed smoothly down till the removal of the blisters, which are apt to appear. The 

 tin-foil can be purchased, by weight, at druggists', and the sJieets marked off and cut 



j//<r 



.-^IL.... 



