PAINLESS DEATH. 53 



I have alluded above to a painless mode of doing so, 

 doubtless applicable to all insects. I know it answers 

 admirably with the large moths, so tenacious of lifo 

 under other circumstances. This potent agent is chloro- 

 form, whose pain-quelling properties are so well known 

 as regards the human constitution. 



There is a little apparatus 1 constructed for carrying 

 this fluid safely to the field, and letting out a drop at a 

 time into the box with the captured insect, taking care 

 that the drop does not go on to the insect. Or a wide- 

 mouthed bottle may be used, having at the bottom a 

 pad of blotting-paper, or some absorbent substance, on 

 which a few drops of chloroform may now and then 

 be dropped. The insect being slipped into this, and 

 the stopper or hand being placed over the bottle's 

 mouth, insensibility (in the insect) follows immedi- 

 ately, and in a few minutes, at most, it is completely 

 lifeless. 



But the usual and quickest mode of despatch is by 

 a quick nip between the finger and thumb applied just 

 under the wings, causing, for the most part, instantaneous 

 death : and this can be done through the net, when the 



1 A very ingenious and neat contrivance — the invention of 

 my friend Dr. Allchin, of B.iyswater. It may be obtained of 

 Messrs. Cooke & Son, Naturalists, 30, Museum Street, London, 

 W.C. It is of bras', with screw caps, the inner one having a 

 small hole through which the chloroform can be used, drop by 

 drop. The price is 4s. AL-o, the new Cyanide Killing-bottles, 

 Is. Qd. ; 2s. ready for use. 



