APHORISMATA ENTOMOLOGICA. 165 



one of its comers, and be regularly renewed from time to time; or a piece 

 of cotton wool, to be saturated now and then witb cajcput oil. It should 

 have a lid projecting above the inside edges of the lower side all round, to 

 keep the dust from penetrating through the interstice when the box is shut 

 together. This bos is for carrying about with you from place to place, as a 

 temporary receptacle for your captures when preserved, or any species that you 

 may procure by gift, exchange, or purchase. Of course it must be shaken as 

 little as possible, and, when you arc travelling, should be carefully packed in 

 your " portmantel. " If you "do business in a large way," you will require 

 several of these boxes. 



The next box to be procured, and to bo now described, is of much smaller 

 dimensions, being what is commonly called the pocket box. It may be made 

 about six inches long, four -wide, and two deep; but on the same principle 

 that you "cut your coat according to your cloth," so you can have your box 

 made larger or smaller according to the size of your pocket. Xow, let this 

 box be made of tin; and as to the mode of making it, I have to give myself 

 credit for, in the words of my namesake, Hiss Edgewoi-th's Francisco, "a 

 discovery! a discovery! which it concerns all" entomologists "to know!" as 

 follows: — 



Let this box, I say, which is to take out with you -whea you go collecting, 

 be made of tin, and be of the dimensions just given, or as nearly so as may 

 be most convenient to yourself. Have it made to open as shewn in the plate, 

 not in the middle, as these boxes generally are, but nearer to the top, so as 

 to have only one side, the bottom one, lined with cork, which should be papered 

 or whitewashed over, for the reception of recent captures. Inside the lid, have 

 a piece of perforated zinc, which you can obtain at any good ironmonger's 

 shop — fine wire network would do, but that it is liable to rust, especially under 

 the circumstances about to be narrated. Videlicet; this piece of metallic gauze 

 being fixed on a little hinge or hinges at the inner edge of the lid, is to be 

 made to open out, or shut in, at pleasure. Between it and the lid, place a 

 flat piece of sponge, and when you are going out collecting, dip the top of 

 the box, thus containing the sponge between the actual lid and the "fly leaf" 

 of zinc, in water. If it should become dry, or rather so, which will naturally 

 be the case in the hot times of the year when for the most part you go out 

 collecting, all you have to do is to dip it again in the first stream of water 

 you come to, which will probably not be again required to be done. The 

 efiect is this: instead of your insect.s, even if ever so small, being dried up 

 by the time you return home, so as to be incapable of being set until you 

 have been at the additional trouble of relaxing them, they are as fresh as at 

 the moment they were first captured; and if you have not time to extend 

 them all that night, by again moistening the sponge, and keeping them in 

 this, so made, relaxing box, you will find them still pliant the following 

 morning. ' Intelligis-ner' 



The mention of the small moths brings me to the tliird kind of box required. 

 This, or rather these, for you should have two or three, or more of them, is. 



