] 04 INTRODUCTION. 



hare a soft and gentle flight ; as, for instance, Cos- 

 mia pyralma, one of my most welcome visitors, 

 whose entrance I am usually made aware of by see- 

 ing something drop down on the table, as quick as 

 hail, but as light as a fleece of snow ; whilst, on the 

 contrary, the conceited vagaries and absurd violence 

 of Clisiocampa neustria are absolutely amusing; 

 and cratcegi and populi are nearly as bad. It is not 

 the Nocturna alone that come to me in the night- 

 many of what Mr. Stephens calls the Semidiuma, 

 the Geometridce^ accompany them at all hours. It 

 may likewise be worth while to say a word on my 

 method of securing my prey. Suppose that, either 

 with or without a bag-net, I have imprisoned a 

 moth under an inverted wine-glass, I then light a 

 small piece of German tinder, half the size of a 

 sixpence, or less, and introduce it under the edge, 

 and by means of the smoke the insect is stupified 

 almost immediately. It is then wholly in my power, 

 though it would quickly revive : I pierce it ; and, 

 by means of a pin dipped in oxalic acid, and thrust 

 into the body beneath the thorax, I prevent its 

 revival, and fix it on the settling board. The Ger- 

 man tinder does not injure the colour, as brimstone 

 would, whilst it puts the moth so completely in my 

 power for a few moments, that the specimens I thus 

 take and kill are often as perfect and beautiful as if 

 I had bred them. Of course, I use it for insects 

 taken in the day, or bred, as well as for those cap- 

 tured by the lamp*." The locality to which the 

 * Entomological Magazine for January 1834, page 39. 



