HANDBOOK OF BUTTERFLIES. 



69 



cannot be thus killed without being completely spoiled ; for 

 killing insects in the field, a glass jar about the size of a jam 

 pot, and stopped with a bung, is usually employed, charged with 

 a strong poison, which may be purchased ready-made where 

 you buy your net. But a piece of blotting paper soaked 

 in benzole is used by some Coleopterists, and might answer 

 equally well for Lepidoptera ; besides, it would not injure their 

 colours, as some of the chemicals employed are liable to do. A 

 bell-glass or a deep glass jar will be found more convenient for 

 killing insects brought home alive ; and if a small hole be made 

 in the lid of the pill- boxes, they may be dropped into the killing 

 jar, without being opened till the enclosed moth is dead. 



Setting-! card. 



Common pins are too thick and, clumsy to be used for pinning 

 insects ; those used for insects are long and slender, and may be 

 bought of any dealer in objects of natural history. In order to 

 set insects, you require setting-boards, which are made of flat 

 pieces of deal, of any length you please, and from one to six 

 inches in width. There is a groove in the middle, of any 

 convenient depth, but it must be uniform in all your boards, 

 and should be deep enough to keep the insect well off the paper 



