COLEOPTERA. 41 



effectually prevent mould or mites and will bring the specimens 

 home perfectly fresh and clean. Small species, or specimens 

 from a particular locality, should be wrapped in a piece of rag 

 or tissue-paper, with a little sawdust, and the name of the lo- 

 cality. The specimens collected in spirits should be removed 

 as soon as possible (in a few days at farthest), and transferred 

 to sawdust. When the tins are full, some more spirit and car- 

 bolic acid should be poured in and the top soldered down : 

 they will then keep for two years at least. The advantages of 

 this method are manifest, especially in the absence of any 

 danger of breakage or leakage ; and it is more than probable 

 that a similar plan might be employed with reptiles, fishes, 

 etc., but for these chloride of zinc suggests itself as the agent 

 most likely- to be of service. As the insects do not become 

 rotten by the above -process, it is sometimes not so easy to set 

 their legs in the peculiar manner in vogue in this country, but 

 they will have as a set-off the advantage of being thoroughly 

 fit for study. When by any chance spirit cannot be obtained, 

 they will keep perfectly in dry sawdust, if the specimens are 

 dried in the air for a few hours first ; all that is necessary after- 

 wards being to relax them in the sawdust instead of removing 

 them from it. Jars or wide-mouthed pickle bottles may of 

 course be used instead of tins, and are more airtight, but liable 

 to break." 



"That eminent and most excellent entomologist, Mr. E. W. 

 Janson, endorses Mr. Crotch's recommendation, and adds a 

 few hints on the subject of collecting beetles abroad, as fol- 

 lows : 



'"The sawdust plan, now almost universally adopted by col- 

 lectors, I can recommend both on account of its simplicity 

 and efficiency. The sawdust should be that of some white or 

 yellow wood without coloring matter pine is perhaps the 

 best ; it should be sifted over fine muslin, and the dust and 

 minute particles rejected. In collecting, wide-mouthed bottles 

 should be used ; these should be about one-fourth filled with 

 dry sawdust, adding beneath a piece of cyanide of potassium 

 of the size of a large pea or haricot bean. On reaching home 

 after collecting, the contents of the collecting bottles should be 

 shaken out on a large sheet of paper, and the insects trans- 

 ferred to the stock-bottle or jar. and the cyanide and sawdust 

 s. M. c. 261. 6 



