1 88 Lessons in Nature Study. 



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cate structure. It speedily evaporates, leaving every por- 

 tion as perfect as in the living creature. Another method 

 is to kill by means of the fumes of potassium cyanide. 



A collecting-bottle will be needed, and, if you do not 

 care to make it yourself, go to a druggist and procure a 

 wide-mouth, large bottle, six or eight inches high, with cork 

 to fit it tightly (a pint glass jar will do). Have him put 

 some small fragments of potassium cyanide in the bottle ; 

 then mix a small quantity of plaster of Paris and water. 

 Pour in enough to just cover the piece of potassium cya- 

 nide and let it stand a few moments until the plaster of 

 Paris has had time to set. (The plaster being porous, the 

 fumes of the poisonous KCN pass out into the bottle, and 

 the plaster serves to keep the KCN down so that the frag- 

 ments cannot shake around and mutilate the insects in the 

 bottle.) 



To use it, having caught the insect, drop him into the 

 bottle and cork tightly. The fumes will soon kill him. 

 Any teacher can make such a bottle herself at a cost of 

 three cents (Fig. 49^). 



(c) How to Mount. Procure a tight wooden box about 

 10 X 12 X 3 inches, having a sliding wooden cover. Remove 

 the cover and slide in a piece of glass. If the box is pine, 

 it needs no further fixing, but if of some harder wood it is 

 well to get two or three dozen corks for small vials. Glue 

 these corks at regular intervals to the bottom of the box. 

 It is well in either case to line the box with plain white pa- 

 per to prevent the entrance of dust, lice, etc., and to give 

 the box a neater appearance. If a little corrosive sublimate 

 or other poison be used in the paste, it greatly aids in keep- 

 ing out all such intruders. Having lined the box, put the 

 corks in place, and having fitted the sliding glass covers, 

 your cabinet is ready. Take each insect when dead and 

 thrust a sharp pin through the thorax and mount on one of 

 the corks. 



After one or two summers of collecting it is well to re- 

 arrange your insects, putting them in classes according to 



