THE BUTTERFLY. let 



Lanowlee woods, will accomplish unexpected miracles 

 sometimes. And when you overtake it, and the first stroke 

 misses, as of course it will, never mind ; wave the net 

 wildly round and round your head. Some strange fate 

 generally leads a butterfly to eddy round too, and when 

 you overbalance yourself and tumble to the ground, like 

 an exhausted teetotum, you may find it fluttering among 

 the muslin. 



When the specimen is caught it must be disposed of. 

 The safest and most humane way to kill it is to give it a 

 gentle pinch between the finger and thumb on the thorax. 

 Every butterfly, like all Gaul, divisa est in partes tres. 

 The middle one of these parts, from which the wings and 

 legs take their rise, is the thorax. To accommodate your 

 captures you should carry in your pocket a few sheets of 

 smooth and thin letter-paper, folded in quarto. Between 

 the leaves of this they will lie secure, and the smooth 

 paper will not rub off their scales. On returning home 

 you may spread your spoils on the table, and gloat over 

 them for a reasonable time : but they must be set soon, or 

 they will stiffen. All the apparatus needed to set butter- 

 flies nicely is a few boards of thick cork (which may be 

 made of two or three sheets of sheet cork, glued together), 



