144 WILD LIFE AT HOME. 



ingredients in the following proportions : a quarter 

 of a pound of common treacle, half a quartern ot 

 rum, and six drops of essence. Some entomologists 

 prepare their " sugar " by mixing the following : a 

 quarter of a pound of treacle, one gill of ale or 

 porter, one quartern of rum, and one pound of 

 coarse brown sugar, which they heat to boiling- 

 point. A warm, cloudy evening, with the wind in 

 the south or the west, is the best. As soon as we 

 have done smearing, we walk round with our 

 bull's-eye lantern, camera, and flash-lamp, and photo- 

 graph any moths we may find hard at it, sucking 

 up the decoction through their long spiral trunks. 

 It is absolutely necessary to see that the moth 

 which is being photographed is not, in the ex- 

 uberance of its joy at having found such a treat, 

 vibrating its wings rapidly at the moment the plate 

 is exposed. 



It may be well to warn the student against 

 some of the unaccountable disappointments which 

 are likely to beset his path in this kind of work. 

 My brother and I have sometimes gone out on 

 evenings that appeared, according to all human cal- 

 culations, eminently suitable, and after "sugaring" 

 thirty or forty trees in a wide circle have not seen 

 a single moth. On the other hand, we have seen 

 crowds running about the trunks of trees which we 

 had " sugared " several nights before. 



Earwigs, beetles, and woodlice are almost, if not 

 quite, as fond of " sugar " as moths, and occasionally 



