4A BRITISH BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 



an hour or two, according to the amount of active 

 prussic acid in the laurel leaves, the insects will all be 

 dead.* 



The butterflies being now defunct, the next process is 

 to pin them. Entomological pins, such as are in general 

 use by British collectors, may be obtained of Messrs. 

 Edelsten and Williams, 17, Silver Street, City, or of 

 Messrs. Kirby, Beard, and Co., of 18, Cannon Street, 

 City, the latter supplying the japanned pins which are 

 so necessary for those insects which have a tendency to 

 corrode the pins. However, for butterflies, the usual 

 white entomological pins will be found to answer every 

 purpose, and a most useful size is the No. 8 of Messrs. 

 Edelsten and Williams. 



Most butterflies, when turned out dead from the 

 killing-bottle, will be found to have the wings meeting- 

 over the back, as we see them when sleeping on a flower. 

 Perhaps, however, some one of the. lot will have died 

 with its wings expanded. If we turn it out on a rough 

 tablecloth, with its upper side towards us, we take the 

 pin and with it pierce the middle of the thorax, as 

 nearly as possible in a vertical position. (The rough 

 tablecloth is convenient in preventing the insect slip- 

 ping away from us when we attempt to pin it, which it 

 certainly would do were it on a smooth surface ; if a 

 rough table-cover is not at hand, we would recommend 

 several thicknesses of blotting paper as furnishing a 

 convenient surface on which to pin the insects.) 



Then remove the butterfly sticking on the end of the 

 pin to a piece of soft cork, and push the pin in till from 



* A killing-bottle, if kept well corked or stoppered, will retain 

 its efficacy for months. We have sometimes used them for 

 two years before their virtue was quite exhausted. 



