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CHAPTER V. 



VARIOUS MODES OF COLLECTING. 



THE collector of Lepidoptera is able, by means of two 

 different devices, to obtain with comparative ease a vast 

 number of species ; these two modes may be briefly 

 termed sugar and light. The system of sugaring, as 

 now practised, dates only from the year 1842. Before 

 that date, it is true, the partiality of night-flying moths 

 had been observed, but we were gravely recommended 

 to take an empty sugar hogshead and place it in the 

 vicinity of a wood; now the collector carries in his 

 pocket a tin-can filled with the sugaring compound, and 

 by means of a painter's brush spreads it on the trunks 

 of those trees that seem to him best adapted for his 

 purpose. He does this just as it is getting dusk, and 

 then, lighting his hand-lamp, proceeds to examine the 

 sugar trees as darkness comes on ; and if the evening 

 be favourable to his pursuit, before two hours have 

 elapsed he has his pockets well filled with Noctuse taken 

 " at sugar." 



To make this sugaring compound, all that is required 

 is coarse brown sugar, dissolved in water arid beer till 

 it is sufficiently thick but yet still fluid enough to allow 

 of its being spread on the trunks of the trees by the 

 painter's brush already mentioned ; each evening, before 



t; 



