LETTER L. 



ON ENTOMOLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS; AND 

 THE BEST METHODS OF COLLECTING, 

 BREEDING, AND PRESERVING INSECTS. 



HAVING in my last letter given you some account of 

 the haunts of insects, I now proceed to describe the va- 

 rious instruments with which you ought to be provided, 

 to enable you to collect them ; and the best mode of em- 

 ploying each. The Entomologist when he makes an 

 excursion should have three principal objects in view, 

 for which he ought to be duly prepared. The first is to 

 find insects, the next is to catch them, and the last when 

 taken to bring them safe home. In exploring their 

 haunts he must also recollect that some will be reposing; 

 others feeding; others walking or running; others Jly- 

 ing ; others swimming ; others lurking in various places 

 of concealment, and in different states of existence ; and 

 that he must be prepared with means of coming at and 

 capturing them under all these circumstances. 



1. First furnish yourself with a strong knife or other in- 

 strument with which you can raise the bark or penetrate 

 the wood of any tree, when circumstances indicate that in- 

 sects are busy below the one or within the other. There 



