ENTOMOLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS, &C. 54-1 



of wine, and shall here repeat my recommendation ; for 

 after several years trial, I am of Bb'hm's opinion, who 

 had tried it nine years a , that it is superior to any other 

 method ; particularly, because it not only effectually kills 

 the insects, and they may be put together into it while 

 you are collecting, if you have no reason for keeping 

 them separate, of all sorts and sizes, in a wide-mouthed 

 phial, without danger of their devouring each other: 

 but when you come home wearied with a long day's 

 hunt, you may let your insects remain in it without in- 

 jury till the next morning. In collecting beetles abroad, 

 when there is a want of store-boxes the readiest way is 

 to put them into a wide-mouthed bottle or jar filled with 

 any spirit, and send them home in it : some few may 

 lose their colours, or become greasy ; but in general they 

 will receive little injury. This method saves room, and 

 avoids the risk of breakage. The derangement which 

 some hairy species sustain from this method may be rea- 

 dily repaired by brushing them with a dry camel' s-hair 

 pencil. 



When you wish to take the insects you have immersed 

 in spirits out of the phial, you must strain its contents 

 through a piece of muslin, return the spirit into it for 

 future use, and spread the insects separately upon blot- 

 ting-paper, to absorb the moisture remaining about them. 

 With regard to such as you have in boxes or phials with- 

 out spirit, these must be immersed in a basin of boiling 

 water. First empty into it the contents of your boxes, 



a Illig. Mag. iii. 222. Mr. Stephens however, whose experience 

 is great in the best modes of collecting, is of opinion that insects that 

 have been immersed in spirits of wine are apt to become mouldy. 

 We have not ourselves observed this. 



