548 ENTOMOLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS, &C. 



them with braces. When you are become expert, you 

 will find, if the fly is not large, that a single brace will be 

 sufficient for each pair of wings a : but sometimes, if the 

 card be not sufficiently stiff, you may confine it by a pin 

 near the point. You must be careful in expanding the 

 wings that each is browght equally forward. Lastly, 

 give the antennae their proper position, and if necessary 

 confine them with braces ; and leave your specimen in 

 an airy situation to dry and stiffen. In a few days the 

 braces may be removed, and the specimen transferred to 

 the cabinet. When you put them away to become stiff, 

 you must be careful to place them and your other insects 

 at night where earwigs cannot come at them ; for in sul- 

 try weather these animals will often then attack and spoil 

 them. 



It is obvious that this process can only be performed 

 while the joints and ligaments of the insect are still 

 flexible ; so that small species, in warm weather, will 

 often be immoveably rigid before you can have an op- 

 portunity of setting them. On this account collectors 

 usually set minute moths as soon as taken, which can be 

 readily done on the lid of a cork -lined box. But for- 

 tunately both these, and specimens which have been 

 dried for years, may be relaxed and rendered pliable by 

 a very simple process. FilJ a basin more than half full 

 of sand, and saturate it with water ; pour off the super- 

 fluous water, and cover the sand with blotting-paper : 

 into this stick the insects you wish to relax, and cover- 

 ing the basin closely, leave them there for two or three 

 days, according to their size; and the evaporation will 

 render them sufficiently flexible for expansion or any 

 " PLATE XXIV. FIG. 9. 



