CATCHING BUTTEEFLIES AND MOTHS 65 



It is probable that many of my readers are as yet unacquainted 

 with the nature of an entomologist's requirements for field work, 

 so we shall describe them, confining ourselves at first to those that 

 are required for a butterfly hunt. 



First and foremost comes the net. This essential portion of your 

 equipment may be either purchased or constructed by yourself. 

 Very little skill is required to enable you to do the former. Pro- 

 vided your pocket is well charged, you may start off at once to the 

 dealer in naturalists' appliances, and treat yourself to a complete 

 outfit. But even in this case a little advice may not be out of 

 place. See that what you purchase is very strongly made. You can 

 get nicely finished nets constructed on the most convenient prin- 

 ciples, made to fold and go in an ordinary coat pocket, but with 

 iveak joints. See that you have the most convenient form of net 

 by all means, but do not 

 go in for convenience and 

 appearance at the expense 

 of strength and durability. 

 Nothing is more annoying 

 than to find your net give 

 way just when you are in 

 the midst of a good day's 

 sport. ^^r-^^ FIG. 40. 



The folding net is cer- 

 tainly very convenient, for FIG. 39. A WIRE FRAME 

 you can conceal it in your R A BUTTERFLY NET. 

 pocket while you are walk- 

 ing through town or travelling in a railway carriage, and thus avoid 

 that contemptuous gaze which certain of the public are prone to 

 cast on a poor ' bug hunter.' And although such nets are generally 

 purchased, yet they may be constructed by anyone who has had 

 experience in the working of metals. But other forms of nets, 

 equally useful and even stronger, can be made by anybody ; and I 

 will give a few hints on two or three different ways of putting 

 them together. 



A very simple and strong frame for. a net may be made as 

 follows : Get a piece of stout iron or brass wire about forty inches 

 in length, and bend it into a circle with the two ends, turned out 

 about two inches each, at right angles to the circumference as 

 shown in the accompanying sketch. 



Now take a good tough stick, the length of an ordinary walking 



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