84 WORK AT HOME AND IN THE FIELD 



direct in these. This method of ' pill-boxing ' is very simple in 

 the case of the lazy and soundly sleeping moths. It is only 

 necessary to hold the open box below the insect, and then cause 

 it to fall by pressing the lid down gently on it from above. 



Many of the moths so caught will remain quiet in the boxes 

 and can be taken home alive without much fear of damage. All 

 may then be killed at the same time by packing all the pill 

 boxes in some vessel of sufficient accommodation, and shutting 

 them in with a little chloroform, ammonia, benzole, or other 

 suitable poison. The vapour will soon find its way through the 

 pores of the pill boxes, but, in order to make its action speedy, 

 each one should have a few perforations in the lid. 



"Whatever advantages this method may give to the collector 

 who works at night, when the process of pinning would be more 

 or less tedious, there is no necessity for its adoption during the 

 day. The large number of pill boxes required is certainly far 

 more bulky than the single collecting box that would accommodate 

 all the day's captures ; and although most of the insects boxed 

 alive may be none the worse for the shaking they get, and may not 

 damage themselves by fluttering in their small prisons, yet there is 

 often a little loss on this score. 



If you do adopt the pill-boxing method, be very careful 

 that you do not mix the occupied boxes with the empties ; and un- 

 less you fix on some definite plan for the prevention of such an 

 occurrence, you will often find yourself releasing a prisoner from a 

 box you have just opened to receive a new-comer. 



Suppose that you start with all your empties in your right 

 pocket. Then each one, as soon as it is tenanted, might be placed 

 in the left, with the name of the insect, or any particular concern- 

 ing it you would wish to note, pencilled on the lid. 



When examining the trunks of trees you will be continually 

 meeting with specimens of very small 'Moths--Pyralides, Crambi, 

 Tortrices, and Tinece and at first may find some difficulty in 

 boxing or bottling such small and delicate creatures. A grass 

 stalk will enable you to tip some of them into your killing bottle, 

 but some are so snugly packed in crevices o'f the bark that it is 

 almost impossible to get them out without damage, even with a 

 thin and slender stalk. But a sudden puff of wind from your 

 mouth will often be sufficient to dislodge them and blow them 

 into your net, and from this they are easily transferred to a box or 

 bottle. 



