COLLECTION OF INSECTS. 29 



pursuit, during his leisure of many years, at length acquired 

 the art of giving to his figures of moths a beautiful downy 

 appearance, so like nature, that we have known a volume of 

 his drawings sold for many pounds. Can it be denied that 

 if, amongst the lower classes, the collecting of objects of 

 nature, and such-like pursuits, were more general, the vice 

 of drunkenness and the reign of gin-palaces would be over? 

 It is not of course my intention, in this work, to lay down 

 an account of the instruments required, or the modes of col- 

 lecting insects, for the information of the mere collector. 

 These will be found in Kirby and Spence's Introduction, in 

 the " Insect Miscellanies," or in Mr. Ingpen's little manual 

 devoted to this subject. Suffice it to say, in this place, that 

 when captured and killed, either by immersion in scalding 

 water (as is usually done with beetles), or by being placed in 

 a close small box, with bruised laurel leaves (as is very ser- 

 viceable with flies, moths, &c.) the insect is stuck through 

 one of the wing cases (if a beetle), or between the wings (if 

 a fly or moth), with a pin proportioned to its size ; the entire 

 collection being preserved in chip-boxes, or in a cabinet of 



shallow glazed drawers, having the bottom lined with cork 

 and covered with paper. 



