CHAPTEK VIII. 



HOW TO COLLECT, STUDY, AND PRESERVE INSECTS. 



Of the members of the Agassiz Association, more 

 have expressed a preference for the study of entomology 

 than for almost any other branch. Curiously enough, 

 the girls seem to be quite as fond of insects as the boys 

 are. It is not difficult to account for this preference. 

 The many-hued wing's of butterflies flashing 1 in the sun, 

 the metallic gleam of beetles, the feathery grace and 

 rich coloring of the moths, the dreamy pinions of dragon- 

 flies, the excitement of the chase, and above all, the mys- 

 terious and symbolic changes which attend insect life, 

 shed a bright fascination about insect-study. 



Attracted by this light our boys and girls are flut- 

 tering about the homes of bugs and beetles very much in 

 the same manner that bugs and beetles flutter about the 

 lights in our human habitations. Let me, then, hasten 

 to answer the three questions Avhich are puzzling so 

 many of our correspondents: How catch ? how kill? how r 

 keep? By far the best way to catch a butterfly is to find 

 a caterpillar; keep it in a glass box; feed with leaves of 

 the plant on which you found it; and watch day by day, 

 as it changes its various garments, spins itself up till 

 it bursts or perforates its cerements and unrolls its 

 wings, with every painted shingle in its place, its feathers 

 quite unruifled on its head, and its six legs under it in 

 unmutilated perfection. 



In addition to this method of capture, you will need 

 a light gauze net- Any boy can make one of these in half 

 an hour. Get three-fourths of a yard o : f silk veiling; 

 make a bag of it, with a hem around the top wide enough 

 to run a pipe-stem through; pass a thick wire through 



