Sugaring for Moths 



black and crimson. In the yellow light of the lantern the wings 

 appear even more brilliant than they do in sunlight. How the 

 eyes glow like spots of fire! The moth is wary. He has just 

 alighted; he has not yet drunk deep. Move cautiously! Keep 

 the light of the lantern steadily upon him. Uncover your 

 poisoning jar. Approach. Hold the jar just a little under the 

 moth, for he will drop downward on the first rush to get away. 

 Clap the jar over him! There! you have done it! You have 

 him securely. He flutters for a moment, but the chloroform acts 

 quickly and the flutterings cease. Put that jar into one pocket 

 and take out another. Now let us go to the next tree. It is an 

 old walnut. The trunk is rough, seamed, and full of knotted 

 excrescences. See what a company has gathered! There are a 

 dozen moths, large and small, busily at work tippling. Begin 

 with those which are nearest to the ground. When I was young 

 my grandfather taught me that in shooting wild turkeys resting 

 in a tree, it is always best to shoot the lowest fowl first, and 

 then the next. If you shoot the gobbler which perches highest, 

 as he comes tumbling down through the flock, he will startle 

 them all, and they will fly away together; but if you take those 

 which are roosting well down among the branches, those above 

 will simply raise their heads and stare about for a moment to find 

 out the source of their peril, and you can bag three or four before 

 the rest make up their minds to fly. I follow the same plan with 

 my moths, unless, perchance, the topmost moth is some 

 unusual rarity, worth all that suck the sweets below him. 



Bravo! You have learned the lesson well. You succeeded 

 admirably in bottling those Taraches which were sucking the 

 moisture at the lower edge of the sweetened patch. There 

 above them is a fine specimen of Strenoloma lunilinea. Aha! 

 You have him. Now take that Catocala. It is amasia, a charm- 

 ing little species. Above him is a specimen of cara, one of the 

 largest and most superb of the genus. Well done! You have 

 him, too. Now wait a moment! Have your captives ceased 

 their struggles in your jar? Yes; they seem to be thoroughly 

 stunned. Transfer them to the other jar for the cyanide to do its 

 work. Look at your lantern. Is the wick trimmed? Come 

 on then. 



Let us go to the next tree. This is an ash. The moist spot 



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