MANUAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 629 



fourteen inches high, and about the same in width, 

 having a solid bottom and accurately fitting door 

 opening in front ; the whole should be covered with 

 wire-gauze, and the interior fitted with three or 

 four sliding, corked setting-boards, including the 

 bottom, for spreading out insects. By this means 

 the specimens within will be protected from those 

 pests of the Naturalist, the cock-roaches and other 

 destructive insects, which would otherwise, in an 

 incredibly short time, destroy the results of a long 

 period of labour. 



9th. A strong iron-clamped chest, with the lid 

 grooved to receive a fillet, and made to contain a 

 number of thin and shallow boxes with lids simi- 

 larly constructed, should be provided for the smaller 

 and more delicate bird skins, while for the larger 

 skins, similar chests without the small ones would be 

 sufficient. A collection thus protected, though not 

 so numerous in species, would prove far more valu- 

 able than a more extensive one received in such a 

 condition that little or no use could be made of it. 

 Such disheartening instances are of too frequent 

 occurrence. What was intended to be a noble col- 

 lection, from being consigned to common packing- 

 cases, has, after the lapse of a considerable interval, 

 sometimes arrived from a distant country almost 

 totally destroyed. 



10th. A good store of chip boxes, both round 

 and oval, of various sizes, and nests of pill-boxes, 

 should be provided for delicate shells, eggs, large 

 Coleoptera, Crustaceans, Echinoderms, &c. 



