TAXIDERMY. 101 



follow them. In India, the phalaenae prefer habita- 

 tions ; attracted by the light ; they enter the case- 

 ments, which are always open in the evening to 

 admit the cool air of that hour. We catch them 

 with a net in the usual way. In the morning, we 

 find them asleep on the ceilings, and inside and 

 outside walls of the houses. A skilful person can 

 prick them against the wall, and has no occasion 

 for a net. The means we have recommended, with 

 respect to nocturnal butterflies, and the sphinges, 

 are very insufficient to procure us a numerous col- 

 lection of species. We must, therefore, have recourse 

 to rearing caterpillars. 



To bring them home, we procure some boxes of 

 pasteboard, from four to six inches in diameter ; 

 we must bore a hole in the lid to give them air, 

 and a piece of clear gauze must be pasted over the 

 hole, to prevent them from escaping. We put the 

 caterpillars we have collected into one of these 

 boxes, adding some leaves of the plant on which 

 they feed ; to carry these boxes more easily during 

 our excursion, they should fit one into another. 

 When we come home, we must place these cater- 

 pillars in much larger boxes, each species sepa- 

 rately, with a handful of the foliage of the plant on 

 which we found them. These branches ought to 

 be placed in the middle of the box, and in a small 

 vessel of water to keep them fresh ; it is necessary 

 that the branches touch the sides of the box, that 

 F 3 



