126 TAXIDERMY. 



Insects are very various according to the climate, 

 and the nature of the soil. We must not confine 

 ourselves to the largest and richest in colour. We 

 must collect all without distinction. We catch 

 those who are furnished with wings, and who fly 

 about plants, with gauze nets ; those who swim 

 in the water we procure with gauze nets. We 

 seize with pincers those who live on putrid and 

 disgusting substances, and we first throw them into 

 camphorated spirits to clean them. A multitude 

 of insects nourish themselves on trees: we procure 

 the greater part by carefully searching under the 

 old barks of the trunks, by shaking the branches 

 over a cloth, or reversed umbrella. When we 

 take an insect we seize it by the breast, and stick it 

 in a box, on cork, or wax, with a long pin ; we 

 must take care that the wings of butterflies, \vhich 

 continue to flutter until death, do not touch any 

 thing. When the insects are dry, we put them 

 into pasteboard boxes, with cork or wax at the 

 bottom, pinning them securely, to prevent their 

 being detached. It is very useful to have the cater-* 

 pillar at the same time that we have the butterfly. 

 When we find a caterpillar x>nly, it should be put 

 into a box with some leaves of the plant on which 

 it was found, that it may transform itself. A small 

 hole should be made in the box to admit the air. 

 All insects, except butterflies, may be put into spi- 

 rits, it is the best method of sending those which 



