224 THE BRITISH NATURE BOOK 



to September should be chosen. On going back later to the places thus 

 " baited," if the night is a good one for the " sport," the moths will be found 

 either greedily devouring the food, or already gorged with it. 



Various recipes have been given for the sugar mixture, but any thick, 

 strong-smelling (this is important) syrup will do. Treacle, in which a little 

 beer or rum has been mixed, or sugar boiled till thick and mixed with the 

 same " intoxicants," or flavoured with apple, pear, aniseed, etc., may be used. 

 Many moths haunt the sweet-smelling and nectar-producing flowers by night, 

 and a hunt in the garden in the dark with a lamp (an electric pocket torch, 

 for instance) will often yield a succession of captures. Look especially at the 

 following plants when in bloom verbenas and pinks, honeysuckle, nettles, 

 ivy, and sallow. 



Many species also come to a light, and may be taken at a window or at a 

 lamp fixed up outside. Some valuable prizes have been obtained round a 

 street lamp before now, and indeed it is astonishing to notice how many 

 moths are thus decoyed to their deaths by the street lamps in our suburbs. 



What is said above as to the setting of butterflies applies equally to moths ; 

 but the latter need some special care if they happen to be large-bodied species. 

 If left in a natural state, they either shrivel up when dry, or suffer from 

 " grease " that is, become saturated with an oily exudation from the abdomen. 

 In the first case, the body can be stuffed. Cut the body off at the waist, 

 extract the contents with a bent wire, and fill it with a tuft of cotton wool 

 on which a few drops of some preservative may be put, afterwards seccotin- 

 ing it back in its place. In the case of the second calamity, dip the whole 

 moth bodily into methylated spirits, and then leave it to dry. This is a 

 complete cure. 



BRITISH BUTTERFLIES : LIST OF SPECIES, WITH OCCASIONAL NOTES. 



I suggest that my little book, Butterflies, and how to identify Them, should 

 be used as a " handbook " to this section as a pocket guide, which may be 

 taken out, like the bird and flower books referred to in the sections dealing 

 with these subjects. 



Family : Papilionidce. Genus : Papilionince. 



i. The Swallow-tail (Papilio machaon). Unmistakable. 

 Food plant Milk parsley, angelica, fennel, wild carrot. 

 Larva Green, with orange-spotted black bands. 



Pupa Sometimes green, sometimes a yellowish brown ; fixed with girdle 

 of silk, head upwards, on stems of reeds. 

 Eggs Laid May or June. 

 Locality Norfolk Broads and fenny districts. 

 Many larvae I have found pierced by the ichneumon. 



