4^4 APPENDIX III 



into the bottom of a wide-mouthed bottle holding about 

 four ounces, and covering this cyanide with wet plaster of 

 Paris. When the plaster sets it will hold the cyanide in 

 place, and allow the fumes given off by its gradual 

 volatilization to fill the bottle. Insects dropped into 

 it will be killed in from two or three to ten minutes. 

 Keep a little tissue paper in the bottle to soak up moisture 

 and to prevent the specimens from rubbing. Also keep 

 the bottle well corked. Label it "Poison," and do not 

 breathe the fumes (hydrocyanic gas). Insects may be left 

 in it over night without injury to them. 



Butterflies or dragon-flies too large to drop into the 

 killing-bottle may be killed by dropping a little chloro- 

 form or benzine on a piece of cotton, to be placed in a 

 tight box with them. Larvae (caterpillars, grubs, etc.) 

 and pupae (chrysalids) should be dropped into the vials of 

 alcohol. 



In collecting, visit flowers, sweep the net back and 

 forth over the small flowers and grasses of meadows and 

 pastures, look under stones, break up old logs and stumps, 

 poke about decaying matter, jar and shake small trees 

 and shrubs, and visit ponds and streams. Many insects 

 can be collected in summer at night about electric lights, 

 or a lamp by an open window. 



When the insects are brought home or to the school- 

 room they must be " pinned up." Buy insect-pins, long, 

 slender, small-headed, sharp-pointed pins, of a dealer in 

 naturalists' supplies (see p. 453). These pins cost ten 

 cents a hundred. Order Klaeger pins, No. 3, or Carls- 

 baeder pins, No. 5. These are the most useful sizes. 

 For larger pins order Klaeger No. 5 (Carlsbaeder No. 8) ; 

 for smaller order Klaeger No. I (Carlsbaeder No. 2). 

 Pin each insect straight down through the thorax (fig. 170) 

 (except beetles, which pin through the right wing-cover 

 near the middle of the body). On each pin below the 



