52 ETON NATURE-STUDY 



COLLECTIONS 



By Eastertide it will be time to seriously hunt for some of the 

 smaller animals. Centipedes and millipedes will be active and 

 readily found under stones and logs. Wood-lice, too, and some 

 spiders, will be discovered. A few specimens should be killed by 

 dropping them directly they are found into twenty-five per cent, or 

 thirty per cent, spirit, when they will gradually become narcotised, 

 and die. If it be desired to mount them (see Part I, figure 115), 

 they will be found at any time during the following few days in an 

 excellent condition for the purpose, that is to say, sufficiently limp 

 for their body, legs, and antennae to be arranged in suitable posi- 

 tions, and gummed to the glass upon which they are to be fixed.*' 

 In any case, in the end, the specimens obtained must be preserved 

 in stronger (seventy per cent.) spirit. A paper label, on which the date 

 and place of capture should be written with lead pencil, must be 

 dropped into the wide-mouthed bottle or jar used to contain them.^ 



It is of course impossible to consider everything that might be 

 searched for at the beginning of spring, but we might allude to land 

 and fresh-water shells, the former being tempted from their winter 

 hiding-places by April showers. We should not forget, however, 

 that many of the mosses among plants, even in the coldest weather, 

 bear their characteristic capsules, and the slime fungi considered 

 already (Part I, Chapter VI) may also be obtained. 



* See Appendix. 



