1892.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. :2tl 



into another house, where the family are at dinner, and contaminate the 

 food set before them with the germs of tlie cholera carried on the moutli 

 parts and feet of the insects. Some of the family sicken and die, yet no 

 one of them will ever, perhaps, suspect that the flies may have carried the 

 germs, as supposed above, for miles from some other case. The safe- 

 guards are to at once clear away, disinfect with corrosive sublimate sdlu- 

 tiftn and scald the spots where the vomit has been thrown, and to be 

 vigilant in the use of fly-screens, fly-traps, etc. During the late war the 

 late Professor Leidy pointed out, with beneficent results, that the conmion 

 house-fly was instrumental in spreading the contagion of hospital gan- 

 grene. Why not beware of this imprudent and ubiquitous little dipter in 

 carrying and spreading the contagion of the dreaded Asiatic plague now 

 menacing us? — ^John A. Ryder, in Public Ledger. 



Gunning for Butterflies. — All, no doubt, are familiar with the usual 

 methods and paraphernalia wherewith butterflies are captured and pre- 

 served; the man with the gauze net, poison bottle, cork-lined box, folded 

 paper envelopes, wire pins and sundries ad libitum, long ago ceased to be 

 a curiosity in civilized lands. But there are some uinisual methods and 

 implements, a description of which will be likely to prove of interest. 

 Prominent among them is gunning for butterflies, an expedient that is 

 most useful where tropic vegetation induces high flight, and renders by 

 means of its density all chance for pursuit impossible. For this a small 

 bore gun or rifle is best, and dust-shot, such as is used by the humming- 

 bird hunters on the Amazon, or a water load is best. Any shot coarser 

 than dust-shot will prove too heavy and will ruin the specimen for sale by 

 tearing the wings. A gun that will scatter the dust widely should be se- 

 lected, and even then a few shot bunched may tear off a head or an ab- 

 domen and ruin the prize. My own preference is for a rifle firing a 32- 

 calibre, long cartridge, loaded with water. These cartridges can be 

 obt;ained with an extra heavy charge of powder and without the ball in 

 them. Before loading they should be smeared inside with melted paraf- 

 fine applied with a camel's-hair brush; this prevents the water load from 

 moistening the powder. But even with this precaution it is best to load 

 only so many shells as are likely to be used during the day, and the water 

 should be emptied from those that are left over at night. After filling the 

 shell with water up to within a thirty-second of an inch from the rim, a 

 tight-fitting, oiled wad can be forced down and a light coat of paraftine 

 be applied on top with the brush. I have tried water thickened with 

 starch, with gum arable, and with gum tragacanth, but I have never been 

 able to see that anything has been gained by thus rendering the charge 

 somewhat more self-adherent. The water load is much more sure to 

 bring yonr prize "to grass," and is not nearly so liable to tear and denude 

 the wings. The dust-shot will often cause a large specimen to deflect its 

 course, and by unmistakable signs show that it "has been hit, yet will not 

 bring it down. — Goldthwaite's Geographical Magazine. 



