588 PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY. 



by the motion of their wings greatly injure their beauty by 

 rubbing off the fine coloured scales with which they are co- 

 vered. It is convenient, therefore, to kill them by com- 

 pressing their sides, or fixing them with the pin through 

 the thorax laterally. Some, after killing them by com- 

 pression, carry them home in the leaves of a book. In 

 many cases the killing of the animal is a more difficult task 

 than its capture. Some suffer them to writhe on the pin 

 until they die from pain or hunger. Others shorten their 

 sufferings by suffocating them with the fumes of burning 

 brimstone, or by passing a red hot needle, or one dipped in 

 aquafortis, through their bodies, while a few attempt to kill 

 them by putting oil of turpentine or tobacco in their 

 mouths. Fumigation, however, is the most expeditious 

 method. When this is inconvenient, they may be put into 

 a small tin box, which must be immersed half its depth in 

 boiling water : the heat communicated to the box will 

 speedily kill them. 



When the animal is dead, it is then to be set in a natu- 

 ral position, in reference to its wings, legs, and antennae, 

 these organs being kept in their proper place by pins stuck 

 in the cork below, or by slips of card fixed down with pins. 

 When dry it is fit to be added to the collection. 



The marine Crustacea must be steeped in water before 

 being dried. The larger kinds must be embowelled, and a 

 little preserving powder introduced. 



In order to exhibit the history of an insect, it is neces- 

 sary to preserve it in the egg, larva, and pupa state, as 

 well as the imago. The eggs and pupa are easily preserved 

 by drying, but many of the fleshy larvae require, previous 

 to being dried, to be embowelled, and the cavity distended 

 >vith air, cotton, or sand. When perfect insects are obtain- 

 ed in a dry state, without having been set, their differ- 

 ent members may be readily relaxed for that purpose, by 



