9 



specimens become very brittle and easily broken. They should there- 

 fore be stored in small firm boxes. Cigai" boxes are very convenient. 



Grasshoppers and other Orthoptera may be killed in the cyanide 

 bottle and each one rolled up lightly in soft paper and then stored away 

 in the same manner. 



Beetles and Bugs — All Coleoptera and Hemiptefra may be either 

 placed at once in alcohol or in bottles containing sawdust dampened with 

 alcohol. 



Bees, Ants and Wasps may be collected for examination in alcohol 

 but when possible they should be killed in the cyanide bottle and pinned 

 in a cork-lined box. 



Flies must be killed and pinned at once. 



Spiders may be collected in alcohol. 



Cyanide Bottle — This may be made either by placing a small quan- 

 tity of Cyanide of Potassium in the bottom of a bottle and pouring in 

 sufficient wet Plaster-of- Paris to cover it; or a hole can be hollowed out 

 in the cork and a piece of cyanide inserted. This can be kept in place 

 either with a plug of cotton wool, or a piece of chamois leather or linen 

 may be tied over the cork. For beetles a few very small pieces of 

 cyanide dropped into a bottle half filled with dry sawdust will answer. 



It must be remembered that the active principle of Cyanide of 

 Potassium being Prussic Acid it is intensely poisonous — any left on 

 hand afterThe bottles are made should be at once destroyed. 



Pla.its — Botanical specimens are made by pressing plants be- 

 tween sheets of dry paper and changing the jiapers every 12 or 24 hours 

 until the specimens are dry. When staying for any length of time at 

 one place a convenient press may be made as follows : Pat down a few 

 sheets of paper and on the top of these arrange a specimen, then a few 

 more sheets of paper and another plant, and so on until all are arranged. 

 Upon the top of the pile so formed put a box in which stones or sand 

 to about the weight of twenty pounds maybe placed. When travelling 

 two boards held together with straps will answer all purposes. The 

 quicker plants are dried the better the specimens will be. The papers 

 for drying plants should never be left unchanged for more than 24 

 hours. 



J. FLETCHER. 



