COLLECTING INSECTS. 19 
twelve or fifteen inches in diameter. The ends of the wire 
should be bent out and soldered into a ferrule which will fit 
on the end of a cane or other handle. The net proper 
should be about twenty inches in depth and made of gauze 
or mosquito netting. It should not be attached directly to 
the ring, as it would then quickly fray out, but to a piece of 
strong cotton cloth which in turn is sewed to the ring. Other 
more elaborate forms are made in which the ring will fold up 
for convenience in carrying, but the saving hardly repays the 
additional expense. ‘Those interested will find a good de- 
scription and figure in Dr. Packard’s “ Directions for Collect- 
? 
ing and Preserving Insects, ”’ published by the Smithsonian 
Institution, page 4, fig. 2, 
where one or two other 
forms are also described. 
The net is used princi- 
pally for collecting the 
strong flying insects (¢. g., Butterflies), either on the wing 
or while at rest. With a swoop the net is brought over the 
insect, and then, by a dexterous twist, easily acquired but 
not readily described, the bag is thrown over the ring and 
the specimen is securely imprisoned. The insect may then 
either be pinned while in the net or transferred to the 
cyanide bottle to be described farther on. Lepidoptera may 
be killed while in the net by giving the thorax a severe pinch, 
of course taking care that the wings are not injured. 
A shallow scoop net, fig. 5, made in the same manner as 
the insect net above described is useful for collecting aquatic 
