18 NATURALISTS’ ASSISTANT. 
readily understood, after a few minutes’ study of one thus 
prepared ; and therefore all who wish to articulate artificial 
skeletons are respectfully requested to obtain the requisite 
knowledge by observation. Great care, however, should 
be exercised that none of the small bones be lost in the 
process of maceration. 
COLLECTING INSECTS. 
Insects are the most numerous both in individuals and in 
species of any group of the animal kingdom and may be 
found almost everywhere 
and at every season of the 
year. Their beauty, their 
numbers, and the ease 
with which they may be 
collected and_ preserved, 
render them great favor- 
BiG: 4- ites. Many a naturalist, 
who has acquired prominence, traces his studies to the 
collections of insects made in his youth. 
The insect collector needs certain pieces of apparatus 
none of them expensive and all easily made by one possess- 
ing an ordinary an ount of mechanical skill, or they may be 
readily procured in the shops. ‘Those most essential are 
insect nets, means of killing, and conveniences for carrying 
the specimens home. 
An insect net, fig. 4, is readily made by taking a stout brass 
wire (iron rusts too readily) and bending it into a ring about 
