512 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. XXVI11- 
flies on that. Small butterflies take two days to relax, while large ones may 
take a week, but don’t leave them in the relaxing box too long or they gwilk 
get rotten and mould forms very quickly. Use fresh blotting paper 
for each batch and after damping it pour a few drops of 1 in 1,000 
solution of mercury chloride on to the blotting paper. Never set a butterfly 
until it is really relaxed and the wings can be bent down easily. 
24. To ensure freedom from trouble it is essential to have perfectly fitting. 
store boxes ; the bazaar made article will not do ; for collectors, who are settled,. 
cabinets are to be preferred. I get all my store boxes made by Watkins and 
Doncaster of three-ply wood, outside dimensions 17} inches x 12 x 21; they 
have proved most satisfactory, All one’s labours may be lost in a short space, if 
poorly made boxes are used, I float the boxes in a 1 in 1,000 solution of mereury 
chloride and see that the special cell is always filled with powdered napthalene. 
In the monsoon I put a small sponge dipped in creosote at the end of a pin im 
each box to keep off mould, but in very damp climates, such as Rangoon, it is 
as well to keep the store boxes in a tin lined airtight case, with a calcium drier’ 
put in every now and then. The butterflies should be arranged in accordance 
with some recognised order in rows at right angles to the long side of the box 
and each butterfly should have a small label on the pin below the body, record - 
ing the exact locality, elevation, if in the hills, and tke date of capture ; I use 
a small triangular card, thus; so that the 
labelcan be read without lifting up the a 
butterfly. If a body, leg or antenna YO? 
comes off, replace by means of shellac 
solution in methylated spirit, of a viscous 
consistency, but be quite sure thatit be- . 
longs to that particular insect ; if it does rig S. 6. 
not, dreadful troubie may ensue when a 
cabinet naturalist comes to make a detailed examination. The pins holding. 
the butterflies should not be handled except with special pin tweezers 
which can be obtained from Watkins and Doncaster and the A. and N.. 
Stores. I always ram a pin down as hard as I can into the linoleum lining of the 
box with these tweezers so that the butterfly cannot get loose, when travelling, 
and in the case of very heavy bodies, as in the Ornithoptera Papilionids, I cross 
pin them over, so that, if they do get loose, they cannot shake about in the box 
and ruin everything. For convenience of keeping the store boxes, I use cabinets 
of threeply wood, made forme by Williamson, Magor and Co. of Calcutta ; each 
cabinet takes 12 boxes, each on a shelf of its own and there is a well fitting slid- 
ing front. For travelling I use threeply wood packing cases of such a size that 
the cabinet is everywhere separated from the packing case by a space of 3 
inches and the intervening space is filled with carpets or clothes. I have takem 
these boxes about India by passenger train for some years and have so far suffer- 
ed no loss. If mould appears, brush it off with a fine paint brush and then dip 
the butterfly bodily into a bath of pure petrol or rectified benzine. For butter- 
flies set from a relaxing box that insist on springing their wings, whenever the 
weather is damp, apply a little shellac from the tip of a ladies hatpin to the base 
of the wings underneath, press down the wings to the correct position with am 
open finger, heat the hatpin red hot in a candle and touch the shellac ; it is a 
delicate operation, to be avoided, if possible ; every butterfly in the De Niceville 
collection in the Indian Museum has a touch of shellac at the base of the wings. 
25, The best form of envelope or “ cocked hat” for taking butterflies is 
made as shown in the sketch. I use 3 sizes, where A x B are respectively 64 
x 475,5 X 375, 3} X 2inches: C = 2 B. The large size fits into a Jacob’s 
biscuit tin vertically with the long side down; the medium size fits in with 
a short side down into a cigarette tin or Swallow and Ariel’s biscuit tin with 
the long side down ; the latter two kinds of tin takes the small sized papers 
