FIRST HINTS ON COLLECTING BUTTERFLIES. 115 



notice. It should be of such a length that you can reach the bottom comfortably 

 with your hand, not pointed, nor tapering, nor square, but gradually rounded. 



It is best always to make one's own nets, and it requires very little skill as 

 a seamster or seamstress. If, instead of fastening the leno itself to the frame 

 of the net, a top of calico is made, it will last much longer. 



The length of the stick or handle should be about that of an ordinary walk- 

 ing stick — I generally prefer it rather shorter. It should be remembered 

 that though with a long stick you have a longer reach you have a much more 

 uncertain aim. 



There are two ways of catching an insect on the wing with a net. One is to 

 hold it over your head and sweep downwards, bringing the net flat on the 

 ground with the insect inside, but quite inaccessible. The other is to sweep 

 sideways, and, having imprisoned the butterfly, to turn the wrist quickly, so that 

 the bag of the net folds over the frame and closes the opening. I recommend 

 the latter process. The first is bad for the net and necessitates kneeling on the 

 ground, and holding up the end of the bag until the imprisoned insect cheeses 

 to fly to the top before you can get at him. 



Having caught the specimen, the question arises, what to do with it ? Some 

 people carry pins with them, and, having pinched the thorax of the butterfly 

 through the net so as to render it more or less powerless— though, as a rule, rot 

 actually killing it — pin it to the inside of their topies- Others carry a small 

 cork-lined collecting box in their pockets to save their topies. Neither of these 

 is to be recommended. If you try pinning an insect in the jungle when you 

 are hot and dusty and with your hands possibly trembling with excitement (why 

 should they not be ?), you will probably do it very badly ; pinching often spoils 

 an insect, and is, in practice, rather cruel. 



Another way is to carry a killing bottle with you and inserting it frcm the 

 bottom of the net, work it upwards till you are able to corner your fluttering 

 prey in the mouth of it, and then fit the stopper in quickly. The disadvantages 

 of this process are two. One is that, as soon as it is dead, the specimen starts 

 shaking up and down in the bottle as you walk or run, and spoils its-elf. r J he 

 other is that in the case of closely allied species it is often imrossible to be 

 certain of their identity through the meshes of the net, and you may in this 

 way kill a number of common insects you do not want. 



The method of avoieling all these difficulties is to carry a number of 

 " pill-boxes " with glass bottoms of different sizes. These are readily procurable 

 at any store where entomological apparatus is for sale, and cost, I believe, fom 

 a shilling at home, and properly cared for will last a dozen years. It requires 

 no great skill to " box " the insect insiele the net, and the glass bottom enables 

 you to see what it is before killing it. They can in this way be carried heme 

 safely and put in the killing bottle at leisure. In boxing always have the end 

 of the net uppermost, as a butterfly when it finds itself surrounded by anything 

 from which it wishes to escape, whether long grass or green leno, always flies 

 upwards. 



