MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 821 



touches the wood beneath ; by this means all the insects on that board and 

 indeed all insects of the same size will be on the same height of pin, thereby 

 improving greatly the appearance of the collection. Instead of narrow strips 

 •of paper some ordinary tracing paper, or better still in the tropics, architects' 

 tracing paper should be obtained. Two strips, the length of the board, 

 should be cut one for each side, varying in breadth according to the size 

 of the insects, but all the insects on one board will be nearly of the same size. 

 The transparency of the paper enables one to see at a glance if the insect is 

 properly set. I need not further describe the process as the woodcut given 

 here will, I think, be sufficiently explanatory. 



One decided advantage of this method is the greater number of insects that 

 <;an be accommodated on the setting boards. There is no difficulty with regard 

 to collecting boxes and cabinets for high set insects, all that is necessary is to 

 state one's requirements to the dealers who are quite accustomed to this 

 method of storing insects. 



I am further constrained to make a few remarks on Mr. Young's methods of 

 killing butterflies or rather his method of bringing them home for subsequent 

 dispatch, I do so not because I wish to criticise Mr. Young's methods adversely 

 but to save the young collector for whom he is writing from considerable 

 mental perturbation when he endeavours by following Mr. Young's methods to 

 inveigle a lively Charaxes into a glass bottomed box. I doubt the possibility of 

 such an entomological feat and doubt whether an Omithoptera, measuring some 

 six inches in expanse, could by any means short of hydraulic pressure, be com- 

 pressed into a pill box of ordinary dimensions. But perhaps I am hypercritical ! 

 I am personally an advocate for a judicious use of either of the three methods 

 mentioned by Mr. Young according to circumstances. All large and medium 

 -size insects can be disposed of by the first method which if skilfully adminis- 

 tered causes the victim less pain, I imagine, than suffocation in a killing bottle. 

 The killing bottle is useful for the smaller insect, more particularly the 

 Hesperidce for which I consider it imperative. One great advantage of this 

 method is that the capture being rendered insensible can be examined at leisure 

 and if not required can be discarded with the certainty of its recovery, pro- 

 vided, of course, that it has not been kept in the bottle too long. The glass 

 bottom boxes are particularly useful for females we may wish to bring home 

 for breeding purposes, but it is to be remembered that many butterflies are very 

 restive in boxes and frequently damage themselves irremediably. After the 

 victim is defunct I pin it sideway through the thorax with the finest available 

 pin and subsequently re-pin it for setting. There is no difficulty in removing 

 the fine pin provided a piece of damp sponge is kept in the collecting box. 

 One tip I learnt from my Lepcha collectors in Sikhim was that if one's collect- 

 ing box becomes full one can economize space by using very fine long continen- 

 tal pins ; the first capture is pinned sideways and pushed close up to the pin's 

 head, the next close up to it and so on, and by this means some half dozen or 

 more butterflies can be impaled on the same pin ; at first it looks disastrous but 



