BULLETIN 39, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. [28] 



SO fitted, they are secured by a large-headed screw, e, threaded to fit into 

 the nut-socket, and with a groove wide enough to receive the back of a 

 common pocket-knife blade. The wire hoop i s easily detached and folded, 

 as at c, for convenient carriage ; and the handle may be made of any de- 

 sired length by cutting a stick and fitting it into the hollow tube a, which 

 should be about 6 inches long. It is well to have two separate hoops, one 

 of lighter wire, furnished with silk gauze or some other light material, for 

 catching flying insects, and one which is stouter and furnished with a 

 net of stronger material for sweei^ing non-flying specimens. 



''Another still more simple, but less convenient frame, is thus de- 

 scribed by my friend F. G-. Sanborn, of Boston, Mass. : 



' Make a loop of strong iron or brass wire, of abont 3-16ths of an inch in 

 thickness, so that the diameter of the loop or circle will not exceed 12 

 inches, leaving an inch to an inch and a half of wire at 

 each end bent at nearly right angles. Bind the two ex- 

 tremities of the wire together with smaller wire (Fig. 45, a), 

 and tin them by applying a drop of muriate of zinc, then 

 holding it in the fire or over a gas flame nntil nearly red 

 hot, when a few grains of block tin or soft solder placed 

 upon them will flow evenly over the whole surface and join 

 them firmly together. Take a Maynard rifle cartridge 

 tube, or other brass tube of similar dimensions: if the 

 Pig. 45.-Tiie formcT, file off the closed end or perforate it for the admis- 

 Sanborn net- sion of the wirc, and having tinned it in the same manner 

 frame. ^^ ^^^ iuside, push a tight-fitting cork half way through 



(Fig.c) and pour into it melted tin or soft solder, and insert the wires; if 

 carefully done, you will have a firmly constructed and very durable foun- 

 dation for a collecting net. The cork being extracted will leave a conven- 

 ient socket for inserting a stick or walking cane to serve as a handle.^ 

 ''My friend, J. A. Lintner, of Albany, K. Y., makes very good use, 

 in his ordinary promenades, of a telescopic fish-rod, with a head (Fig. 

 46) screwed on to one end, in which to fasten an elastic brass coil on 

 which the net is drawn, but which when not in nse sits snugly 

 inside his silk hat. 



"The bag should taper to the bottom, and in any case its 

 length should be fully twice the diameter of the hoop, so that 

 by giving the net a twist, the mouth may be closed and the 

 contents thus secnred. The sweeping-net may be protected 

 around the hoop with leather, and in use should be kept in a 

 steady and continued back-and-forth motion, over and touch- 

 ing the plants, until the contents are to be examined; when, 

 by placing the head at the opening and quietly surveying the 

 restless inmates, the desiderata may be secured and the rest 

 turned out. A sudden dash of the air-net will usually lay any 

 flying object at the bottom. A net for aquatic insects may be 

 made on the same principle, but should be stout, with the 

 meshes open enough to allow free passage of water, and the bag not quite 



