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COLLECTING AND PRESERVING INSECTS RILEY. 



A drawback to collecting with the umbrella is that many insects take 

 wing and escape before being secured. This can hardly be avoided, 



Fig. 52.— The Umbrella and its mode of use. (After Kiesenwetter.) 



and experienced collectors, in southern countries more particularly, 

 have found it advisable to discard the umbrella and to use in its stead 

 a very large butterfly net, 2 feet or more in diameter. 



The Beating Cloth. — A very simple substit^l^for the umbrella, and 

 one which can always be carried without inconvenience, may here be 

 described. It consists of a piece of common unbleached cotton cloth (1 

 yard square), to each corner of which a loop of stout twine is sewed. 

 Upon reaching the woods, two straight sticks, each about 5 feet in 

 length and not too heavy, but also not so small as to be liable to break 

 or to bend too easily, are cut from a convenient bush. The sticks are 

 placed crosswise over the cloth and fastened to the loops at the four 

 ends. This is easily and quickly done by making sliding loops of the 

 simple loops. The cloth is thus kept spread out between the sticks, 

 and forms a very good substitute for an umbrella. In beating, the 

 sticks are held at their intersecting points. When not in use one of 

 the loops is detached from the stick and the instrument can be rolled 

 up and carried under one arm without seriously interfering with other 

 operations of the collector. When laid on the ground, with the sticks 

 on the underside, this simple instrument may be advantageously used 

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