DURHAM DIPTERA. 5 



before mentioned, which will soon kill them, the others will all 

 recover if they have not been left too long in the ether. Pin 

 them perpendicularly through the middle of the back with a 

 Tayler's No. 20 pin (D. F. Tayler and Co., Limited, New 

 Hall Works, Birmingham), and pass the pin through the 

 middle of a disc of white card to about the half. Take the 

 lower part of the pin in the left hand, raise the fly a little 

 above the card, pull out the legs, which will probably be 

 curled below, and touch the wings so as to bring them into a 

 position rising upwards and outwards at a considerable angle, 

 which, though not a natural position, is the one in which most 

 of them die, and is the best for examination. Then having 

 arranged the fly to your liking (elaborate setting is not at all 

 desirable), snip off the top of the pin with a pair of bent-nail 

 scissors, and pass a Tayler's No. 16 pin through the edge of 

 the card to the right of the fly. Write the place and date of 

 capture either on the under side of the card, or on a small 

 ticket at the base of the large pin, and put the specimen away 

 to dry. A 50-cigar box, with a piece cut out of each end, and 

 a bit of fine muslin pasted over the holes, forms an excellent 

 drying case. Similar boxes left entire, cork bottom-lined, 

 covered with bookbinder's cloth, and ranged like books on 

 shelves, make a cheap and excellent substitute for the ex- 

 pensive insect cabinet, and, unlike it, they are capable of 

 extension at any point required, with very slight re-arrange- 

 ment of the specimens. A little powdered albo-carbon, to be 

 got at most gas-fitters, dropped into each box, and renewed 

 from time to time, will keep marauders away. 



