NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 359 



animal tissues, and have met with some success. First I keep them a 

 day or two in Eanvier's alcohol, and then in one of the bichromate of 

 potash liquids ; then wash in water, and finally dehydrate in absolute 

 alcohol ; they are then fit for setting. Some I did last spring are 

 unchanged, and even the abdomen is not contracted. I think that 

 when naturalists know they can be so preserved as to be readily com- 

 pared and look presentable in a cabinet, they may take to them. — 



B. PiFFARD. 



Uniformity in Setting Lepidoptera. — Mr. Walter Dannatt's re- 

 marks (ante, p. 330) express exactly my own views on the subject. I 

 quite fail to see any necessity for flat-setting high or otherwise. The 

 main argument adduced in its favour is that insects so set are more 

 readily and easily examined, but surely this is a very slight one, and 

 quite inadequate to compensate for the great loss in appearance which 

 such specimens sustain ; for I quite agree with Mr. Dannatt that flat- 

 set insects look unnatural and painfully artificial. It seems to me 

 that we collectors of British Lepidoptera are desired to set our speci- 

 mens flat simply for the benefit or convenience of those who go in for 

 foreign insects as well, and we are accused of having ''insular pre- 

 judices" and the like because we do not at once adopt the style. 

 There is no prejudice at all in the matter that I can see. It is not 

 given to everyone to have the means, the time, or the desire to do 

 more than collect the British species ; and, such being the case, they 

 who have thus to confine their energies simply prefer to retain the 

 curved mode of setting ; but they find no fault with those who collect 

 foreign insects as well, and who do not see as they do. Uniformity in 

 height on the pin is certainly desirable, but this can be arrived at 

 equally well with curved as with flat-setting. The former is the hall- 

 mark, so to speak, of a British insect, and I trust will so remain. — 

 E. Sabine; Erith. 



High-flat Setting of Lepidoptera. — Mr. Walter Dannatt's re- 

 mark on this subject {ante, p. 330) seems to me to be one-sided and 

 prejudiced ; so much has lately been said on the subject that I cannot 

 understand where the objection to high-flat setting, which is now 

 adopted everywhere, except in this country, comes in. And even in 

 London the British Museum is resetting its specimens, if I am rightly 

 informed. If, as Mr. Dannatt says, high-set specimens are classed at 

 once as " continental," what prevents a dealer, or anyone, to reset his 

 specimens and give them out as English, if he feels so inclined ? the 

 setting alone is no guarantee. Then, as to the exploded idea of looking 

 "natural"; this seems to me to be still more absurd. If we talk of 

 natural, we must not put the insect on a pin, and whether the wings 

 are drooping or not, neither is natural — if this word must be used — 

 since moths are not found in such positions as are shown in cabinets, 

 whether they are high- or low-set. How often has the objection 

 been pointed out to the English way of setting, in giving mites a 

 beautiful chance of attacking the insects which all touch the bottom 

 of the drawers, the small pins which nobody can get hold of properly, 

 and other disadvantages ; and if anyone will look at a drawer of Lepi- 

 doptera, as shown by Mr. Elwes and others at the Entomological 



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