io6 TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



" Tangles," which are constructed of a cross-beam of weighted 

 wood, to each end of which is attached a mass of old net, swabs, 

 or frayed-out rope, are useful to drag over the sea-bottom to 

 entangle echinoderms, corals, sponges, and other things, and are 

 sometimes used as a trawl from the boat. 



Nowadays, owing to the establishment of marine biological 

 stations, such as those at Naples, Plymouth, and other places, 

 it is possible to get rare forms of marine invertebrata (often 

 alive) at a small cost, and the Directors, if appealed to, will 

 always, most obligingly, endeavour to get any special forms not 

 on their lists — a kindness which now calls for grateful thanks 

 from the writer. 



So many works have been written upon the collecting and 

 preservation of insects, and the methods are so diverse, and 

 have been explained at such lengths by various authors, that it 

 would be impossible to touch even the fringe of the subject, or 

 to refer the entomologist to a hundredth part of the works 

 published. Suffice it to say that insects are collected in every 

 situation, even in the most unpromising ones, and are taken by 

 searching by day and night, and with insect-nets and beating, 

 and are lured into the clutches of the collector by light, " sugar," 

 and " assembling." Beetles are killed by benzoline, spirits, and 

 by other means, including that chiefly used for the Lepidoptera 

 — cyanide of potassium, — and are boxed, pinned, set, and 

 arranged in a great variety of ways, too numerous to particu- 

 larise here. 



The collecting of fossil forms, treated upon in some works, 

 especially foreign, dealing with collecting and taxidermy, is a 

 matter so comprehensive in its details and issues that the same 

 remarks apply to this as to the collecting of insects. 



