50 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



Until we have the country much fuller of birds and other 

 insectivorous animals than it is, we may expect to have 

 storms of different kinds of insects. It may be grass- 

 hoppers or crickets or army worms or plant lice or June 

 beetles or caterpillars of a hundred kinds. We never 

 can tell what will come next, so, while the following are 

 described as probably of greatest importance at present 

 and for some time to come, we must not be too much 

 influenced by a formal list, but keep our minds open to 

 study nature as it flows by and be ever ready to do the 

 thing that is most worth our while. 



Apparatus and Methods. — The first thing to provide is 

 something to catch insects with, the insect net. This 

 may be easily made by taking a piece of No. 12 spring 

 brass wire four or five feet long. Bend it into a round 

 loop about a foot in diameter, crossing the wire six inches 

 from the ends and giving it one firm twist. Next, 

 clamping it tightly against a small iron rod or round 

 stick in a vise, wind the ends closely around the rod into 

 a spiral. You now have a convenient frame into which 

 any stick can be screwed for a handle. The net may be 

 made from three-quarters of a yard of cotton tulle or light 

 cheese cloth sewed into a bag rounded at the bottom and 

 just as large as the frame at the top. It lasts longer if 

 a narrow border of sheeting to cover the wire is stitched 

 around the top. The bag should be a little more than 

 twice as deep as the frame is wide, so as to lap over and 

 close well when an insect is caught. It is lively work catch- 

 ing insects, and no one piece of nature-study apparatus will 

 give a child more exercise in the fresh air and better train- 

 ing of eye and hand than an insect net. Nothing will 



