INTRODUCTION. Xlll 



and press it down on the cotton ; saturate, or nearly so, 

 the cotton with chloroform just before starting out to 

 collect. 



For killing most insects use a cyanide bottle, prepared 

 thus : get a wide-mouthed bottle with a glass stopper, or 

 tight cork ; place in it two or three pieces, as large as 

 caramels, of cyanide of potassium ; this is a very violent 

 poison, even its fumes being deadly ; it should be handled 

 as little as possible, — pick the pieces up in paper, — and 

 should be labeled "Poison" and kept away from children 

 and ignorant persons. Mix plaster of Paris and water to 

 a thin paste, and pour over the cyanide, covering the 

 lumps half an inch deep. Let the bottle stand uncorked 

 a day to dry; the plaster hardens, but, being porous, 

 allows the poisonous fumes to rise ; after drying a day it 

 should be kept tightly corked. 



When an insect is in the net, the bottle may be un- 

 corked, pushed into the net and over the insect, and the 

 insect pushed into the bottle by the cork, thus avoiding 

 stings, as well as injury to the insect. 



Hard insects, as beetles, bugs, and grasshoppers, may 

 be put at once into alcohol. If not used soon, they will 

 thus be better kept. 



Many insects, such as bees and beetles, may be taken 

 from flowers by quickly pushing them into the bottle with 

 the stopper. 



An umbrella is very useful in collecting certain forms 

 of insects. Hold the umbrella spread and inverted 

 under the branches of trees and shrubs* and beat the 

 branches with a stick, or jerk with the handle, if it has 

 a hook. 



A lamp, by an open window, has often been found too 



