before they have suffered injury. Ordinarily place the pin through the thorax, 

 the point entering in the middle of the back and coming out underneath the 

 insect so that the wings of the specimen will be at right angles with the pin. 

 Insert the pins firmly into the cork so they cannot jar loose. Carry the collecting 

 box in a pocket, a satchel or collecting bag swung over the shoulder by a strap, 

 or in an ordinary game bag or the compartment of a hunting coat. If you 

 are taking many perfect butterflies and fear the cigar box will not hold them 

 all several flies may be temporarily impaled, one above the other, upon a single 

 pin, by thrusting the pin through the sides of the thorax under the wings. In 

 this method of pinning the side of the butterfly is uppermost, the wings folded 

 over the back, and one pin may contain half a dozen flies pinned one above 

 the other. By this method a far greater number of specimens may be pinned 

 in a given box. 



PAPERING SPECIMENS. 



James E. Cottle, 2214 Webster St., San Francisco, is a learned Ento- 

 mologist and one of the most expert collectors on the Pacific Coast. He places 

 every perfect specimen, as soon as it is unconscious, m a three-cornered paper 

 envelope made of druggist's wrapping paper. He always carries a pocketful 

 of envelopes, ready for instant use, even though he has no net and is not on 

 a collecting tour. Seeing a butterfly sitting upon a flower, with a quick darting 

 motion of his thumb and finger he will grasp its body at the base of the wings, 

 give it exactly the right squeeze to kill it, place it in an envelope, drop it in a 

 coat pocket and go on his way. I have watched him do this or I would not 

 believe it possible. He is a noted detective, but catches butterflies while 

 catching criminals. He taught me to paper all perfect specimens as I took 

 them from the cyanide jar at each sorting. Once in an envelope with its wings 

 folded over its back a perfect insect may be safely carried home in almost 

 any sort of a collecting box. The sides of the envelope and its folded edges 

 form a perfect protection even if the box contains many such envelopes. Dried 

 specimens are as brittle as spun glass and papers containing them must be handled 

 cautiously, but the freshly captured butterfly does not become dry or brittle 

 for a few hours. The date, locality and name may be penciled on the flap 

 of the envelope, and upon arriving home these envelopes may be stored away 

 ready for shipment. If necessary I pin the freshly caught specimens in cork- 

 lined boxes, but I much prefer placing them in papers when first caught. Crys- 

 tals or a cake of cyanide of potassium should be fastened in the collecting box, 

 whether you use pins or papers, to prevent the resuscitation of the butterfly. 



THE DUKES COLLECTING BOX. 



To illustrate the extreme care which the experienced collector uses to 

 preserve perfect specimens from injury during collecting jaunts, let me briefly 

 describe the collecting box employed by W. C. Dukes, 31 1 So. Georgia Ave., 

 Mobile, Alabama: It is a wooden box with a slide cover of any convenient 

 size. He says: "The last one I used was one which had contained shoe 

 polish, but I formerly used a crayon box. In the bottom of this box I first 

 put a piece of velveteen or canton flannel, pile uppermost; next a piece of oiled 

 paper, then a layer of papered specimens, then another piece of oiled paper and 

 a piece of velveteen or canton, pile down. Above this I place another piece 

 of velveteen, another of oiled paper, another layer of specimens covered as 

 before with oiled paper and velveteen with pile or nap downward. The oiled 



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