46 



and perfectly efficacious in action. I use it without hesitation on the Lepidoptera in any 

 quantity. With most of them it causes instant death, and with the few that slightly 

 resist its effects the resistance is very short-lived. I recollect one day seeing a large 

 Cecropia moth enter the room where I was sitting and alight on the knob of the door 

 handle. I took my bottle of gasoline and poured some of the liquid on the body of the 

 insect, when it dropped to the floor as if shot and never moved a wing. The result is. 

 not in all cases quite so rapid, but it is never tedious. By this means I prevent the mis- 

 chief that ensues when a fine specimen flutters in a bottle of cyanide or chloroform for 

 several minutes, as is often the case. 



I employ the same plan with all insects, and with equal success. The moths that so 

 long resisted the cyanide vapour, as mentioned above, at once yielded to the deadly gasoline, 

 and in five minutes not a living larva was left in the case. 



I need scarcely add that the use of this exceedingly volatile liquid never in the least 

 degree injures the delicate plumage of the Lepidoptera. Many of my best specimens have 

 been repeatedly drenched with gasoline. In five or ten minutes they are as dry as before it 

 was applied. 



Let me add one word more. I find the most convenient way of applying the gaso- 

 line is to carry it in an ounce phial, having a cork through which passes a finely pointed 

 glass tube. The large outer end of this tube is capped with a small india-rubber capsule. 

 The whole may be bought at a drug store for a few cents, under the name of a dropping 

 tube. In this way the tube is always full of liquid ready to be squirted out on an 

 insect in the net or even at rest in the open air, and the specimen is at once fit to be 

 pinned out. This I do on the spot in a cigar box, or in one lined with cork, and so 

 avoid an accumulation of material, which is a great annoyance to a man whose time 

 is otherwise occupied, or indeed to any one at the end of a hard day's work. 



The small weight of the outfit here required is an advantage not to be overlooked 

 when compared with the weight of the loaded cyanide bottle usually employed. There- 

 are one or two other points which I should like to mention, but having already written 

 more than at the outset I intended, I will forbear. 



BOOK NOTICES. 



The Butterflies of North America. By W. H. Edwards. Third Series, Part I., 4to» 

 Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. 



It is with very great pleasure that we receive from our esteemed contributor, Mr. W. 

 H. Edwards, the First Part of the Third Series of his magnificent work, " The Butterflies 

 of North America." 



The last part of Volume II. was issued in November, 1884. It is a matter of deep 

 congratulation to all Lepidopterists that the talented author now sees his way to resume 

 publication ; but we regret exceedingly to learn from a notice in Science, of 4th February, 

 that to enable him to continue his unselfish labours he had to sacrifice many of the valuable 

 type specimens in his collection. 



The Part which has just come to hand contains three plates and nine pages of 

 descriptive letter-press. Of the former, which have been executed under the supervision 

 of Mrs. Mary Peart, it is not too much to say that they are exquisite, and are all equal 

 to the very best in Vols. I. and II. 



Plate I. which is accompanied by a complete life history, illustrates Colias Eurydice 

 Bd., var. Bernardino Edw., in all its stages, from egg to maturity, and also a female of 

 rar. Amorphoz Hy. Edw. 



On Plate II. we have a life-like representation of Argynnis Nitocris Edw., male and 

 p female. 



