274 PRACTICAL TAXIDERMY. 



outside over tlie moutli of the bottle, and hold it there until 

 the insect is corked np. In less than a minute it is stupefied 

 and motionless. If taken out, however, it will revive ; it must 

 be left in, therefore, from ten to fifteen minutes. In the 

 case of female insects which have not yet deposited their eggs, 

 and are consequently exceedingly tenacious of life, a longer time 

 will be found necessary. 



Bruised laurel leaves, chloroform, benzol, &c., are recom- 

 mended by some authors. The first is, I think, uncertain in 

 its effects, and has, perhaps, a tendency to make the insects go 

 ultimately mouldy. The second stiffens the wing rays of some 

 insects to such an extent as to render them difficult to set. It has 

 been recommended in the case of large insects, such as the hawk 

 moths, to pierce them underneath the thorax at the insertion of 

 the first and second pairs of wings with a steel pen dipped in a 

 saturated solution of oxaHc acid. I have frequently done this 

 myself with good results in the days when cyanide bottles 

 were unknown, but for the largest hawk moths- — "Death's 

 heads " even — I find nothing to beat a large bottle (a glass jar, 

 such as the French bottle plums in, does admirably), in which 

 is placed about ^Ib. of cyanide. With a killing jar of this 

 kind, which I call the " home " bottle, I have frequently 

 instantaneously killed mice and even rats. In fact, the volume 

 of poisonous vapour evolved from one of these bottles is such, 

 that I advise my readers not to take "sniii's" therefrom, lesb 

 severe headaches, or worse results, should follow. 



As it is nearly all but impossible to pin an insect so 

 correctly as you would wish during the hurry and excitement 

 of butterfly hunting, I recommend that all insects captured 

 when the collector is from home be laid on their sides, and the 

 pin passed through the body whilst in that position. This saves 

 the unnecessary marking of the thorax by more than one pin 

 hole, as the pin can be removed without detriment to the 

 formation of the body, and tbe insect pinned in its proper 

 position when the collector reaches home. 



Setting. — Having brought the entomologist to this point, I 

 may discuss what to do to preserve the trophies of the day's 

 chase. First, then, the insects must be " set." To do this 

 properly is the vexata qucestio of the day. As a nation we 



