278 PRACTICAL TAXIDERMY. 



specimen of this, caught, say, at Dover, is certainly worth a 

 sovereign — the price of a continental one precisely similar, but 

 captured on the other side of the " silver streak," 5d. Differ- 

 ence in cost for a mere fancy, 19s. 7d. ! Again, what would be 

 the price of an English captured Oleander Hawk {Chcerocampa 

 Nerii) — shall we say from £12 to £20, according to the con- 

 science of the vendor and the pocket of the purchaser ? A fine 

 foreign specimen, beautifully set and precisely similar, can be 

 bought for about 5s. 



To set your butterflies, see Fig. 48, which shows a common 

 white butterfly braced on the setting board. To do this your 

 insect must be truly pinned as before directed, and placed in 

 the centre of the groove A B (which is also shown in section at 

 B, Fig. 47) ; four pieces of thin cardboard, each about lin. long, 

 are cut to the shape shown at C C C C. An ordinary pin is 

 pushed a little way through them at their bases. With a fine 

 needle now lift up from underneath the left hand upper wing 

 of the insect to about the angle shown in Fig. 48; picking 

 up a brace with the left hand, push the pin in the cork in 

 such a manner that the brace lightly holds down the wing. Do 

 the same with the underwing. Repeat with the other side.* I 

 have been assuming that the wings of the insect previously lay 

 flat. If they are folded up above the back they had better be 

 pushed down with the braces instead of with the needle, and 

 pinned to any position they will readily fall to, and from that 

 gradually worked up by means of another brace to the angle 

 required. The fore pair of legs should be braced to the front, 

 and hind pair of legs, especially of moths, are to be braced out 

 to fall neatly between the body and the wings. Sometimes very 

 fine cambric needles are thrust through, just underneath one 

 of the wing rays, to lift up and keep it in position, until the braces 

 can be brought to bear. This ought not to be resorted to except 

 in extreme cases, or for other than cabinet specimens. 



A correspondent (Mr. G. H. Bryan) writing in Science 

 Gossip for December, 1883, says : — " The grooved cork, instead 

 of being glued to one wooden board, is fastened on to the two 

 boards, the groove between them corresponding exactly with the 



* The braces shown in Fig. 48 should be a little nearer the tips of the fore wings, or 

 supplemented by stLtf paper pinned across, otherwise the tips are likely to cuil up -whea 

 diying. 



