280 PRACTICAL TAXIDEKMr. 



in tlie box. The same pins witli whicli they are pinned whilst 

 relaxing should not be permanently left in, if it be possible to 

 remove them without injuring the aspect of the thorax. Pins 

 so left in, being more corroded than usual, frequently break 

 after being in use a short time. 



Old insects, which it may be dangerous to relax, or large 

 foreign un-set lepidoptera, may sometimes be set by a skilful 

 hand by having their wings carefully pinched o£E by forceps, 

 and replaced in the required position by using a strong paste 

 or cement (see Formula 'No. 33, page 89) : Repairs may be 

 *' executed with promptness and despatch" by cementing on 

 parts of other wings to replace torn or missing pieces, or tissue 

 paper may be used, providing the repairer is a skilful artist. I 

 once saw a very poor specimen of Urania rliijpheus — a splendid 

 moth from Madagascar — so cleverly pieced by tissue paper and 

 coloured, that it would deceive any but an expert. 



Beetles (in science — ColeojHera) may be sought for everywhere 

 — in woods, fields, ponds, rivers, underneath stones and exuvise 

 of cattle ; in decaying leaves, trees, and fungi ; in and under- 

 neath dead animals ; in cellars, outhouses, and even in what 

 would be supposed the most unlikely place to find them — 

 ant hills, bees' and wasps' nests — and in the rubbish collected 

 at the sides of streams, especially if after a flood. They may 

 be taken by sweeping, beating, sugaring, or by carefully 

 IDrospecting tufts of grass, moss, leaves, and flowers. Bags 

 of moss or ant-hills may be brought home and looked over 

 at leisure for minute beetles — throwing rubbish into water, or 

 sifting it over white paper, being the handiest way to reveal 

 them. For those which inhabit water, a net made of any 

 strong material, which allows water, but nothing else, to run 

 through quickly (a net fashioned as in Fig. 41 or 46 will do for 

 this), should be used as well as for collecting other water insects. 

 Beetles may be brought home in small test tubes, corked at 

 the open end, or in quills stopped at one end with sealing wax, 

 and at the other with wadding, or a quill may be inserted in 

 the cork of a larger bottle, into and through which they may 

 be dropped, or they may be killed at once in the cyanide bottle, 

 or otherwise thrown into a bottle containing alcohol, in 

 which corrosive sublimate (in the proportion of 6gr. to the 



