"collecting" and "postal" boxes. 283 



its abdomen and feet to release it from tlie dirty card, and 

 lastly sliglitly re-gumming the underneath and tips of the 

 feet with cement (see Formula 33, page 89) and finally adjusting 

 it .on a clean card, which may be labelled or numbered, and 

 secured by a small pin at each end in the cabinet or store-box. 



Collecting and other Boxes. — The collecting box is a 

 small box made to fit the pocket, corked top and bottom, open- 

 ing in the middle, and made of sufficient depth to allow the 

 heads of the pins on one side to well clear the insects, which may 

 be pinned on the other. Collecting boxes may be made of 

 various woods and of various sizes to suit the pleasure and 

 pocket of the collector. They should be made light but 

 strong, and a little fillet of thin wood should be inserted 

 along one side on the front edge, to ensure the close fitting of 

 the box. Another sort of collecting box is that corked at the 

 bottom, having a flat lid, on which a piece of cork is glued, 

 and cut to fit the box tightly when closed, thus forming the 

 top lid. This style is also used for postal boxes. 



In very hot weather, or if the collector roves far afield, he 

 will find that many of his butterflies, if placed in the ordinary 

 w^ooden collecting bos, will have become stiff before he can 

 reach home to set them. The remedy for this is a zinc box 

 lined with cork, which latter is soaked in water before com- 

 mencing the day's collecting. These boxes are made in various 

 shapes and sizes. A handy one for the pocket is a 7in. by 4in., 

 2^in. deep, made of an oval shape if desired, corked on top and 

 bottom, the cork held by clips of zinc soldered to top and 

 bottom. For more extended operations a larger box will be 

 required, say, 13in. by 9in., 2§in. deep, with loops soldered to the 

 back, through which a strap passes to suspend it from the 

 shoulders. These boxes are lighter if made in tin, and the 

 water does not corrode them so rapidly if they are japanned 

 inside as well as out. 



" Postal boxes," by which entomologists transmit their cap- 

 tures to one another, should be made of strong white pine, the 

 tops and bottoms nailed on, on the cross. They may open in 

 the middle or at top, as before mentioned, and further have a 

 strengthening piece of thick cork glued all over them outside and 

 rasped down to the shape of a rough oval. Inside, the cork 



