294 PRACTICAL TAXIDERMY. 



mowing grass, willows near water, heatlier, tlie seashore, all 

 add tlieir quota to tlie persevering entomologist. Tlie sallow 

 blooms (commonly called "palm"), both male and female, 

 must be searched early in spring time for the whole of 

 the genus Toeniocampa and many other newly-emerged or 

 hybernated species. As they usually drop at the first 

 contact of the light from the lantern, the net must be 

 held under them, or a sheet may be spread under the bush, 

 and those which do not fall at first may be shaken off the 

 blooms with a smart stroke or two of a stick. If the bushes 

 are not high, "hand-picking" with the net held in readiness 

 is really the best. 



Ivy blooms in the autumn are also sure finds, several species 

 — many of great rarity — being taken off this plant at night. 

 Owing to the usual localities in which ivy is found, the spread 

 sheet and subsequent "beating" come in more often than the 

 safer method of " netting " and " bottling." 



Light is also a great attraction to many moths, some of our 

 greatest rarities being captured frequently, inside or outside 

 street lamps, and the spectacle is by no means rare to see 

 a " grave and reverend signor " climbing np the lamp-posts 

 at a most nnseemly hour of the night in search of specimens. 

 Lighthouses have also yielded important captures, and there 

 are worse things than being on friendly terms with the cleaner 

 of street lamps, or the keeper of a lighthouse. True, you 

 will get some awful rubbish, but the day will come when 

 Alniaria or Celerio (which latter I once received alive), or 

 some other rarity, will reward your faith. Light surfaces, 

 such as white cloths or sheets left out all night, sometimes, 

 attract moths. 



Sugaring-. — The great nostrum for capturing moths is — 

 " Sugar ! " A legend tells that many years ago someone disco- 

 vered (or imagined) that moths came to an empty sugar cask, 

 situate somewhere in a now unknown land ; and acting as the 

 Chinaman is said to have done, in re the roast pork — thought 

 perhaps that the virtue resided in the barrel, and accordingly- 

 carted it off into the woods, and was rewarded by rarities, 

 previously unknown. A sage subsequently conceived the grand 

 idea that the virtue resided in the sugar and not in the cask. 



