308 PRACTICAL TAXIDERMY. 



as complete volumes at 7s. 6d. and 20s. respectively. These 

 latter are the finest works at the price in any language whatever, 

 giving figures — perfect specimens of the wood engraver's art — 

 of the whole of the Macro-Lepidoptera, backed up by exhaus- 

 tive descriptions. 



" Digging " in the dead months of the year, when the weather 

 is mild, for pupae, is another method of getting insects. Corners 

 where roots meet or spring from the trunks of trees, are good 

 ■" harbours of refuge " for pupae ; so are inner angles of walls, 

 underneath sheltered hedgerows, or under isolated trees in parks 

 •or meadows, and a host of other spots. The best places for 

 ■" digging " are not always, as you would suppose, in the thickest 

 parts of woods or shrubberies, but under skirting trees or 

 in avenues. The best times for pupae are from October to 

 January. Many people attain great proficiency in finding — the 

 Rev. Joseph Greene, to wit. For my own part I must confess 

 that I have never " earned my salt " at it, but that is possibly 

 due to want of skill or perseverance. The tools required are 

 simply a trowel, a curved piece of steel fitted in a handle, or a 

 three-cornered instrument similar to, but smaller than, the 

 scraper used by shipwrights ; anything, in fact, handy to carry, 

 and efficacious in scratching up the sod at the roots of trees, or 

 tearing off the pseudo-knots of bark which veil the pupae of 

 various moths. 



When larvae or pupae are brought home, it will be necessary 

 to place them in something which, though retaining them in 

 captivity, yet allows them as natural conditions of living as is 

 possible in a circumscribed space. Pupae may be kept in a flower 

 pot covered with earth, or in moss damped from time to time 

 with water of not too cold a temperature. Over the flower pot 

 may be strained two pieces of wire or cane, crossing each other 

 in the form of arches, the whole covered with muslin; or a 

 handier plan to get to the insects quickly when emerged, or 

 to damp the pupae, is to procure from the glass merchant the 

 waste cylinders of glass cut from shades, pasting over one end 

 with " leno " or muslin, and placing the other in the flower pot 

 on top of the earth or moss. This also makes a cheap sub- 

 stitute for the breeding cage for larvae, if a little earth only is 

 put in the flower pot in which a bottle of water is placed 



