ENTOMOLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS, &c. 523 * 
oD 
spread on. the grass in the open parts of a wood I have 
known allure several scarce insects: a lady’s white dress 
is equally attractive. An old mattress, laid at night upon 
a grass-plat, if suddenly reversed in the morning, will sup- 
ply the Entomologist occasionally with good Coleoptera. 
No better trap for the Silphide, Dermestide, &c., than a 
piece of carrion, a frog, &c. The numerous insects that 
inhabit excrement of every kind, especially that of the 
cow and the horse, may be best taken by immersing 
their pabulum in water: for this purpose, let a boy carry 
a spade and pail to the scene of action, and filling the 
pail nearly full of water begin the operation, and all the 
insects lurking in the submerged dung will come to the 
surface, and may be easily taken. 
_ Another object of the collector of insects, when he has 
once entrapped them, is to bring them safe home. 'The 
Entomologists on the Continent, I believe, generally 
transfix their prey, of whatever Order, with a pin, as 
soon as they are caught: but as hard ones, such as Co- 
leoptera, Hemiptera, &c., may be destroyed without in- 
jury by immersion either in spirits of wine or boiling 
water; and as large beetles, if transfixed (not to mention 
the unnecessary cruelty of so serving them), are apt to 
whirl round upon the pin in spite of any precaution, and 
injure themselves, and destroy other insects that are in 
their way, it seems best to kill them by other more effec- 
tual methods. With regard to those that would be 
injured by immersion in any fluid, as the Lepidoptera, 
Hymenoptera, Diptera, &c., they must be secured as 
soon as taken; and after having disabled them as much 
as you can without injuring them, by pressing the trunk 
below the wings with the finger and thumb;-they should 
