ENTOMOLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS, &e. 535 
will find, if the fly is not large, that a single brace will be 
sufficient for each pair of wings*: but sometimes, if the 
card be not sufficiently stiff, you may confine it by a pin 
near the point. You must be careful in expanding the 
wings that each is brought equally forward. Lastly, 
give the antennze their proper position, and if necessary 
confine them with braces; and leave your specimen in 
an airy situation to dry and stiffen. In a few days the 
braces may be removed, and the specimen transferred to 
the cabinet. When you put them away to become stiff, 
you must be careful to place them and your other insects 
at night where earwigs cannot come at them ; for in sul- 
try weather these animals will often then attack and spoil 
them. 
It is obvious that this process can only be performed 
while the joints and ligaments of the insect are still 
flexible; so that small species, in warm weather, will 
often be immoveably rigid before you can have an op- 
portunity of setting them. On this account collectors 
usually set minute moths as soon as taken, which can be 
readily done on the lid of a cork-lined box. But for- 
tunately both these and specimens which have been 
dried for years may be relaxed and rendered pliable by 
a very simple process. Jill a basin more than half full 
of sand, and saturate it with water; pour off the super- 
flious water, and cover the sand with blotting-paper : 
into this stick the insects you wish to relax, and cover- 
ing the basin closely, leave them there for two or three 
days, according to their size; and the evaporation will 
render them sufficiently flexible for expansion or any 
* Prate XXIV. Fic. 9. 
