42 THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE WEST COAST 



on the ring it contracts near the ring, and many of the smartest 

 butterflies will escape. 



A staff or handle can be made from the butt of a fishing rod, 

 or from any stout and flexible wood. It must be provided with a 

 good ferrule, or it will split. 



For a killing-bottle, any short and wide-mouthed bottle may be 

 used. Fit in it a deep cork, loosely. With your pen-knife dig a 

 cavity into the small end of the cork, and put in a piece of cyanide 

 crystal as large as a pea (bearing in mind that it is a deadly 

 poison), hold the lump of poison in the cork with two or three 

 large-headed brass nails such as upholsterers use, and it is ready 

 for use. To make it strong, so that it will kill quickly, touch a 

 particle of water to the cyanide. When with use the cyanide has 

 dissipated and become weak, you can put in another piece. It is 

 sometimes recommended to place the cyanide in the bottom of the 

 bottle, and then pour on plaster of Paris to hold it in place. This 

 is plausible in theory, but worse than useless in practice, and is 

 responsible for much profanity and for the loss of many butter- 

 flies, for it soon becomes weak and useless, and cannot readily be 

 renewed. If your butterflies are small and delicate ones, put in 

 your killing-bottle some fibres of raveled silk, or of cotton, or a 

 tangle of fine thread ; the butterflies' claws catch upon the fibres, 

 and hold the insects from battering against the glass, and from 

 rubbing one against another, and so spoiling themselves. 



If you are about to climb a high hill or mountain, you will find 

 after an ascent of 2,cxx) or 3,000 feet, that your cyanide bottle is 

 wet inside, and that the fumes of the cyanide are very strong, 

 indeed ; that is caused by the "sweating" of the cyanide, and will 

 soon dissolve all the cyanide, and leave you without any killing- 

 bottle. The remedy is to open the bottle, place the cork in the sun, 

 remove and dry the cyanide, wipe out and dry the bottle, and when 

 thoroughly dry, replace the cyanide, and you are ready for work 

 again. The cause of the sweating of the cyanide is the diminished 

 pressure of the atmosphere, or the increased humidity of the 

 mountain air. 



When you have caught your butterfly, if it is a small and deli- 

 cate one, slip the open bottle into the net, and let the butterfly fly 

 into it. See to it that the cyanide is strong enough to kill the in- 

 sect without delay. Many insects then have a way of flipping the 

 wings down over the feet, instead of over the back in the ordin- 



