8 



is shining, to keep an eye on any walls which are exposed to the sun, on the 

 tops of which may often be found numbers of beetles. Ditches and ponds 

 should be well dragged with the water net ; and a good plan to enable one to 

 take the smaller water beetles is to stir up the sand or mud at the bottom, 

 and watch for them to appear, for they usually make a rush for the surface 

 before taking a deeper plunge. As many localities will be mentioned in speak- 

 ing of individual species sufficient has been said on the matter for the present, 

 except to draw attention to a method of collecting during the winter when 

 most of those already alluded to fail, viz. searching among tufts of grass 

 growing in fields, and at the foot of walls or trees, and picking off and ex- 

 amining the moss from old walls. It is astonishing what a number of speci- 

 mens can crowd away in. a small space of moss. I once took nine specimens 

 of Phadon betulce from a small button of moss which could have been covered 

 by a shilling. 



Our specimens having been received into one or other receptacle at the 

 time of capture, are brought home at the conclusion of the day's work, and 

 have now to be killed and set, except, of course, those which may have been 

 put into the benzoline bottle, which will be like Marley " dead as a door-nail." 

 In order to kill our captures the simplest plan is to uncork the bottles and 

 shake them into boiling water. If the water be quite boiling there is no fear 

 of them ever coming to life again, as I have seen happen when the water has 

 been below the boiliug point. The requirements for setting are one or two 

 camel-hair pencils, card — the stouter the better — a setting needle or two, 

 made by inserting the eye end of a fine needle into a small handle, and a 

 bottle of adhesive material, of which the best is made by putting pieces of 

 white and flaky gum tragacanth with one or two little bits of gum arabic 

 into water, and keeping the bottle in a warm place, until by stirring, a 

 homogeneous gelatinous mass is the result. The advantage of tragacanth 

 over ordinary gum is that it does not dry shiny, but as it is very liable to 

 become mouldy it is advisable to add to it when made a drop or two of pure 

 carbolic acid, or a small quantity of acetic acid which is said to do as well. 



Having fished a few of the specimens out of the water in which they have 

 been killed, and brushed out their legs and antennas, they are placed on a 

 little " dab " of gum on the card, and witli the needle in one hand and a 

 fine brush in the other, the legs, antennas, and palpi are placed m position 

 and left to dry. Sometimes this process requires the exercise of a great deal 

 of patience, for no sooner have we succeeded in gumming down one leg, and 

 are just getting the next one into nice position, than the first becomes loos- 

 ened and goes into its original position beneath the body. To remedy this 

 we in Liverpool adopt a plan introduced by Mr. Smedley, in which, instead 



