THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



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of the conditions here laid down would entail the purchasing of an expensive 

 cabinet quite beyond the amount that most young collectors can afford, no 

 doubt this would be true with regard to cabinets, for it cannot be denied that 

 if they are good they are very expensive, and if they are not of the very best 

 make they are undesirable and dear at any price. 



Fortunately there are other and more economical plans of storing insects, 

 but before describing these it will be well to state clearly what is meant by a 

 good full-sized cabinet, and what such a cabinet would cost. 



The usual number of drawers in a cabinet for lepidoptera is 30, size of 

 each drawer 17 \ inches by 15 \ with camphor cells either in front or at the 

 sides, each drawer lined with good cork, and neatly papered, and covered with 

 accurately fitting glazed frames constructed to lift off and made of mahogany 

 or other hard wood, and the whole enclosed in a case with two folding panel- 

 led doors, French-polished and generally finished off in the best style. Such 

 a cabinet as this would cost about £18 which is at the rate of 12/- per drawer. 

 One consisting of half the number of drawers would perhaps do for a collection 

 of the macro- lepidoptera, provided it is not intended to make it an exclusive 

 one, by this I mean a collection consisting of about four or six specimens of 

 each species, and no attempts made to illustrate varieties, which is now so 

 very usual with collectors. Cheap cabinets are decidedly to be avoided, for 

 they are generally made of soft wood and with inferior workmanship, so as to 

 keep the price of the articles down, although they may have highly polished 

 and very beautiful doors so as to look very attractive on the outside, but 

 internally are " cheap and nasty Even with the very best made cabinets 

 it is nearly impossible to get drawers perfectly dust-tight; several plans have 

 been tried to attain this end, some have been made with the glazed frames to 

 slide off instead of lift out, and I remember once seeing a cabinet in which 

 the glass was fixed to the tops of the drawers and the insects were got at by 

 removing the bottoms, I do not know that there is any special advantage in 

 either of these plans. My own idea of a perfect cabinet is as follows : drawers 

 made of galvanized iron lined with thick cork attached with marine glue, and 

 the tops of plate glass. The rebate for the glass having a thick stripe of 

 vulcanized indiarubber for it to rest upon and kept down in close contact 

 with some pressure, an arrangement of strong springs would probably be best 

 for this purpose, such a cabinet would, I think, be the proper receptacle for 

 valuable or type collections, and for such as those in our national museums ; 

 insects placed in it would be as nearly everlasting as it is possible to render 

 them. 



After many years experience and inspecting many collections I am in favour 

 of boxes in preference to cabinets. The form which appears to be best is 



