THE YOUNG NATUEALIST. 



149 



deprecated, 1 may mention the case of a young collector I once knew. As 

 a collector in the field he was most energetic, working away and bottling up 

 almost everything, but, of course, more particularly anything he had an idea 

 was at all rare. The setting, however, was far too troublesome a matter for 

 him, it took too much time, and required a greater amount of patience than 

 he possessed, the result being that he set some of the ground-beetles and 

 other easy ones in a hasty and untidy manner, whilst such as the Lady-cows 

 he merely stuck on card without attempting to place the legs and antennas 

 in proper position, or at best only very imperfectly, in which condition the 

 insects were of course spoilt and useless. On pointing this out to him, he 

 said " Oh ! I can't set those little things properly, they are far too difficult 

 and take too much time." " Then/' I said, " Unless you were able and in- 

 tended to set them properly you should not have caught them/' 



I maintain, that before setting to work in earnest to collect any order of 

 insects the student should learn to set them properly Of course, a few of 

 the more common species can be easily obtained for the purpose of practising 

 setting, first selecting the larger species, and when able to do them efficiently 

 trying some of the smaller and more difficult ones. As a guide to the way 

 in which beetles should be set, young collectors cannot do better than look at 

 any good illustrations, such as those in " Eye's British Beetles," or " Stave- 

 ly's British Insects." It is usual to set beetles on card, except the larger 

 ones, each specimen on a suitable card, having a space below the beetle, i.e. 

 between the beetle and the end of the card, for the insertion of the pin. The 

 specimens should be attached with gum-tragacanth, making the solution 

 of which is a point to which some of those who set insects well attach great 

 importance. The usual method is to place a few bits of the gum in a wide- 

 mouthed bottle, and add just sufficient acetic acid to cover it ; by the next 

 day it will be swollen, when some water is added, and the whole stirred; in 

 this way in a day or two a jelly-like mass results, to which a small quantity 

 of gum arabic is usually added to increase its adhesiveness, but not sufficient 

 to cause the gum to show on the cards, when thoroughly dissolved some anti- 

 septic must be added, or it will become mouldy and useless — a drop or two 

 of carbolic acid answers very well. 



The beetles must be kept in the laurel leaves for a few days until they are 

 nicely relaxed, some will require a longer time than others, but they must be 

 in so limp a condition that when one is placed on its back, on a white cloth 

 or rough white blotting paper, its legs and antennas may be brushed out with 

 a small paint brush — a sable brush is the best for this purpose. If the insects 

 are in the proper condition this may be easily done, but if they are left too 

 long in the laurel they get so very tender that the legs, &c. ; come off at the 



