THE YOUNG NATURALIST 



1-23 



only want a pleasant way of spending 

 their leisure time. Very well. You 

 would have all the pleasure just the 

 same, and if by chance you found, 

 as all who have tried have found, 

 that there are great additional 

 pleasures in knowing as well as having, 

 then that would surely be a gain. 

 Besides the practical advantages are 

 great also. If your insects are set 

 well up the pin, your collection will 

 be almost free from mites. With 

 low setting a specimen is almost 

 destroyed before you observe the 

 brown dust below it, that tells what is 

 going on. You cannot see below the 

 wings, and the accumulation must 

 be great before it attracts your atten- 

 tion. With high setting you would 

 see the first speck. Besides this, if 

 your drawers contained mites, and 

 who will say they have none, they 

 might wander about the bottom a 

 long time before they found their 

 way up the polished pin to the insect 

 above, while with the low set, wing 

 tips, legs, even the bodies of the 

 specimens are in contact with the 

 drawer bottom, and the mite does 

 not travel far before it finds some- 

 thing to devour and destroy. Grease 

 too is often communicated by con- 

 tact, and though high setting would 

 not prevent grease, it would often 

 save an insect from becoming greasy. 

 Where very long pins are used, they 

 can be removed from one place to 

 another with a pair of suitable plyers, 

 which would take hold of the pin 



below the body of the insect, and 

 remove it safely without risk of bend- 

 ing the pin or damaging the insect. 



Whether then your aim is to be 

 mere Collectors, or to be Entomolo- 

 gists, let us advise those who are 

 beginning to set their insects well up 

 the pin. Use long pins if you like, 

 you have your drawers to obtain yet, 

 and they will be as easily made deep 

 enough for long pins as short ones. 

 If you do not care for the very 

 long pins in use abroad, let us 

 strongly urge that you use such as 

 will give you a clear half-inch of pin 

 below the thorax, and set your wings 

 so that there is no fear of their tip 

 touching the drawer bottom. 



EXCHANGES. 



Duplicates. — T. Quercus, Filipendulae, 

 N. Rubi, Typica, Jacobete, Dispar, Sec, 

 eggs of Antiqua, and Dispar. Desiderata — 

 Adippe, Comma, and most common moths 

 and eggs. — -H, M. Parish, Ashfield House, 

 Taunton. 



Duplicates. — T. Quercus, Io, Atalanta, 

 Euphrosyne, S Ligustri, Polychloros, 

 Edusa, Aprilina, Ocellatus, S. Populi, 

 Antiqua ; also a quantity of pupre of Betu- 

 laria and S. Populi, and Birds' Skins. — 

 R. Elkington, Coventry. 



I want a few pupae of P. brass icae. I have 

 many Duplicates to give in return. — S. L. 

 Mosley, Primrose Hill, Huddersfield. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



J. W. C, Bradford, and Others.— We shall 

 be able to color the plates of British 

 Butterflies at 2d. each. We think it 

 better to charge a fair price and do them 



