210 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



rubbing. A piece of fiat glass must 

 then be placed over the pot, and the 

 edges of the pot must be looked to, and 

 no crevice left where the young larvae 

 can escape. Another plan, and the 

 one we adopt, is to get a common 4 oz. 

 physic bottle, and with a piece of thick 

 red-hot wire crack the bottle all round 

 about an inch below the place where it 

 begins to taper to the neck, If this be 

 nicely done the top part will come com- 

 pletely off. A strip of paper must 

 then be pasted and wound several 

 times round, allowing one-half to over- 

 hang the cut edge. When this is dry 

 it wiil form a sort of lid to slip on the 

 lower half, and if the hole in the neck 

 be corked up will form a safe recepticle 

 lor any kind of small larvas. These 

 bottles can be put in any convenient 

 place out of the rays of the sun, and it 

 can be easily seen when any of the larva? 

 require fresh food. Either of these 

 plans are comparatively air-tight, and 

 some care is necessary in conducting 

 them. In the first place all the food 

 that is put in must be thoroughly dry, 

 and old stuff must not be alloAved to 

 accumulate at the bottom, and become 

 mouldy, otherwise the larva? will be 

 sure to die. After a few times feeding 

 the whole contents must be upset upon 

 a sheet of white paper, and the larvae 

 picked out by means of a stout feather, 

 and put into a new bottle with some 

 fresh food, and the old bottle left open 

 to air ready for the next change. 

 When the larvae have become a little 

 advanced in size they may be removed 

 to the cages, and fed in the usual way. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



When our paper was begun, the firm who 

 then printed it, undertook to act as London I r 

 publishers. We soon found that they were 1 ' 

 very much too far from the centre of the 

 book trade in London for the collecting I 

 houses to send out to Walworth for odd | 

 copies of a penny paper. We are glad to 

 say we have now made arrangements with 

 a firm, " Messrs. John Kempster & Co., I 

 9 and 10, St. Bride's Avenue, Fleet Street, 



■ w 



i London," who will in future publish " The 

 Young Naturalist," and of whom our 

 friends can order through their booksellers. 

 All the Back Numbers are in print, and 

 can yet be had, but as the supply of some 

 of them is running out, those who desire a 



r 



full series should order at once. 

 Wc promised our subscribers that the next 



I 



special plate we issued should be illustra- 

 tive of the various modes of fructification 

 of ferns. We have found it impossible to 

 prepare this plate to our satisfaction from 

 dried specimens, and are therefore com- 

 pelled to postpone its appearance until we 

 can procure growing ferns, As the time 

 has now elapsed when it ought to have 

 appeared, we have decided that the first I ; 

 plate illustrating our British Butterflies 

 shall be colored for our annual subscribers, 

 and appear with the present number, the 

 papers themselves are also commenced this 

 w eek. Those who wish to have the whole 

 series colored must remit us at the rate of I 

 2d. each plate after the first in half-penny 

 stamps. We would prefer that not less 

 than six plates are ordered at once, as they 

 have to be prepared considerably in ad- 

 vance, and payment for single plates entails 

 too much account keeping. 



J. W. E., Liverpool. — Thanks for larva of 

 P. trii^onodatcylus, but the box was not suffi- 

 ciently secure ; it had managed to escape, 

 and we found it in the folds of the letter, but 

 unfortunately it had received a Government 



