CAPTURING AND PRESERVING INSECTS. 
15 
killed and also preserved, for the time being, by dropping them into 
alcohol. For this purpose every collector should have in his pocket one 
or more small, strong, wide-mouthed bottles, securely corked, and filled 
about two-thirds full with alcohol. The common morphine bottles an- 
swer this purpose very well. The quinine bottle can be used when a 
larger bottle is required. The insects can be left in the alcohol till the 
collector has leisure to pin them. They can be taken from the bottle 
with a pair of foreceps, or the alcohol can be turned off into another 
bottle, and the insects shaken out on to a newspaper, or what is better, 
a sheet of blotting paper, which readily absorbs the moisture. 
Insects which readily take flight, must be captured in a net, which is 
made like a small dip-net for fishes, by making a hoop of stout wire 
about ten inches in diameter, with the ends of the wire turned out so as 
to form a short handle three or four inches long, and this can be length- 
ened by inserting the ends of the wire into a wooden handle about two 
feet long. The net is made of lace or tarletou muslin, and should be 
twenty inches or more in depth. 
Many species which would otherwise escape notice, can be obtained 
by beating the branches of trees, especially forest trees, and catching 
the insects as they fall. A common umbrella, inverted under the tree, 
answers this purpose very well. This is in many ways a very useful 
implement to the collector. It will serve to protect him from the direct 
rays of the sun, or from a casual shower ; and the hook at the end of 
the handle will enable him to draw down branches so that they can be 
satisfactorily examined. The umbrella would be improved by being 
covered with white cloth, upon which small insects would be more easily 
detected. 
Most insects except those above mentioned are injured by being im- 
mersed in alcohol, and butterflies and moths would be ruined by it. 
These insects can be killed by wetting them with benzine or chloroform. 
The benzine is the cheaper, and the only objection to it is its disagreea- 
ble odor. Large insects require to be. saturated with chloroform several 
times to destroy life. A very neat way to kill the smaller moths is 
to put them under a wine-glass and put in with them a tuft of wool sat- 
urated with chloroform. The moths are killed by the fumes, without 
being wet or handled. Some use for this purpose a poisonous prepara- 
tion called cyanide of potassium. 
In mounting beetles the pin should be passed through the right wing- 
cover ; other insects are pinned through the thorax. The pin should be 
inserted so far that half of it will project below the body of the insect. 
The value of a collection of insects is greatly enhanced by having the 
legs and wings of the specimens displayed in a life-like attitude. For 
this purpose they must be set out with pins, and held so a day or two 
till they have become fixed. For spreading the wings of butterflies and 
