20 
MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 
A collection of this kind occupies but half the space of a collec¬ 
tion mounted on pins, as the drawers of the cabinet need be but one 
inch deep inside. 
Lastly, the wings of specimens mounted in this way lie perfectly 
flat, as the glass rests directly on them, and they therefore cannot 
lop down or warp up, as pinned insects are liable to do. 
Many will be surprised to see how lovely are some of our most 
common things mounted by this new method, making each specimen 
a picture. 
The tablets are made of many sizes, to accommodate every 
variety of specimen. They are flat on the top, with a body cavity of 
the size and shape to fit the body of the insect; are white with a 
glass-like polish on the face ; are hollow at the back, in order to be 
as light as possible, and this hollow is covered with card-board when 
the insects are mounted. 
As my own method is in every way superior to the other, and is 
already being adopted by the museums not only of this country but 
of the world, 1 shall devote the most of this chapter to a detailed 
description of how best to put up a collection as it should be to re¬ 
main indefinitely, and to show to the best advantage. I am aware 
that I shall encounter — in fact I have already encountered—-the 
opposition of many of those collectors who have spent years in put¬ 
ting up their collections by the old methods. It is not reasonable to 
suppose that entomologists will welcome with open arms an inven¬ 
tion which makes the collections of a lifetime look poor and out of 
date ; but why, I ask, should not improvements be made in mount¬ 
ing butterflies as well as in making shoes or in printing newspapers ? 
This is an age of invention. Everything is being improved upon 
where the ingenuity of man can suggest improvement, and we are no 
longer satisfied with the moss-grown methods of our grandfathers. 
Go into almost any of our museums or natural history rooms, and 
look at the collections of butterflies. Did one ever see anywhere 
else such a miserable display? Wings torn and worn, bodies 
devoured by museum pests, and the whole, so dusty that one can 
scarcely identify the species. Why, any able-bodied collector can 
make and put up in one season at very small expense a collection 
that will put to shame any of the exhibition collections in the 
museums of the country. Collections of insects can be made surpas¬ 
singly beautiful and an ornament to the finest palace that man can 
build. It is no discredit to a museum to have the best. It is a mis- 
