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almost unnecessary to add, that every observation should 
bear both the date and the name of the place where it was 
made. Incidentally, it may here be mentioned, that a 
pencil and notebook as well as a good lens, magnifying 
about six diameters, should invariably be carried by every 
entomologist when at work in the field. The glass-topped 
boxes used for collecting should be of various sizes, the 
most useful being 1 inch, 14, 2 and 2} inches in diameter. 
These may be carried in nests of four, about twelve nests 
or say fifty boxes being a fair supply for a day’s work. 
They may be placed in a satchel which must have at least 
two divisions, one being used for empty boxes and the 
other for full ones. An interim supply of, say a dozer 
boxes, should be ‘‘ unnested ’’ and placed in the pocket for 
immediate use; the empty boxes in the right-hand pocket 
and the full ones in the left. Unless some such fixed rule 
be invariably followed, captured insects will sure to be 
inadvertently liberated in the excitement of the chase. 
On arrival home at the end of the day’s work, the 
collector’s next step is to kill his captures. For the smaller 
species, except those having vivid green colouring, a laurel 
bottle is suitable. This is made of a wide-mouthed bottle, 
provided with a tight-fitting cork or glass stopper. Some 
young laurel shoots should be obtained, about the second 
week in October, cut up into small pieces, and well bruised 
with a hammer, or between two stones. The laurel should 
then be placed in the bottle and well pressed down so that 
about a third of the bottle is filled. A dise of cardboard, 
eut to fit the inside of the bottle, must then be firmly 
pressed down over the laurel leaves, so that they will not 
move when the bottle is inverted. The specimens, which 
will usually be found resting quietly in the boxes, may be 
transferred to the killing bottle, by sharply tapping the 
opened box on the edge of the mouth of the bottle, but, if 
possible, this should never be done at an open window as, 
even with the utmost care, the occasional escape of a 
specimen is unavoidable. For larger insects, or any having 
a green shade in their colouring, chloroform must be em- 
ployed as a killing agent, and a suitable bottle for its 
application, may be constructed as follows -— 
Procure a wide-mouthed glass jar, with a metal screw 
top, the screw top being furnished inside with the usual 
cardboard dise, which may be supplemented by the 
insertion of several similar dises of blotting paper, a piece 
of sponge, about the size of a large pea, should be firmly 
attached, by means of a fine wire, to the cardboard in the 
serew top. This sponge is intended to receive three or four 
drops of chloroform, which is thus kept from direct contact 
with the specimens in the jar. At the bottom of the bottle 
itself, a much larger sponge an inch or two in diameter, 
partially saturated with water, is placed, the remaining 
space in the lower portion of the jar being subsequently 
filled up with cotton wool, and the whole held compactly 
down by means of a tight-fitting cardboard dise. Insects 
I—COLLECTING AND OBSERVING. 
killed in a bottle of this design, will be fairly well relaxed 
in about 12 hours, when they are almost as easy to manipu- 
late as those killed with laurel. Al) killing bottles require 
to be dried when moisture accumulates on the glass. The 
stock of choroform should be kept in a smali glass stoppered 
bottle. Except in the case of a very rare species, no 
damaged specimens should be killed and few collectors will 
desire to sacrifice an insect’s life, unless the specimen can 
afterwards be profitably utilised for scientifie work. Some 
collectors use cyanide of potassium for killing their 
captures, and specially prepared cyanide bottles can be 
purchased from dealers in entomological apparatus. Others 
kill and pin their specimens in the field, thus dispensing 
with the need for carrying a supply of boxes. I am, how- 
ever, unable to recommend this procedure as time in the 
field is often extremely valuable, and the pinning of small 
species, under the conditions there existing, is liable to 
be attended with much difficulty. 
From killing we must now pass to the questien of 
pinning. Special entomological pins of different sizes, 
silvered, gilt or black, may be purchased from all dealers 
in entomological apparatus. For New Zealand work, sizes 
1, 4, 5, 9, 10, 17 and 19 will be found the most convenient, 
and gilt pins are recommended. For insects about the size 
of Vanessa gonerilla and average Noctuids No. 4 is suitable; 
No. 5 is useful for such insects as Argyrophenga antipo- 
dum and average Geometers; Scoparias, Tortrices and the 
larger Tineids should be pinned with No. 9 or 10; the 
smaller Tineids with No. 17 or 19. The very minute moths 
should, however, be impaled with special pure silver pins, 
and finally mounted on a piece of pith, which is in turn 
pinned into the cabinet or store-box with an ordinary Ne. 
5 entomological pin. Suitable cylinders of pith, which 
should be cut about 4-inch long, may be obtained by eare- 
fully peeling stout rushes, the inside pith being well dried 
either in the sun or before a fire. In all cases the pin must 
be placed exactly through the middle of the thorax. It 
should be absolutely at right angles to the long axis of 
the insect’s body, leaning neither to the right nor to the 
left, and should project fully 4 inch beneath the speci- 
men. It is a great mistake to pin a large insect with a very 
fine pin, or a small one with too heavy a pin, and on this 
account the collector should always keep on hand a good 
stock of pins of the various sizes mentioned. A very 
convenient pin tray, with six divisions for pins of different 
sizes, is supplied by dealers in entomological apparatus, 
and will be found invaluable. Except in the larger species, 
pinning is best effected under a magnifying glass of low 
power. ‘The ‘‘speera-binocular magnifiers,’? supplied by 
Messrs. Watson and Sons, of 313, High Holborn, London, 
will be found invaluable when pinning and setting minute 
insects. They are worn like spectacles, thus leaving both 
hands free for work. A pad of rough cloth is useful to 
pin insects on, and its thickness may be varied to regulate 
the height at which they are pinned, 

