238 THE OPEN BOOK OF NATURE 
you may set both males and females free to populate 
the earth with their kind. Perhaps you will wish 
to preserve some specimens for your museum col- 
lection ; in that case they will have to be mercifully 
killed and properly set. To kill them they may be 
placed in a closed jar containing bruised laurel- 
leaves ; or, better, each specimen can be secured in 
a suitable pill-box punctured with little holes. The 
pill-boxes containing the insects can then be placed 
in a jar into which a piece of sponge or blotting- 
paper saturated with strong solution of ammonia 
has been inserted. The jar, of course, will have to 
be closed at the mouth, so that the fumes do not 
escape. {The insects should be left for some hours 
in the jar, and before they are set they should have 
at least half an hour in fresh air, otherwise the 
ammonia that clings to them may corrode the pins. 
For setting the insects suitable setting-boards are 
necessary, and these can be made at home. A flat 
piece of soft wood, say a foot long and of a width 
suited to the size of the insects to be set, is covered. 
with strips of sheet cork, so arranged as to provide 
a groove along the middle of the board from end to 
end. This groove is to admit the bodies ot the 
insects. The whole is covered with white paper. 
An entomological pin is inserted into the thorax of 
the specimen to be set, and by this its body is 
fastened into the groove of the setting-board. The 
wings are stretched into a suitable position, and 
held there by wedge-shaped battens of thin card- 
board attached to pins. After being held thus on 
the setting-board for a few days, the insects will by 
stiff and ready for their places in the cabinet. Thee 
