When you get home, take out all the pins, excepting such as may be stuck
_perpendicularly_ through the _middle of the thorax_, and as soon as
possible proceed to "set" your captures.

[Illustration]

Preparatory to this, some articles called _setting-boards_ must be
provided. A section of one of these is shown in the accompanying cut; but
in reality they are made much longer, so as to accommodate a column of
half-a-dozen butterflies or more: the breadth may vary, {55} according to
the width of the butterflies that are to be set thereon.

The bottom is usually a thin slip of deal, on which are glued two strips of
cork, bevelled off towards the edges, with a slightly curved face.
Sometimes, however, the whole board is made of soft pine, with a groove
planed down the middle, and with care will answer pretty well; but the
corked board is far preferable.

The mode of "setting" the insect with card "braces" transfixed with pins,
which retain the wings in their proper position, will be also readily seen
by reference to the figure.

A great point in "setting" is to take care that all the wings are
symmetrically arranged, or diverging from the body at equal angles on each
side. Let the _antennae_ also be carefully preserved, as on their integrity
much of the specimen's value depends.

It will be needless to say that any handling of the _wings_ is to be
avoided, as a touch will sometimes destroy their bloom.

The setting-board, when filled, should be put away into a secure,
dust-proof, and dry place; and in a few days, more or less, according to
the dryness or otherwise of the atmosphere, the butterflies will have dried
and set in their positions, and are then ready for transference to the
store-box or cabinet.

The choice of this receptacle is a serious question for the beginner, who
is often in want of a guide to the judicious expenditure of his money, if
money he means {56} to spend in this pursuit. To preserve insects, it is
_not_ absolutely necessary to have either a cabinet or the regularly-made
store-boxes; for, with a little contrivance, any close-shutting, shallow
box may be extemporized into a store-box. The bottom may either be lined
with sheet-cork (such as is used by shoemakers)--which, however, is a
rather dear commodity--or common wine-corks may be sliced up, and cut into
little square patches that may be attached in straight rows to the bottom
of the box with strong gum or other cement. The first specim