mples of the
destructive workings of insect pests should be made.

While nothing is more beautiful than a carefully prepared collection of
moths, butterflies, and beetles with their infinite variety of form and
colour, nothing is more disgusting than a badly preserved collection of
distorted, shrivelled, vermin-infested specimens. The teacher should
avail himself of the collecting instinct which is prominent in boys of
nine to fourteen years of age and of their desire to have things done
well, to develop in them habits of carefulness, neatness, and
thoroughness.

INSECT COLLECTIONS

See Manual on _Manual Training_, for details for making collecting
appliances.

Agricultural Bulletin No. 8, _Nature Collections for Schools_,
Department of Education, Ontario, for detailed instructions on making
insect collections.

The outfit for collecting is neither expensive nor hard to prepare. It
consists of (1) an insect net for catching the insects, made by sewing a
bag of cheese-cloth to a stout ring one foot in diameter, which is
fastened to a broom handle; (2) a cyanide bottle for killing the
insects, prepared by pouring some soft plaster-paris over a few lumps of
potassium cyanide (three pieces, each of the size of a pea) in a
wide-mouthed bottle. When the plaster has set, keep the bottle tightly
corked to retain the poisonous gases. (3) Pins to mount the specimens.
Entomological pins, Nos. 2, 3, and 4, are the best for general use.
Beetles are usually pinned through the right wing-cover at about one
fourth of its length from the front end of it. Moths and butterflies are
pinned through the thorax. Small insects may be fastened to a very small
pin, which in turn is set into a bit of cork, supported by a pin of
ordinary size. (4) Spreading board for moths and butterflies. (5) Insect
boxes to hold the specimens. This should be secured before the
collection is begun. It is a common mistake to believe that any box
whatever will do for storing insects. It is necessary to encourage
effort in drying, spreading, pinning, and labelling, by providing an
effective means of permanently preserving the specimens. In cigar-boxes,
pasteboard boxes, and such makeshifts, the specimens soon become broken,
covered with dust, and marred in other ways, and the collectors become
discouraged; hence it is necessary to secure good boxes from dealers in
entomological supplies.

A sponge saturated with carbon bisulphide should be placed in the box