o put them in
cotton-wool in a box with cardboard compartments. Making this box is a
good country occupation for wet weather.

Butterflies

Butterfly-hunting begins when birds'-nesting is done and the weather
is hot. Here again it is not the purpose of this book to go into
particulars: the subject is too large. It is enough to say that the
needful things are a large net of soft green gauze, a killing-bottle
with a glass stopper, a cork-lined box with a supply of pins in which
to carry the butterflies after they are dead, and setting boards for
use at home. The good collector is very careful in transferring the
butterfly from the net to the bottle, lest its wings are rubbed or
broken; and before taking it out of the bottle and putting it in the
box you should be quite certain that it is dead. The way to get the
butterfly into the bottle is to drive it into a corner of the net and
hold it there, and then slip the bottle inside, remove the stopper,
and shake the butterfly into it. The stopper should be off as short a
time as possible. For handbooks for a butterfly collector see the
"Reading" section.

Collecting Flowers

A quieter pastime, but a very interesting one, and also one that,
unlike egg-collecting and butterfly-collecting, goes on all the year
round, is collecting flowers. For this purpose tin cases are made,
with straps to hold them from the shoulders, in which to keep the
plants cool and fresh; but there is no need to wait for the possession
of one of these. An ordinary box or basket will, if you have not very
far to walk, serve equally well. You will also need a press, which can
be simply a couple of boards about a foot long and six inches wide,
with a good supply of blotting-paper between. The flowers are pressed
by spreading them very carefully, to show their beauty to best
advantage, between the blotting-paper, and then piling a few books on
the boards. The weight need not be very heavy and the blotting-paper
should frequently be renewed. You will soon learn how long the
pressing need continue, but it is of the highest importance that the
flowers are thoroughly dried before you mount them in your album or on
separate sheets of paper. The simplest form of mounting is to glue
little strips of paper here and there across the stems. A botanical
collection is more valuable if the roots of the plants are also
included; and this will make it necessary for you to have a long
trowel. For the collector of f