It will be found useful to fasten with a tin tack a piece of white card above every patch of the composition/ You are thus able to see at a glance where to look, and it may also attract the moths.

The sugar should be brushed on the side away from the wind if there is any. Still, cloudy, and damp nights are best: on moonlight nights it is no good at all. You can continue to examine the sugar until ten o'clock, or later. But there is another method which can be practised in the evening; and it is one which you will all know, though it may have been to you, hitherto, rather an annoyance than otherwise.

I allude to the attraction of a light. We all know that in the summer evenings, when the lamp is lighted and the window open, we are constantly annoyed by the incursions of moths and other insects. If you open the windows wide, and put the lamp near them, you will have as many as your heart can desire; and it is no easy work to secure them. The net must be used for those which continue to fly about; but some settle down, and may be boxed at once. You are likely to get a great number of the same species; but you will soon be able to recognize them, even on the wing, and not employ your time in the capture of those of which you have already sufficient.

There has been much discussion on the question of how to kill moths, and collectors differ much on this head. It is to the interest of the collector (as well as of humanity), that death, or, at any rate, insensibility, should take place as soon as possible; for the specimens would injure themselves by struggling. I do not like to recommend poisons to young collectors, however safe they may be in experienced hands ; and perhaps the laurel-leaf plan is the best all round. But for some of the larger moths it will only cause stupefaction, and these should be then killed by a slight stab from a sharp quill dipped in a saturated solution of oxalic acid. Chloroform is a favorite with some; but it leaves the wings stiff, and is very expensive, besides evaporating easily.

We are all familiar with the appearance of a moth when set out in a cabinet, but it has to undergo careful treatment before it reaches that perfection. It has first to be pinned with an"entomological"pin. These pins are made for the purpose, and must be bought. The pin must be put in very straight and with great care. Use too small a one rather than too big, as a larger one can at any time be substituted ; and no doubt the pin was made to hold and show off the moth, and not the moth to ornament and beautify the pin.

The insect is then pinned in a groove in a suitably sized"setting board,"which is simply a strip of deal with a groove to receive the body; while the wings are spread out over the wood at each side, which should be slightly rounded. The wings should be brought up a little in advance of the head, and of course must be even with each other. They are to be kept in position by small triangular pieces of card pinned over them.

In pushing forward the wings, a small piece of apparatus, which is most easily made, is invaluable. Take a bit of cork about the size of a pea; and run through it, at right angles to each other, a pin and a long bristle; then the thing is done. By sticking the pin into the board, the bristle may be made to press on the wings, which will hold wherever you put them; and they can thus be easily coaxed into their proper place by the aid of a needle.

The antennae and legs must also be set, and the insect left for some days to harden, or"set"as it is termed, taking care meanwhile that it is in a dry and airy place, and out of the reach of mice, wasps, and cockroaches. It is then ready for removal to the cabinet.

With regard to the cabinet, unless you can have a good one, have none at all, and be content with keeping your insects in corked boxes. In either case a plentiful supply of camphor must be kept with the specimens, or they will soon fall a prey to"mites."This pest is a plague of small insects, which devour the specimen; and their presence makes itself known by dust appearing under the moths. Mites may be killed by inverting the drawer or box over blotting-paper soaked in naphtha: it should be left in this position for an hour or two.

Another plague which attacks the specimens is called"grease."This is caused by the fatty matter in the bodies of the moths extending over the wings, and completely spoiling their appearance. Prolonged soaking in benzine will be found a satisfactory cure for this unsightly disorder.

Many of our butterflies and moths are very common, and the young collector will almost certainly get them in her first season. Others are rare; and yet any one may come across them, and of these we have all an equal chance. Indeed, many rarities fall to young collectors, owing to their habit of catching every thing they see; while an older hand might fancy that he recognized it as something common, and so let it escape him. But the insects which you will be unable to get except by exchange are known as"local"insects. These are often common enough in the place which they inhabit, but are absolutely confined to that locality, or to several localities resembling each other.

All specimens must be carefully labelled, and it is not hard to identify them from the woodcuts in a book. I would strongly recommend the use of books with uncolored illustrations : the colors in others are always wrong, and serve only to mislead. Any that you are doubtful about you should reserve until you have an opportunity of comparing them with some good collection, or getting them named by some authority.

When you have made your collection, you will have got more than you are quite aware of. You will have accumulated a store of curious information about insects and their habits, and your own powers of observation will have been strengthened and sharpened by exercise.

Although the butterflies and moths are the prettiest, you may wish to go farther in your researches. In this case you will probably extend your collection to either beetles or spiders ; and both of these classes arouse much enthusiasm in their collectors. There are also many kinds of bees and wasps, though the fear of getting a sting may deter you from the pursuit of these.

Girls are extremely well suited to this class of work, as they have, as a rule, the delicacy of touch which is necessary in handling the small and fragile insects which must be reared and set. The pursuit will also encourage careful and orderly habits ; for, without a great deal of method and regularity, any kind of collection becomes mere confusion. Nor is the study of insects without its use. Many insects are disagreeably known to us as preying on some plant which is useful or necessary to us in our daily lives. Among such may be noticed the phylloxera, which devour vines; the locust, mentioned in Scripture with such dread; and, to come to our own country, the larva of the cabbage-moth and of the currant-worm, with many other pests peculiar to special crops and regions. For books which will be great helps in this direction see p. 412, 413.

Great honor and reward await any one who may discover the means of destroying these pests, or alleviating the destruction which they cause. And, to show that girls need not consider themselves unfitted for success in this line, it may be mentioned that our greatest authority on the subject is a lady, Miss Ormerod, whose painstaking investigations have won for her the admiration of all who take any interest in such matters.