S-1141001_COMPLETO.pdf

4 APHOEISMATA ENTOMOLOGICA.
desirous to learn. This, I say, is the best kind of net. The bottom
part should be turned up, and run on a piece of tape tied to the
handles on each side, forming a kind of bag, to stop the captured
insects from falling down and out of the net if laid upwards at the time.
The second best, and indeed the only other that I at all recommend,
is also best to be understood by means of an engraving, which is accor­
dingly given; but I may mention that though less fitted 'ad captandum,'
than the one just before mentioned, the present has an advantage, or
rather some advantages over the other, though on the Avhole, in point
of usefulness inferior to it. First, it folds up into a very small compass.
Secondly, it is shut up or put together in a very brief space of time;
which Avhen you see three Convolvulus Hawk Moths at once, as I have
done, is a considerable desideratum. Thirdly, the stick to which the
round net is affixed, is neither more nor less than a common walking-
stick, and useful accordingly in more ways than one; add to which,
that even when fitted to the net, or rather the net to it, it will often
be found very serviceable in " beating about the bush," as you walk
along; and if any "scarce article" flies out from its concealment, you
instantly reverse the state of affairs, and capture the insect, or—miss it.
It is then very serviceable, at all events as a 'pis aller,' though
inferior, on the whole, to the first-named net. As to the forceps 'et
id genus omne,' I exclude them altogether from my vocabulary of
entomological apparatus. A common fishing-jacket, with two large and
two small pockets outside, is the best kind of coat.
" FIRST CATCH TOUR HARE."
" Blessings on the man that first invented sleep," said Sancho Panza,
and every housemaid must surely almost as much praise the memory
of him Avho was the first discoverer of lucifer matches. The old
tinder-box and its concomitants must be most unpleasingly associated in
their minds with the idea of a cold dark winter morning, and the almost
impossibility there was in the olden days, or rather nights, to "strike
a light." Now, thanks to the benign inventor of the lucifer match,
whose sole thought must have been doubtless for the unhappy females
spoken of, all difficulty is at once and for ever removed, and if they
only "keep their powder dry," it will give them the privilege of lying
in bed half-an-hour longer than they otherwise would be able to do,