Chapter II
COLLECTING INSECTS
"Does he who searches Nature's secrets scruple
To stick a pin into an insect?"
—A. G. Oehlenschlaeger.
In the life of every normal human there comes a time when he wishes to make a collection of some kind. It may be a collection of coins, postage stamps, post-cards, shells, relics, birds' eggs, pressed flowers or insects. If the child grows up in the country, the result of this craving is usually three or four cigar boxes of insects or an almanac or geography stuffed with the most attractive wild flowers of the field. A collection of this sort may be small and poorly kept and yet it is worth while. In later life one will search in his mother's closet or attic for the old cigar boxes which contain the remains of youthful efforts, usually a mass of gaudy wings, fragments of insect legs and bodies and a few rusty pins. This desire to make a collection is natural and should be encouraged in the child. It tends to make him observe closely and creates an interest in things about him, and if properly directed it will add a store of information which can be gotten in no other way.
Directions for Collecting
A convenient home-made net for catching insects; note the broom-stick handle, heavy twisted wire and mosquito net bag.
A cyanide jar for killing insects; note the lumps of the deadly poison potassium cyanide in the bottom covered and sealed by a layer of plaster of Paris.