Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/275

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242
Autumn.

that an extra pane of glass can be used as a slide (Fig. 154). Place the live fish in the aquarium, and when he is on one side Image missingFig. 154.Cross Section of a Sketching Aquarium. of it quickly slip the slide in so as to imprison the fish in such a narrow space that he is unable to flop or turn around, Image missingFig. 155.Mounting-Board. but must patiently keep his broadside to the artist until the picture is finished.

Preserving Insects.

Great care must be taken in killing insects, intended for the cabinet, and death should be produced without disfiguring them or rubbing off the down or scales that covers the bodies and wings of some specimens. A convenient and successful way to kill insects is to drop them into a wide-mouthed bottle, the bottom of which is lined with blotting-paper that has been previously saturated with ether, benzine, creosote or chloroform. When a butterfly, bug, or beetle is put into a bottle prepared in this manner, and the bottle tightly corked, the insect expires without a struggle, and hence without injuring itself. From the bottle the specimens may be taken and pinned upon a mounting-board, consisting of two strips of wood resting upon supports at

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