"The greatest requisites in collecting are a pair of sharp eyes and ready hands, with coolness and self-possession; but a few traps will materially aid. One of the most important is the hand-net, which may be made so as to subserve the two purposes of a sweeping and an air-net." [Illustration: FIG. 44.--The Butterfly net-frame.] "The frame of the net which I use is illustrated herewith (Fig. 44), and will be found strong and serviceable and conveniently portable. It is constructed as follows: Take two pieces of stout brass wire, each about 20 inches long; bend them half-circularly and at one end by a folding hinge having a check on one side, _b_. The other ends are bent and beaten into two square sockets, _f_, which fit to a nut sunk and soldered into one end of a brass tube, _d_. When so fitted, they are secured by a large-headed screw, _e_, threaded to fit into the nut-socket, and with a groove wide enough to receive the back of a common pocket-knife blade. The wire hoop is easily detached and folded, as at _c_, for convenient carriage; and the handle may be made of any desired length by cutting a stick and fitting it into the hollow tube _a_, which should be about 6 inches long. It is well to have two separate hoops, one of lighter wire, furnished with silk gauze or some other light material, for catching flying insects, and one which is stouter and furnished with a net of stronger material for sweeping non-flying specimens. "Another still more simple, but less convenient frame, is thus described by my friend F. G. Sanborn, of Boston, Mass.: 'Make a loop of strong iron or brass wire, of about 3-16ths of an inch in thickness, so that the diameter of the loop or circle will not exceed 12 inches, leaving an inch to an inch and a half of wire at each end bent at nearly right angles. Bind the two extremities of the wire together with smaller wire (Fig. 45, _a_), and tin them by applying a drop of muriate of zinc, then holding it in the fire or over a gas flame until nearly red hot, when a few grains of block tin or soft solder placed upon them will flow evenly over the whole surface and join them firmly together. Take a Maynard rifle cartridge tube, or other brass tube of similar dimensions; if the former, file off the closed end or perforate it for the admission of the wire, and having tinned it in the same manner on the inside, push a tight-fitting cork half way through (Fig. 45, _c_) and pour into it melted tin or soft solder, and insert the wires; if carefully done, you will have a firmly constructed and very durable foundation for a collecting net. The cork being extracted will leave a convenient socket for inserting a stick or walking cane to serve as a handle.' [Illustration: FIG. 45.--The Sanborn net-frame.]