Will you kindly tell me how to catch, how to kill without pain, how to mount, and on what to mount butterflies? ZELL STEEVER. "THE CAIRO," WASHINGTON, D. C. [Illustration] To properly catch butterflies for a collection do not use your hat or your fingers. Provide a net as shown in the illustration. Bend a light wire so as to form a hoop ten inches across, and fasten the two ends into a section of a fishing-rod or other light pole about four feet long. Over this hoop stretch netting as shown. Immediately the fly is in the net turn the hoop over, that it may not escape. If it be of large size, catch it at the base of the wings by your thumb and finger. Press hard enough to kill, but not to crush the body. If of small size, or if it does not hold its wings above its back, put your killing-bottle inside the net, drive the fly inside it, and let the poison do the rest. This killing-bottle is of glass, with a large mouth, and has a cork that projects sufficiently to be easily handled. Into the bottle put a piece of cyanide of potassium as big as a chestnut, and pour over it, to depth enough to cover it, plaster of Paris, letting the latter harden. [Illustration] To mount butterflies prepare a setting-board as shown in the illustration. Put the body into the groove, as here shown, and then, using a fine needle, spread the wings well, the front wings being quite well forward, and the hind wings well away from the body. Get the antennæ in position, and put two pins crossed under the abdomen so it does not fall. Put over the wings pieces of stiff cardboard, as in the cut, and bind them down with the string. Let them be on the setting-boards one week after you think them thoroughly dry. If insects become too dry to spread they can be softened by putting them, for a few hours, into a closed jar in which there is wet sand. There are various ways of arranging a permanent butterfly collection, but the best way is to provide a light box, two inches deep and 20x24 inches square. Have the bottom of cork, and over the top put a cover with glass in it. Cover the cork bottom with white paper. Insects should be arranged as they are classified in science, each with a label below the insect giving scientific name, date and place of capture, and with both sexes present. With each ought to be placed the other stages of its life, if possible: egg, caterpillar, pupa, and cocoon, if it makes one. Some prefer to set insects on pins arranged to show their color to the best advantage, but this is not so good a plan from a scientific point of view. Designs might be a crown, a star, a wasp, or a butterfly, using beetles, wasps, and dragon-flies to vary colors. * * * * * Storing and Transferring Wheat.