require to be gummed on their backs; as soon as the gum is dry, their limbs can be more easily got into position, and they can then be gently damped off their temporary mount, and treated as above. A small pair of brass microscope-forceps, ground or cut to a minute point, will often materially assist in getting refractory limbs into position. French white liquid glue (not made of shell-lac) is useful for fastening down larger specimens, as it is very strong and dries readily; and with a very small quantity of it rows of specimens can quickly and securely be roughly mounted, in the Continental way, which is preferable in many cases to leaving the insects for a long time in laurel before setting them out. Such specimens can afterwards, if desired, be relaxed by leaving them on damp sand, or in the cyanide or laurel bottle, and be then set in the way above indicated. Care must be taken, in setting, not to put the specimen lop-sided on the card, or to distort its segments unnaturally by pulling them out of position, &c., and not to allow gum to lodge anywhere on the upper surface. It is easy, soon after a specimen is securely mounted, to remove with clean water and brush any superfluous gum. In preparing such insects as are liable to "run up" in drying (e.g. the _Staphylinidæ_), the abdomen should be duly pulled out by a bead-needle inserted at its apex; and to prevent the contraction of the internal muscles in drying, this part may be held with the liquid glue above mentioned. Usually, by putting these insects as soon as mounted into a box and keeping it closed for a few hours, while the first drying takes place, the proper dimensions of the abdomen may be preserved, and thus the natural facies of the insect retained. The contents of the bodies of very large insects may well be removed, either by the anal orifice, or by an incision on the lower side of the abdomen. The Oil-beetles (_Meloë_) alone require careful stuffing. This is best done by separating the entire abdomen from the metathorax, beneath the elytra, and close to their point of insertion: the body is then easily emptied and washed out, and may be filled with cut-up wool, which packs closely; when gummed on again, the junction is not visible, and the entire insect preserves its wonderfully obese appearance.