_Repairing Specimens._--Torn and ragged specimens are to be preferred to none at all. "The half of a loaf is better than no bread." Until the torn specimen can be replaced by a better, it is always well to retain it in a collection. But it is sometimes possible to repair torn specimens in such a way as to make them more presentable. If an antenna, for instance, has been broken off, it may be replaced neatly, so that only a microscopic examination will disclose the fact that it was once away from the place where it belonged. If a wing has been slit, the rent may be mended so neatly that only a very careful observer can detect the fact. If a piece has been torn out of a wing, it may be replaced by the corresponding portion of the wing of another specimen of the same sex of the same species in such a way as almost to defy detection. The prime requisites for this work are patience, a steady hand, a good eye, a great deal of "gumption," a few setting-needles, a jeweler's forceps, and a little shellac dissolved in alcohol. The shellac used in replacing a missing antenna should be of a thickish consistency; in repairing wings it should be well thinned down with alcohol. In handling broken antennæ it is best to use a fine sable pencil, which may be moistened very lightly by applying it to the tip of the tongue. With this it is possible to pick up a loose antenna and place it wherever it is desired. Apply the shellac to the torn edges of a broken wing with great delicacy of touch and in very small quantity. Avoid putting on the adhesive material in "gobs and slathers." Repairing is a fine art, which is only learned after some patient experimentation, and is only to be practised when absolutely necessary. The habit of some dealers of patching up broken specimens with parts taken from other species is highly to be reprobated. Such specimens are more or less caricatures of the real thing, and no truly scientific man will admit such scarecrows into his collection, except under dire compulsion. [Illustration FIG. 73.--Butterflies pinned into a box overlapping one another, or "shingled."]