to do this while retaining your grip on the stopper with the little finger. Then, holding the bottle through the netting with the first fingers of the left hand, take the stopper in the right and slip it under the net and into place. Butterflies and large moths which flutter violently may be held through the net by the sides of the thorax, just under the wings. Some collectors claim that a hard pinch at this point will paralyze the wings and prevent the specimen from battering itself as it flaps in the bottle. Others say that pinching ruins the specimen. You might try it and see. The process is illustrated in fig. 10. Fig. 11 shows a simple method of dealing with species known or suspected to bite or sting; wasps, bees, and many of the beaked bugs, for instance. These should be corked up in the killing jar, while still enmeshed in a fold of the net, until they have stopped kicking. They may then be picked out of the net and dropped back into the bottle without danger. Sweeping This is a wholesale method of collecting by swinging the net back and forth through tall grass or forest undergrowth, as diagrammed in fig. 12. The catch includes insects in all stages of development, spiders, and other creatures, together with a consider- able quantity of leaves. The whole may be dumped into the killing jar at once, but as this results in the destruction of a great many harmless animals of no interest to the collector, it is probably better to open the net and pick out, with fingers or tweezers, the specimens you wish to keep, and let the others go. If too many valuable specimens escape, try putting the lot, net included, into the killing jar for a few minutes, as you would a stinging insect. When all are quiet, you can pick them over at more leisure. The rejects will shortly revive and go on about their business. Although an ordinary aerial net may be used for sweeping where there are no bushes or brambles, a special sweeping net will give better and longer service. The hoop should be stronger than that of the aerial net, and the handle so short that the hoop just clears the ground when the hand holding the net hangs loosely at the side. The bag of this net is made entirely of muslin, no netting at all. Stronger and heavier yet is the beating net, used in sweeping bushes and the branches of trees for their hidden occupants. AQUATIC NETS Water is so much denser than air that an aerial net is quite unmanageable in that medium. Nets for use in water should be small, very strong, and proportion- ally much shallower than the aerial net. Since most aquatic insects are awkward out of their element, they need not be secured by inverting the rim of the net. To lower resistance to the water, and permit as much dbris as possible to wash out of the net, the mesh should be the largest that will retain the desired specimens. In addition to the round dip net, thorough collectors may use a triangular scraping net for species which inhabit the bottoms of streams and ponds. See fig. 13. If, in an emergency, you find it necessary to use an aerial net in the water, shorten it temporarily by wrapping the bottom of the bag around the handle, grasping it firmly just behind the rim.