smaller one. A piece of white oil cloth about two feet square is excellent, being easy to clean and handy to sit on in damp places when not needed for its proper purpose. The sieve can be a wire basket, such as is used in making french-fried potatoes, or a specially constructed one designed for collecting. Such a sieve is shown in fig. 9. It is a canvas sleeve about 14 inches deep and 12 inches across, having in the bottom an octagonal piece of ¼ inch galvanized iron wire mesh, and at the top a galvanized iron wire hoop crossed by a convenient handle. Although not strictly necessary, a small wooden grip bolted to the edge of the mesh at the bottom of the bag is a great comfort to the hands of the collector. Precise direc- tions for making this sieve are given in Leaflet Number 7, together with those for separators, traps, and other special equipment. When using the sieve, fill it to a depth of about four inches with debris. Holding it over the middle of the sifting cloth, shake the screen violently from side to side a few times. A sprinkling of dark fragments will fall through. Put the sieve down on a corner of the cloth, take up the alcohol bottle and brush, and concentrate upon the specks. When one of them moves, grab it. Do not be impatient. It will be several minutes before all of the creatures stop “play- ing 'possum,” and begin to leave. When you think you have them all, pick up the sieve, dust off the cloth, and shake again. Four shakings usually suffice to exhaust a lot of debris. Then empty the sieve and start over. Sifting is most productive if the sifted material is gathered in a shady place which is always moist, but not wet. In the autumn, fungi of various kinds are especially populous. These can be shaken in the sieve, or held over the cloth and thumped. Fig. 10 shows the quill bottle, a device alternative to the wet brush for picking up minute hard-bodied species. It is a vial with a shallow cork through which a hole has been bored near one side. A piece of the quill of a large feather, or its equivalent in thin plastic tubing, passes through this hole, fitting snugly. The outer end of the quill is cut off diagonally, making a small scoop with which the insects can be shoveled up. The inner end of the quill projects beyond the cork far enough to prevent the captives from falling out through it when the bottle is inverted. The quill bottle must be emptied into a vial of alcohol from time to time. Fig. 11. A Mason's hammer. COLLECTING BURROWERS AND BORERS Insects and spiders which burrow in the ground, or in the stems, branches and roots of plants, are discovered largely by hard work and a sound knowl- edge of the habits of the beasts. Sometimes you are lucky enough to sight one abroad and follow it home, but usually you just have to guess where you would be at this time of day if you were a digging wasp or a roundheaded borer, and then go there and look. This entails the expenditure of elbow grease and the use of some sort of digging tool. For soft earth and sand a garden trowel is satisfactory. A mason's hammer or small geologist's pick is invaluable for breaking hard soil, prying up rocks, splitting wood, and tearing the bark from dead trees. It is shown in fig. 11. A strong sharp knife is necessary for digging borers out of wood, and for splitting twigs and the stems of herbaceous plants. The sides of streambanks and road cuttings, ditches, gullies, or any other place where a consider- able vertical expanse of earth is exposed is likely to attract digging wasps, bees, spiders and other crea- tures which nest underground. Even when there are no external openings, it may repay you to slice off the face of such a bank with a shovel. If there are any inhabitants, their tunnels will then be visible, and you 11