Take a wide-mouthed bottle made of clear glass and fit a cork or rubber stopper to it.  Then wash the bottle thoroughly and dry it, finally polishing the inside with a piece of soft cloth or tissue paper.  Place one ounce of cyanide of potassium into the bottle and pour in enough dry sawdust to cover the lumps of poison.  Then wet some plaster of paris until it is the consistency of thick cream and quickly pour it over the sawdust, taking care that it does not run down the sides or splash against the bottle.  Place the bottle on a level table and very soon the plaster of paris will set and harden into a solid cake.

Sufficient fumes from the cyanide will come up through the plaster to poison the air in the bottle and to kill any living thing that attempts to breathe it.  As you capture your specimens of moths, bugs or butterflies afield you place them into the bottle, and as soon as they are dead, you remove them; fold them carefully in stiff paper and store them in a paper box or a carrying case until you get home.  They should then be mounted on boards or cork sheets, labelled carefully with the name of the specimen, date and place of capture and any other facts that you may wish to keep.

[Illustration:  How insects are spread to dry them in a natural position]

Considerable skill is required to mount insects properly and in a life-like position.  If they are out of shape you must “spread” them before they dry out.  Spreading consists in holding them in the proper position by means of tiny bits of glass and pins until they are dry.

As moths are, as a rule, night-flying creatures the collector will either obtain them in a larval stage, or will adopt the method of “sugaring,” one of the most fascinating branches of nature study.  A favourable locality is selected, a comparatively open space in preference to a dense growth, and several trees are baited or sugared to attract the moths when in search of food.  The sugar or bait is made as follows:  Take four pounds of dark brown sugar, one quart of molasses, a bottle of stale ale or beer, four ounces of Santa Cruz rum.  Mix and heat gradually.  After it is cooked for five minutes allow it to cool and place in Mason jars.  The bait will be about the consistency of thick varnish.

Just before twilight the bait should be painted on a dozen or more trees with a strip about three inches wide and three feet long.  You will need a bull’s-eye lantern or bicycle lamp and after dark, make the rounds of your bait and cautiously flash the light on the baited tree.  If you see a moth feeding there, carefully bring the cyanide bottle up and drop him into it.  Under no circumstances, clap the bottle over the specimen.  If you do the neck of the bottle will become smeared with the bait and the moth would be daubed over and ruined.  You will soon have all the specimens that you can care for at one time and will be ready to go home and take care of them.