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HAEDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[April 1, 1S63. 



spring, early summer, and autumnal months are 

 therefore the best for collecting ; and the height of 

 summer is not found productive, on account of the 

 survivors of the preceding year having died off, and 

 the prospective generation being either in the larval 

 or pupal condition. Winter, however, will prove a 

 good season for the energetic collector, who then 

 will find in moss, at roots of tufts of grass, under 

 bark, in cracks of trees or the soil, or even deep 

 under the surface, abundance of torpid beetles, if 

 he search in likely places. For this winter work all 

 the implements required are a stout knife and a 

 sheet of brown paper, on which latter moss, grass, 

 or other insect-harbours are to be shaken. Moss 

 is often so productive (whether from tree-trunks 

 or growing on the ground) that it is worth while 

 to take it home in a linen bag, the contents being 

 examined at leisure ; in this case it saves time 

 and space if the moss be pulled to pieces at 

 once over a coarse wire sieve (which, with canvas 

 sides, and either simple or folding for the pocket, 

 can be obtained at Mr. Brewer's, 55, Great Russell 

 Street, opposite the British Museum, and is almost 

 indispensable for small insects), the insect contents 

 and small fragments only being then taken home. 

 It stands to reason that isolated tufts of grass, and 

 places where moss is not very abundant, will be 

 found most productive ; for, where there is an 

 abundance of cover, insects are widely spread, and 

 where there is but little, they congregate in numbers. 

 Tufts should be cut just below the soil, and pulled 

 to pieces over the paper. A common garden 

 pruning or clasp knife is good, but an old sharp 

 dinner knife (to be carried in a sheath) is still 

 better. A yard or so of double india-rubber 

 cloth makes an excellent kneeling pad for use in 

 marshy places ; and, if faced with white or grey, is 

 good for shaking tufts on also. 



For general purposes the spring and early summer 

 will be found the best times in which to collect. 

 The most careless observer can scarcely have failed 

 to notice the myriads of beetles, of all kinds and 

 sizes, that, waking from their long rest, gambol about 

 in the air, and settle or ruu on the paths, even in our 

 cities, when the first hot rays of the sun in April 

 or May seem to arouse all nature to enjoyment of 

 life. Then is the time for the novice to lay in his 

 first stock of material ; whether he travel to the 

 coast, where the sand-hills teem with beetle life 

 (those at Deal are the best, and easily and cheaply 

 accessible), or seek the nearest wood, plantation, 

 fields, or common. Scarcely any implements are 

 required, the hand alone being almost sufficient ; 

 but a small and light gauze bag-net, such as is 

 employed by butterfly hunters, will at this time be 

 found very useful in entrapping the numerous 

 winged Coleopterous atoms that cross and recross 

 the path of the collector in rapid flight. Such a net, 

 however, will be of little avail at other times, as 



there are none of our beetles sufficiently active on 

 the wing to require its aid, save the Cidndelidce, or 

 Tiger-beetles, which run and fly alternately (like 

 partridges) in the hot sunshine about sandy places ; 

 and none of these but C. campestris, abundant in 

 most parts of the kingdom, are likely to be met 

 with often. This light net can, perhaps, also be 

 used with advantage by waving it about at sunset 

 in the summer over heaps of cut grass, dead sticks, 

 or manure, to which many small and rare species 

 fly just before dusk. These despised heaps of 

 garden and other refuse act as first-rate traps for 

 beetles ; aud any collector living at the shortest 

 distance from the metropolis (or even in it) will do 

 well to keep a little heap of leaves, twigs, rotten 

 wood, grass, and such odds and ends, in which he 

 will constantly find many beetles. Wide-mouthed 

 bottles sunk in the ground, and baited with a piece 

 of dry meat or small bone, are often attractive ; but 

 the dry carcase of any small animal, whether nailed 

 up or left on the ground, will be better still. Of 

 course, if the collecter can in his rambles find a 

 barn-door covered with feathered robbers, or a 

 keeper's tree, its boughs laden with cats, weasels, 

 &c, great will be his reward in Necrophaga, Nitidu- 

 lidce, Necrobia, Brachehjtra, &c. These he will 

 obtain by holding an umbrella or beating-net be- 

 neath, and administering the bastinado to them 

 with a stick. This beating-net (which may also be 

 used for sweeping) is absolutely necessary to the 

 Coleopterist, and may therefore be described at 

 once. It consists of a stout stick, to the ferule of 

 which is attached on each side, by a strong hinge, 

 a strip of fiat steel or whalebone ; these strips are 

 united at their extremity near the handle of the 

 stick, and fixed into a brass ring that plays up and 

 down, aud when pushed forward and caught by an 

 umbrella spring half way down the stick, forms a 

 stout circular frame. To this is appended a net of 

 strong but fine canvas or coarse linen, the rim 

 being well bound with leather cloth, to lessen the 

 effect of friction. The whole, when folded up, re- 

 sembles a large umbrella, being thrust into the 

 usual glazed cover, and is very portable. Such a 

 net is to be obtained at Cooke's, New Oxford Street, 

 near Mudie's Library, and can be used for sweeping 

 herbage, beating into, or any other operation of 

 collecting. A smaller net, for sweeping only, will 

 be found of great assistance : this can be made of 

 stout iron wire, circular in shape, and either stiff or 

 foldiug (and if so, in one or three places), to go into 

 the pocket ; and one end of it should be forged flat, 

 with a hole drilled through it to admit the other end, 

 which must be wormed, and screw into a long ferule 

 fastened on a stick. In a short time, however, the 

 screw will cease to bite firmly ; so I find it best to 

 drill a hole at once through the ferule and screw, 

 inserting a moveable metal pin transversely, which 

 prevents the net turning round, and probably all 



