I902 A Field Naturalist's Diary fo7^ \<^o\ 41 



and searching carefully through it on the study table. The 

 great, hard fungi seen high up on trees should also be 

 retained and placed in glass jars, whence will issue, with 

 no further trouble on the part of the collector, various 

 small brown beetles, with two- and four-winged flies in May. 

 But even now all nature is not still. The inhabitants of 

 our ponds and streams will swim about in chilly water, 

 seeming to take less heed of temperature than their ter- 

 restrial brothers. Often you may stand upon your skates 

 upon a shallow mere and watch the water-boatmen jerk 

 along beneath the ice ; and long before the sun gains power 

 the water-net should be at work amid the reedy ditches 

 where water-beetles, bugs,^ and flies are already issuing to 

 begin the great onslaught of vegetation which will not cease 

 till frosty nights bid them seek another winter's sleep. 



A Field Naturalist's Diary for 1901. 



By W. Percival Westell, M.B.O.U. 



The object of the following notes is to point out what the 

 ordinary observer of wild life may look for during the 

 first three months of the year, by drawing attention to 

 what was observed in the corresponding period of last 

 year. Every field naturalist should keep such a diary, 

 and he will find the comparison of his annual observations 

 on animals and plants full of interest. 



To many my notes may appear trifling and trivial ; but 

 I am a humble follower of Richard Jefferies, in that I do 

 not like change. I prefer to roam round the same old 

 loved spots ; to watch each successive season the unfold- 



^ May I be permitted to put what I hope is not a personal matter before our 

 readers? The word "Bug" is used here, and should be used everywhere, in 

 neither its extremely limited and unsavoury English, nor in its far too wide 

 and vague American, sense. The "Bugs" constitute the entomological order 

 Hemiptera, having a suctorial mouth and four sub-chitinous wings, of which the 

 anterior are usually more or less membraneous. The first section of them, the 

 Heteroptera, are cursorial ; the second section, the Homoptera or frog-hoppers, 

 are saltatorial. — C. M. 



