1877.] 247 



till dawn, perhaps in drenching rain, I have been scarcely able to drag myself home, 

 ■without an hour or two's sleep in the fen^a dangerous luxury in wet clothes, — but 

 then the sport was proportionate. Two nights in particular, July 10th and lltli,the 

 ■weather being just perfection, i. e., oppressively close, and the sky black with clouds, 

 from which thunder and at intervals a drop or two of rain descended, were to me 

 times never to be forgotten. Standing beneath the lamp, its rays made a circle of 

 light amidst the surrounding blackness, and this circle was apparently closed in with 

 a hovering cloud of moths — I am sure that I do not exaggerate when I say they were 

 in tens of thousands ; to select under such circumstances was impossible, and every 

 dash of the net among the swarms that from time to time came close up to the light, 

 produced a mingled assemblage of captives, that made boxing a difficult matter, for 

 often two or three would crowd into the pill-box. Sometimes this was varied by the 

 sudden bang of a M. arundinis against the glass, followed by a buzzing as it fell among 

 the grass and rushes, or the noisy dashing about of G. quercifoUa ; but the tout en- 

 semble produced an impression, the very recollection of which calls up a thrill of 

 excitement. 



Altogether, my diary shows a total of 300 insects, belonging to 34 species, for 

 the 10th, and among the species are M. arundbiis, N. cilialis, and B. uUginosana ; 

 while the record for the next night falls not far below, and even surpasses it, in the 

 matter of N. cilialis, of -which I obtained no less than 10 specimens. When I men- 

 tion that I have tiever since then seen more than two in one night, and that only 

 once, and that the insect does not appear to fly at all, unless the evening be just to 

 its taste, the above success becomes even more remarkable. 



At the close of this season I made an alteration in the lamp : — having found 

 that parafine lamps will burn well enough even in a hurricane, when enclosed in a 

 glass case, fitting perfectly tight at sides and bottom (t. e., without any air-holes) 

 and with perforated zinc top, I substituted this for the colza, obtaining a far 

 steadier and brighter light, and one that required no attention. 



In 1875 I was too much occupied to collect, but getting out for a night in 

 November, was rewarded by taking Nonafjria lutosa, and the second brood of B. 

 uUginosana, including a finely streaked form. Last year I added to my stock of 

 lamps a small one, made to pack up into a portable form, and whose weight was not 

 too great to be carried strapped on the back (the colza apparatus weighed GOlbs.) ; 

 this enabled me to try the method in fresh localities, e.g., a large wood near Norwich, 

 •where A. alni headed the list of victims, and in July, after some labour, Mr. N. M. 

 Richardson and myself established it on a summit of a Perthshire mountain, where 

 it proved fatal to Fachnohia alpina. 



I must confess that for wood collecting light has not in my experience proved 

 such a success as in the fens, where it simply eclipses all other methods of capture 

 for a large number of the rarer species ; still, the few times I have been able to try 

 it in large woods show clearly that it is a method which should assuredly not be 

 neglected. The one grand merit of it is that all classes of Lejndoptera (except 

 Diurni) seem alike to be attracted by it ; and the Bomhyces, OeometrcB, Fseudo- 

 Bomhyces, and Py rales— iox which we have no other special method of capture— are 

 to the full as headstrong in coming to light as the Noctuce — perhaps more so. The 

 apparatus wliich I now use is simply a square case glazed all round (two opposite 

 sides opening as doors), say one foot square and fourteen inches high, with a woodru 



