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heaths, and undoubtedly the rarities of the district are chiefly to be 

 found among the Fossorials, &c., which frequent them. When staying 

 at the seaside I always prefer to keep as much as possible to the 

 coast; in wooded districts probably the woods will most repay the 

 collector; in mountainous districts the hills ; and so on. It is also, I 

 think, a wase rule, especially in hot weather, to choose localities, if 

 possible, near at hand, if a long walk has to be taken a lot of time is 

 loi^t, including the best hour, i.e , from 9 to 10. It is well to be on 

 the collecting ground by 9 at the latest ; personally I prefer to be 

 there by 8.30, but this is not always easy to manage unless your 

 ground is quite close at home. As the heat of the day increases the 

 Tossorials, especially the Pumpilidcs, are much more difficult to catch, 

 as they become far more vivacious and rapid in their movements. In 

 the early morning the latter sneak about and only take short jerky 

 flights, and so are more easily seen and captured, whereas later in the 

 day they alight on the ground for a second, vibrate their wings, ^nd 

 are off again before a net can be got near them. 



Heath -collecting, in which I include sea side dunes, sandy cliffs, 

 etc., will not repay the Hymenopterist till tow^ards the end of June in 

 the south of England, and not till the middle of July further north. 

 For the sake of simplicity I propose first of all to confine myself to 

 the heath and sand loving Ants and Fossorials which occur in the 

 summer, and to treat of the other Fossorials and Antliophila later on. 

 About Midsummer many of the ants swarm, and it is wise to visit any 

 nests which may have been noticed, in order to get the winged forms. 

 On arriving on a heath a spot should be selected where there is a certain 

 amount of bare sand exposed, and which offers attractions in the way 

 of flowers ; a natural hollow in the side of a common sloping towards 

 the south, or the broken bank above a roadside, or any exposed sandy 

 slope, especially when dotted over with heathery hillocks, is a good 

 spot to begin upon. Stand still and watch the ground and the flowers 

 and the surroundings generally, and before long something will stir. 

 Probably, if you are in a good locality, the whole place will be full of 

 life, but I have often been early on a spot which I have known to be 

 a favourite one, and had to watch for some time before the twitching 

 of the leaf of some plant betrayed the movement of a Pompilus or 

 some allied creature. The Pompilidcd may always be known when 

 running by their short, jerky, uneven sort of motion, which very much 

 resembles that of an ant. All the red-bodied species should be 

 captured, as they are so closely allied that it is impossible to tell them 

 apart in the field. When I say should be captured, I mean if the collector 



