RETROSPECTIONS AND FORECASTS. 129 



warns us that the lamp should be already throwing its seducing radiance 

 around. What is that large pale moth with long drooping body flying 

 heavily on the skirts of yonder reed-bed ? A good beginning, as the 

 lucky captor announces a female M. amndinis, surely a very early 

 emergence and confirming our anticipations of some sport with the 

 males of the same species at the lamp. 



Hardly is the sheet fixed than a " wainscot " emerges from the 

 surrounding gloom and circles once or twice round the lantern, M. 

 flammea as expected, and fortunately the precursor of others, which 

 settling on the sheet and on grass stems within the circle of light are 

 soon prisoners. DisajDjiointment is exjjressed that we have not netted 

 Viminia venosa before darkness set in, but we are soon relieved by the 

 rapid dash of a very white-looking Noctua into the bright rays in 

 which we are standing ; it is too quick for us, but a second momentary 

 apjiearance within the verge of the lighted area gives a rapid net the 

 opportunity required. Hardly is this boxed than a sudden rush against 

 the sheet is felt and the first ^ arundinis is seen settled low down and 

 is boxed before he can begin to get lively. For an hour or so we are 

 busy, the first to disa2Diiear is Herminia cribralis, which had been early 

 and frequent in its visits, and for a while the slackening sport gives us 

 the necessary opportunity for a visit to the numerous sugared " knots " 

 of reeds which we had prepared as an experiment, it being rather early 

 in the season for the usual luck with these. Not much on the Fen 

 itself. An occasional A. nnanimis, with an early L. imjmdens and a few 

 of the usual "free lances," but as we gain the higher ground just off 

 the fen-level our forethought is better rewarded ; a few posts and 

 saplings yield A. advena and N. saponariae, whilst by good fortune we 

 succeed in boxing a very skittish C. ocularis, but we have still another 

 string to our bow, in the lane above, we have prepared numerous baits 

 with sugared flower heads and more knots. Ah ! advena prefers these 

 and tliis preference is shared by another fine fellow ; C. elpenor cannot 

 resist them, especially so near his head-quarters and evident birth-place, 

 he needs a raj^id and sure hand to secure and a speedy quietus but is worth 

 it all. We must not linger, the witching hour of midnight is past and 

 the distant liglit on the Fen recalls us and none too soon ; A. fuliginosa 

 has begun its wild flight and seems to have re-started the more staid 

 Noctuaj, and for another hour we are too busy to heed the busy flight 

 of time and forget all in the glamour of the mouient. The weird 

 appearance of our shadows, thrown as within a small illuminated islet 

 in a sea of dense darkness which seemingly surrounds us, adds to the 

 loneliness and novelty of our position, which in its utter contrast to 

 our usual haunts, constitutes that charm which will ever enthral the 

 ardent nature-lover and which will find its votaries year after year, 

 ready to illumine the darkness of night to pursue their loved investi- 

 gations into the many problems of Nature. 



We find fresh incentives to overcome these meditative tendencies in 

 action and whilst the records of the past are recalled and the rarities 

 of former years discussed, a sharp outlook is kept on the lamp for the 

 pretty little Nascia cilialis, formerly such a rarity, to-night fortunately 

 added to our captures, whilst hopes of that greatest prize, HydriUa 

 palustris, although doomed to disappointment again, yet tend to the 

 heightening of the weird fascination of the hour. 



A little longer and at last even our enthusiasm for Nature begins to 



