6 [January, 



Through the kindness of Mr. Salvage we were put on to the 

 ground for Crymodes exults, of which we managed to secure between 

 us about three dozen specimens; excepting upon one evening they were 

 very scarce, and we calculate that each specimen cost us upon an 

 average twenty miles' tramping through peat bogs, and over moors 

 and road ; we usually left our lodgings about 7 p.m., and arrived home 

 somewhere about 4 a.m. ; so we consider that the dealers are justified 

 in charging what seems a high price for the species. 



Day-flying species were very scarce, in fact so much so that 

 latterly we did all our setting during the middle of the day, devoting 

 the evening and night to collecting. 



Certain Micros were very abundant, notably GlypTiipteryx Thra- 

 sonella, which simply swarmed in the damp meadows everywhere. 



During our stay the samples of weather provided were certainly 

 extraordinary : fog, rain, mist, wind, with occasional glimpses of sun- 

 shine. AVe, on more than one tramp after C. exulis, got completely 

 lost in the mist, and if it had not been for one of the party who is 

 endowed with a keen bump of locality, we would have had to remain 

 till daylight. 



Whenever any one mentioned to the natives that the weather was 

 execrable, the stock phrase came out that we should have visited the 

 island in 1894, as the summer was the finest within the memory of 

 man. Pity we did not ! ! 



We were fortunate in seeing a number of the local common Skua 

 or Bonxie ; it is now protected upon Hermaness, a man living in a hut 

 there, put up by Mr. Edminston, during the breeding season ; we 

 learned from Mr. Edminston that about ten pairs had hatched young 

 during this season ; it also occurs at Saxaford and a few other places 

 south of Hermaness, but these latter have little chance of increasing 

 the colony, as their eggs are robbed year after year. 



The following is a list of the insects captured during June, July 

 and August, the thirteen species marked with an * being additions 

 to the records for Shetland : — 



Vanessa cardui. — This was the only butterflj seen during our stay, one speci- 

 men was taken on Crussafield towards the end of August. 



Hepiahts velleda. — Common almost everywhere, darker and not so brightly 

 marked as the mainland forms ; flies from sundown onwards. S. humuli, var. 

 hethlandica was taken abundantly near Loch of Cliff, and near Haroldswick ; no 

 doubt it could be taken in any of the grassy meadows if we only happened to be 

 there at the time of flight ; the nativ'es told us of having seen it in various localities 

 widely distributed. 



Larcntia didymata was very common towards the end of August, near Biirra- 



