98 I April, 



My object in writing these notes is to call attention to a method 

 of catching Tortrices not very generally practised, and which is not 

 only an easy mode of working, but most productive in results. I 

 allude to collecting by the pole system. The apparatus required is 

 simple in the extreme. Three bamboos, each a little more than five 

 feet long, and two of them with brass or copper tubes fixed to one 

 end like the joints of a fishing rod, to enable them to be jointed to- 

 gether, and a big balloon net as light as possible, the ring of cane, and 

 fitting into a brass squared Y? ^^^ ^^^ only requisites. The net should 

 be ahotit two feet in diameter and three feet deep, and nearly circular. 

 It is not an expensive affair, and when the net is required to be used 

 in its ordinary capacity, the topmost bamboo will serve as a handle, 

 while the others strapped together make a good beating stick. 



Let me describe the modus operandi, and for this purpose we will 

 select a warm sunny afternoon at the very end of May, or in the first 

 week in June, and betake ourselves to one of the woods in the south 

 of London, say the S. E. district, for example. Having chosen a spot 

 on the outskirts of the wood on the leeward side, and where the trees 

 are not too high, we joint our bamboos together, fix the net to the 

 top joint, and await the result. 



Shaded by the foliage we look up to the bright blue sky, across 

 which the fleecy cirrus clouds are gently drifting. There is a slight 

 breeze, which lightly stirs the higher leaves, and as we gaze upwards 

 the effect is entrancing, for the immensity of space spread above us is 

 even more vividly realized than by the spectacle of myriads of stars 

 on some clear moonless night. But to return to earth. Around the 

 tips of the oak boughs at their greatest altitude hover and dance 

 numbers of insects of various Orders —Lepidoptera, Diptera, Hymen- 

 opfera, &c., and conspicuous amongst them plenty of the lovely little 

 Adela viridella gently buzzing, and occasionally soaring some distance 

 on apparently motionless wing. But suddenly out of the very sky 

 apparently, for we are unable to detect whence it comes, appears a 

 tiny dark insect flying in wild and jerky fashion above the topmost twigs. 

 Now is the time to be on the alert. Gently but firmly grasping the 

 pole, which is raised near the level of the insect, one stroke and our 

 little friend is entrapped, a turn is given to the net so that the bag 

 hangs over the rim ; it is rapidly lowered, and we espy our quarry 

 fluttering up the side. It is easily boxed, a fine Anchylopera upupana, 

 and a good commencement. But while we have been boxing one, 

 others have been passing over, and there is no time to waste. Among 

 them will be found, sometimes in great numbers, the lively little Stig- 



