26 [February, 



appeared to resemble exactly the remainder of the field in its neie^h- 

 bourhood. The next afternoon was cloudy, but warm. I started 

 watching at about 5.30 p.m., after having cut out two small pieces of 

 turf from the centre of the above area about 8 inches square by 4 

 inches deej). The soil was light, but gravelly, with a large number of 

 stones in it. These pieces of turf I examined carefully and eventually 

 placed in a small shed with only one window, hoping that if any 

 Colons hatched out they would fly to this window; but this experiment 

 was a failure. As the sun was not shining on the day in question I 

 could not see the Colons against the grass, and I found I could only 

 catch sight of them against the sky-line by lying on my side and 

 looking over the area described. In this way I took thirteen speci- 

 mens on the wing, but probably many were overlooked, as a strong 

 wind was blowing. Of these, two proved to be C. viennense, a species 

 I had never taken near this wood before, four or five were C. serripes, 

 and the rest C. br^mneum. On July 4tli I started watching at about 

 6 p.m., when it was again warm, but cloudy. This necessitated me 

 lying on my side as on the 3rd. However, I soon had to give this up, 

 as my left elbow and hip were so tender from contact with the hard 

 ground the day before ! Foi'tunately the sun came out and I took five 

 C. viennense, one C. serrlpes, and nine C. hrumieum. I watched two 

 individuals settle on blades of grass, and saw them running about at 

 the roots of grass, but did not see them make any attempt to biirrow 

 into the ground, nor was I able on any occasion to find a specimen by 

 examining the roots of the grass, but of course I did not care to dis- 

 turb the ground to any great extent. I do not believe that the Colons 

 were emerging from the ground, as I saw very few rise from it, and 

 these might have been individuals just recently settled. They appeared 

 to come from some distance away, but were always flying low. I did 

 not catch any obviously immature specimens, nor did I see any in cop. 

 Males slightly predominated over females. I should have stated that 

 on several occasions I swept the grass in other parts of the wood and 

 near this special area or " Colony," as a facetious friend of mine 

 suggested it should be called, and rarely took a Colon. 



The weather completely broke up on July 4th. On July lltli, in 

 spite of the absence of svm and a strong wind, I took two Colons on 

 the mng at the same place, and a few other specimens on such days 

 up to August 3rd. IJnfortimately on the only two suitable days 

 during this period I was imable to collect beetles. On Sept. 19th, 

 a beautifvil fine warm evening, although I watched for a long time I 

 did not see a single Colon. It is very hard to frame any theory on 



