84 [September, 
collectors returning at eve after a hard day's work), I have beaten Haploglossa 
pulla (a few examples), Necrohia violacea (common, — but hitherto rare to me) and 
rufvpes, BendropMus pitnctatus (l\), Nitidula hipustnlata (abundantly), Dermestes 
murinus, vulpinus, and lardarius, many Cholevce, Necrodes littoralis, with its 
cedemeroua male, and swarms of the common Omosita colon and discoidea, Hister 
cadaverinus, Saprinus nitidulus, Creophilus, &c., — not unaccompanied by Silpha 
thoracica and Necrophorus vespillo. Smaller and drier carcases, such as weasels, 
&c., with which there is a tree ornamented as with a fringe on its branches, produced 
many Cholevce, viz., C. nigricans, nigrita, tristis, grandicolUs, Kirhyi, morio, chryso- 
meloides, velox, Watsoni, and fumata ; some of these, with C. spadicea (rai'ely), 
being also found in fungi. Under cut grass at the sides of the path I have taken 
Hister unicolor, ApTiodius porcatus, Philonthus succicola, punctiventris (swarming), 
decorus, and the boreal puella. 
General beating and sweeping have never been productive ; such ordinary 
species as Rhynchites piibescens, popxdi, and megacephalus, Balaninus turhatus and 
venosus, Mordellistena abdominalis, Anaspis suhtestacea, Apion minimwm and Spencii, 
Orchestes avellance, Ceuthorliynchus cochlearim, Cneorhinus exaratus, Chrysomela 
lamina, Pria, Meligethes luguhris and memnonius being the best. The (when 
freshly disclosed) elegantly mottled Corymlites holosericeus is not rare here ; I once 
found it in profusion on wet decaying oak-apples ; Cercus hipustulatus occurs on 
Epilohium ; Nanophyes lythri absolutely swarms, in all varieties, on Salicaria ; and 
all our species of Cionus, except scrophulariw, are exceedingly common. 
The gravel pit at the top of the hill has entrapped some not very abundant 
insects; amongst them being Notiophilus rufipes (not rare), Harpalus honestus, 
Haploglossa nidicola, Callicerus rigidicornis (common), Myrmedonia limhata (very 
common, with a little light yellow Myrmica), Atemeles, Stenus fuscicornis, AmpM- 
cyllis globus, Byrrhus dorsalis, Ochina hederce, Apion ruhens, Acalles ptinoides, 
Ceenopsis Waltoni, Orobitis cyaneus, Tritoma bi/pustulata, and Coccinellj, Mero- 
ghjpldca. 
Sifting dead leaves has produced Mycetoporus lucidus, clavicornis, angularis, 
&c. ; Homalota hepotica, Ocalea picata and hadia ; Oxypoda rufula, Stenus geni- 
culatus, Habrocerus capillaricornis , Quedius maurorufus, fumatus, &c. ; Liodes 
Jmmeralis, Agathidium nigrinum and atrum ; Bythinus Curtisii, Aspidophorus 
orhiculatus, &c. ; and in rotten stumps I found Scaphidium 4-maculatum, Scaphisoma 
assimilis, and Bolitocliara bella ; — the latter abundantly, but incautiously not 
bottled in numbers, on account of its simulating Oxypoda alternans. From the dry 
decayed knobs, whence large branches have fallen from the trunks of oaks, I was 
lucky enough once to beat both sexes of Conopalpus testaceus and of the rare 
Abdera 4:-Jasciata. 
It is, however, through its plentiful autumnal crop of fungi that Coombe is 
chiefly remembered by me ; — not that I have ever found anything peculiarly 
good (except, perhaps, Aleoehara mycetophaga, of which I once took half-a-dozen 
there, in the middle of the summer, accompanied by the bustling Oxyporus rufus), 
— but because such numbers of beetles are to be seen at once. There is to me a 
peculiar and somewhat melancholy pleasure in this fungus hunting ; the dull russet 
hue of the leaves, the autumnal chill and smell of earth, and the silence of the wood, 
— wliere the scratching of the Tachini and Bolitobii, as they scramble over one's papei'. 
