. TRIFIDJE. 235 



caught a distant glimpse of the loch in the morniug light 

 while the cloud lifted for a moment or two." There is a 

 record of a single specimen caught when flying by day, by 

 Dr. F. Buchanan White. 



The first specimen found in these islands was taken in 

 1839 on Cairn Gowr, Ben Ghlo, Perthshire, at an elevation 

 of 3000 feet, by my veteran colleague Mr. J. W. Douglas. 

 It was described and figured in 18 13 in Westwood and 

 Humphrey's "British Moths and their Transformations" 

 under the name of Agrotis alpinct, and remained apparently 

 unique till 1854, when a second specimen was taken, sitting 

 on a rock, in the same district, by a professional collector. 

 The next capture was of a specimen on Schehallion, another 

 Perthshire mountain, in 1870. Three years later a pupa was 

 found in moss on one of these mountains, by a Coleopterist, 

 and duly reared. The fifth was taken in the next year on a 

 mountain of the Breadalbane district of the same county, 

 also at a height of 3000 feet. Two years later the deter- 

 mined and successful attempt to capture the insect on the 

 wing, in its home, was made by Messrs. F. D. Wheeler and 

 N. M. Eichardson, which resulted in the acquisition of the 

 knowledge of its habits which I have quoted at some length. 

 It was a splendid piece of work by these two young Cambridge 

 men and has hardly, I think, been repeated, the numerous 

 specimens subsequently obtained in the same district having 

 been mostly reared from larvae or pupge found among the 

 moss. There appears to be no reason w^hy this species should 

 be confined to the mountains of Perthshire, and there is little 

 doubt that it Avill be found in other counties of Scotland, 

 where the mountains rise to a similar elevation. In Unst, 

 Shetland, many specimens have been found very much lower 

 down — in proportion to the more northern latitude — and it 

 has also been met with in the Orkneys. Abroad it seems 

 confined to mountains, but rather widely distributed ; found 

 on the Dovrefjeld in Norway, the mountains of Finland, 

 Lapland and Labrador; the Eiesensgebirge in Silesia, 



