102 NOTES ON THE COLLECTING AND 



Sandy districts, especially towards the coast, are at all 

 times preferable to clayey ones; but the intermediate soils, 

 as for instance the deep black loam of the alluvial countries 

 and of the fens, are perhaps the most productive— and where 

 woods can be found in such tracts, the Coleopterist has 

 attained his Paradise. The higher the position above the 

 sea, the later (as a general rule) will be the season for col- 

 lecting in it ; and hence the lower regions (particularly the 

 shore) should be selected in the early spring, whilst the 

 mountains and moorlands are reserved for the autumn. In 

 maritime tracts, where a very large proportion of our rarer 

 species occur, the sweeping-net will be of comparatively 

 little use, the insects in such situations being best obtained 

 either from beneath pebbles and rejectamenta in open grassy 

 spots, or else harbouring around the roots and stems of plants 

 amongst sand. In Alpine countries, again, the net may be 

 almost dispensed with, there being seldom vegetation enough 

 in such districts to admit of its action; whilst the species 

 which obtain are for the most part (even more peculiarly so 

 than the littoral ones) attached to the undersides of stones. 



It is a mistake to suppose that the progress of agriculture 

 tends to lay waste our Entomological preserves, and to ex- 

 terminate insect life. In some few instances (as in the de- 

 struction of forests) this may be, and probably is, the case ; 

 but I am convinced that, in a general way, the very reverse 

 is nearer the truth. The vast superiority of the London 

 district (highly cultivated as it is) over almost every other in 

 England, may be quoted in support of this ; and I may add, 

 from personal observation, that I have never met with such 

 marked success as along railway embankments, and on other 

 grounds recently turned-up by the edges of gardens and 

 fields, where the vegetation is rank and redundant. Let not 

 the collector assume, therefore, that he must needs sally to a 

 distance for his game, since he will often reap a richer har- 



