112 RESULTS OF A RESIDENCE AT FOCHABERS. 



every one who gets lost in his contemplation of the sublime 

 was ever present — 



That undefined and mingled hum, 



Voice of the desert, never dumb, 



stealing over all, now loader, now softer, and just as we 

 think it dying away altogether, it bursts forth again with 

 such a swell that he must indeed walk inconsiderately who 

 does not listen in mute wonder. For yards round the tops 

 of the trees we may hear and see the merry throng of gnats, 

 they are so numerous. Then the grasshopper chirrups forth 

 its part. Some wandering Bombus too sweeps by with 

 deeper note, and deeper still a Stercorarius completes the 

 harmony. And — 



" Whether we look, or whether we listen, 

 We hear life murmur or see it glisten : 

 Every clod feels a stir of might, 

 An instinct within it that reaches and towers, 

 And, grasping blindly above it for light, 

 Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers. 

 The cowslip startles in meadows green, 

 The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice, 

 And there's never a leaf or a blade too mean 

 To be some happy creature's palace." 



My time for Entomologising was so limited, that I worked 

 this locality but very indifferently, nor could I round about 

 find any one who had done anything towards its natural 

 history in this branch. I am quite satisfied, however, that, 

 patience and care bestowed rightly in this district, it would 

 be found to rank with Rannoch. Amongst my captures I 

 enumerate a few of the scarcer species. 



jPcecilocampa Populi. Larvae very abundant on alders 



in May. 

 Phragmatobia fuliginosa. Larvae common in April ; 

 imago in May. 



