EXCFRSION INTO NORTHUMBERLAND. 309 



lay in tlie vale below Langleyford, as I passed along, and at 

 intervals I heard the cuckoo's cheerful note. Some naturalists 

 would have us to believe that the cuckoo ceases to call before the 

 end of June. The air was particularly fragrant, indicating an ex- 

 cess of moisture. 



July 2nd. — Was wet and cold, but on the 3rd good weather 

 returned. On this day I ascended the hill called Humbleton 

 Heugh (locally Hummil Heugh), and thence struck across the 

 heights to Yeavering Bell, returning by the turnpike. These 

 elevations composed of the same sort of porphyritic rock, have 

 much in common, and being clothed almost exclusively with grass, 

 are not favourable to a variety of entomological productions. On 

 Humbleton hill the principal were, Athous niger, Hypera punc^ 

 tata, Atopa cervind, Serica hrunnea (beneath a stone), Cistela 

 murina, Byrrhus Pilula, Mallhinus brevicollisj Dromius foveoluSy 

 Corymhites cupreus, Acocephalus hifasciatus ; and on the summit, 

 Omias hirsutulus, 0. sulcirostris, Scydmcenus pusillus and Cliry- 

 somela marginata. The dwarf plants of Achilloea Millefolium 

 that grew on the top of the hill, had about their bases numerous 

 stiff, bud-like productions, invested with a dense down. They 

 were probably produced by the gall-midge Cecidomyia Millefolu, 

 but were of nearly double the usual dimensions. This height 

 commands an extensive prospect over many a fertile field, and 

 many a scene of fatal border strife. At the base lies the battle 

 field of Homildon, still called "Bloody Riggs." I descended 

 towards the N.W. and wound up a deep waterless ravine on the 

 bank of Akeld hill, where grew some scattered plants of Tees- 

 dalia nudicaulis, which likewise occurs on Yeavering Bell. 

 Descending next into a boggy slack called Gleed {i.e. crooked) 

 Cleugh, I met with Hydrcena riparia abundant in its little burn ; 

 and also Cassida ohsoleta beneath a stone. On the next eminence, 

 Whitehill, I found the black variety of ApJiodius Lapponum. 

 Yeavering Bell now rose before me, the highest peak of the ridge 

 that here places limits to Glendale. Omias sulcirostris, Otior- 

 hynchus scabr^ostis, Cistela murina, Frosternoii kolosericeus, and 

 Formica graminicola were its insect occupants. Like Hedgehope 

 it wears round its summit a small circlet of dwarf bilberries, 



