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A DAY'S COLLECTING ON BEN TIGH. 

 By J. H. Leech. 



Having spent a month or so collecting in the Highlands of 

 Inverness and Koss-shire, I think it may interest some of the 

 entomologists of our southern counties to hear a little about 

 Scotch collecting during the past season, I will give a short 

 account of one of the many pleasant days spent in company with 

 Mr. E. G. Meek collecting, and which proved very good, contrary 

 to the exjjerience of many this season. 



We were stopping at Invergany, a little village some seven 

 miles or so from Fort Augustus, when we decided to have a day's 

 collecting on Ben Tigh, a mountain about 2800 feet high, 

 situated about six miles from the inn. Making our preparations 

 over-night we retired to rest early, so as to be ready for a hard 

 da3''s work. On rising, greatly to our deligiit, we found a cloud- 

 less sky and a bright sun ; it had been raining almost without 

 intermission for the previous few days. After a hearty Scotch 

 breakfast we were ready for a start, having obtained the 

 " factor's " permission, as Ben Tigh is a strictly preserved deer 

 forest. We first made our way through some woods, composed 

 chiefly of birch and fir, where Platypteryx lacertula and P.falcula 

 were to be seen at rest, occasionally being tempted to stop 

 and box a Fidonia hrunneata ; this insect which, so far as I have 

 been able to ascertain, has onl}^ been taken at Rannoch, was 

 flying ver3' abundantly, though, as usual, rather worn. The 

 reason of its never being taken in fine condition I believe to be 

 this : the food-plant of F. hrunneata, viz., the bilberry, grows 

 with the common heather, on which the insect always rests in 

 preference to other plants. In this locality the heather is covered 

 with minute cobwebs, in which F. hrunneata, as I frequently 

 noticed, gets entangled, and damages itself in the rough heather 

 with its efl'orts to escape. Acidalia fumata, Larentia ccssiata, 

 Fidonia piniaria, Larentia pectinitaria, and a host of the 

 commoner Geometrse, were put up at every step ; Cidaria 

 populata being noticeable from its variableness, some specimens 

 being very dark, and others with the most indistinct markings. 

 Boarmia repandata, Venusia camhricaria and Ellopia fasciaria 

 were to be seen at rest on the fir trees. We also took a fine dark 



