Field Meetings. €5 



the whole of a summer day, leaving Dumfries at seven in the 

 morning, and not reaching it again till within an hour of midnight. 

 In these circumstances there was an unusually meagre muster of 

 members, but what the party (six in all) lacked in number they 

 appeared to have gained in enthusiasm. Two of the six included 

 Mr Shaw, Tynron, and Mr T. Brown, Auchenhessnane, who had 

 come to Dumfries the evening before in order to have a fair start 

 in the morning ; and the party were joined in the course of the 

 journey by other three gentlemen. The weather fortunately 

 favoured the enterprise, and a most enjoyable and not unprofitable 

 day was spent. The base of Caimsmore is some three miles from 

 Dromore Station, in a north-westerly direction, and is reached 

 over a heathy tract of rising ground. Here the plaintive note of 

 the Golden Plover was frequently heard, and the bird itself was 

 seen. The little Sundew and other plants common to peaty and 

 heathy soils were met with in abundance. The hill seems to be 

 formed of a mass of syenite, and is lightly covered with vegeta- 

 tion, which aflfords sustenance to black sheep and some goats. 

 The Raven continues to find a haunt on Cairnsmore, undisturbed 

 by man. Four nests were discovered, but whether of as many 

 pairs or merely the successive abodes of the same pair, could not 

 be said. Two parent birds were observed hovering about the 

 cliflFs, evidently watching with interest, if not solicitude, three 

 fledglings that were making their first assays on the wing. The 

 carcase of another Raven was picked up in the course of the day. 

 A Golden Eagle has been seen on Cairnsmore within the memory 

 of one of the party, but no such sight rewarded them to-day. 

 This mountain is not a very rich field for the botanist, but a 

 diligent search discovered some rather uncommon plants. The 

 entomologists also had their finds. These included four examples 

 of the Carabus glabratus — a large dark beetle never noticed 

 further south than the Perthshire Hills until last year, when 

 Mr Lennon found it here ; the Agrotis j)orphyrea, a dark 

 brown moth with a net- work pattern on the wings, from 

 which it receives its common English name of the True- 

 Lover's Knot ; the Scotiona Belyiaria, or Grey Scolloped 

 Bar, a moth not easily distinguished from the granitic block 

 beside which it rested ; the Ccenonympha Barns, or Marsh Ring 

 Butterfly ; the Emperor and Fox Moths ; and the high-altitude 

 moths Carabus violacus and C. cancellatus. Numerous specimens 



