58 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
almost all cases. Although I have found a good many species in 
a sheltered spot in spring when the wind was in the east, yet, on 
the other hand, on a hot day in June or July, with a light east 
wind blowing, I have hardly been able to find a single insect. A 
hot sun, with a west wind after a heavy shower of rain, when 
everything begins to steam, will bring up all kinds of insects in 
profusion. 
As to the kind of ground, every collector will soon find out 
for himself the most productive spots in his own locality, and 
know exactly how to work them; the great secret is not to be in 
too great a hurry to try fresh places. If a good beetle is found 
in any place (and this, as has been said before, applies to all 
collecting) there are probably more not far off, and a diligent and 
careful examination will often reveal the habits of the species, 
and many may be taken. As a rule, open and grassy places in 
woods, the sides of hedgerows, the margins of streams and 
ponds, open spaces and gullies close to the coast, especially 
strips of grass on the edges of cliffs, are the best to work; 
beetles do not like to be shut in where they cannot get sun and 
air. This applies almost more strongly to beating, for which 
there is nothing better than the low growth that shoots from 
stumps of trees in the first, second, or third year after cutting: 
the Agrili like the second year after cutting; beetles like 
Apoderus coryli the second or third year; and the Cryptocephali 
about the fourth year. Full-grown trees are said not to produce 
much, but this is probably because they are hard to work. The 
Scotch fir and the oak certainly abound in species, and I have 
heard of numbers of Saperda scalaris having been obtained from 
high aspens by the novel expedient of tying a stone to a cord, 
and flinging it over the top boughs and so shaking them. Some 
species are found by sweeping under particular trees, but these 
are often accidental, being properly attached to the tree itself; 
still this method is useful, as it “kl lead to the examination of 
the tree for the species. 
No collector can sweep or beat satisfactorily without some 
knowledge, however small, of Botany. , As far as beating goes it 
takes a very little while to discover the species that affect different 
trees; but with sweeping it is a much harder matter. It is 
impossible to beat many trees at once, although in beating a high 
hedgerow a little confusion may arise as to the tree or bush that 
