THE PLEASURES OF MOTH HUNTING. 79 
at our bull’s eye, or vainly gazing after one that sailed across the 
gleams into the darkness like a winged ghost: we make frantic 
dashes at them with the net, but in vain: perhaps we catch one 
out of every thirty—ah! what is this? A Magpie; no, nota 
bird, not Pica caudata, but Abraxas grossulariata, which you 
must acknowledge to be a prettier name; a very common species, 
but we retain it because it is our first capture to-night. Forward; 
we do not want to wait on the hill, let us get to the wood at once. 
Here we are; how gloomy it looks at night. We think of the 
cosy little room we left, and the contrast is painful: yet we dare 
not return without accomplishing our errand, having been guilty 
of several vain boasts relative to what we should takehome. On 
these tree trunks at the edge of the wood, and also on the old 
gate posts, we spread some of our liquid “‘ sugar” to entice the 
moths that may come by. It gives out a rich odour (we speak as 
moths), and cannot fail to draw a host of gay young Nocturni. And 
__ leaving this for a time we seek an opening in the interior of the 
__ wood; here we suspend our sheet, with a lantern to throw a strong 
light on it. Light possesses a wonderful attraction for moths, 
and this mode is a favourite one with some entomologists. They 
(the moths, not the entomologists) settle on the white sheet and 
are pill-boxed. This again we may leave to itself for a time and 
go and seek our fortune with the net: ah! what a lot of great 
creatures come fluttering round us just in this one spot; we must 
see what they are: only the Yellow Underwing, Zriphena pronuba; 
_ we really cannot spend time in catching them. Pronuba and grossu- 
_lariata are two of the moth-hunter’s greatest torments, they are 
always getting into the nets ; if a curious looking moth rushes by 
you, it is sure to be one of them (if you catch it), and you get 
sold times innumerable. To return to our sugar—what luck ? 
‘Here on the gate post we have two very fine cockroaches, and a 
slug; we did not certainly mixup our sweets forthem. Buthere 
onthe tree trunk we see some little sparkling beads throwing 
back the light; we know them, the eyes of moths are very beauti- 
ful by lantern-light, and the little beads show that there aro moths 
there. Hereis the Angle Shades, Phlogophora meticulosa, nothing 
rare, there are four of them here, but still it is very pretty; here 
