VARIOUS MODES OF COLLECTING 51 



To the inexperienced, a few words of caution are 

 necessary. Sugar does not prove always equally attrac- 

 tive : in spring, when the sallows are in bloom ; in 

 summer, when the lime-trees are in blossom, and in 

 autumn, when the ivy is in bloom, these natural sweets 

 compete with our artificial mixture, and it is better to 

 seek on them for the insects which visit them nightly in 

 troops. A dull, balmy evening at the end of March or 

 beginning of April, will often enable the collector visit- 

 ing the sallows to reap a rich harvest from the various 

 species of Noctuse regaling thereon ; and in July, when 

 the lime-trees are in blossom, if a position be taken 

 where the moths can be seen against the clear evening- 

 sky, they can be readily captured as they come flying to 

 the lime blossoms. In October the ivy blossom should 

 be carefully examined with a lantern, and the autumnal 

 Noctuse will be found busily engaged in sucking the 

 juices from the flowers. 



Mr. Barrett has lately called attention, in the pages 

 of the ' Entomologist's Monthly Magazine ' (vol. iii., 

 p. 113), to the partiality of moths for blackberries, and 

 the mode in which some species swarm on the flowers of 

 Glyceria fluitans and other grasses, has already been 

 noticed more than once. 



That moths are attracted by light is a fact sufficiently 

 familiar to most people, but the experienced collector 

 wishes to develop a systematic mode of availing him- 

 self of the partiality of moths for light. To do so with 

 effect depends very much on the situation and adjuncts 

 of the collector's residence ; if in full sight of a wood or 

 heath, or of only an ordinary piece of country land- 

 scape, he may reasonably expect success, but this method 

 of collecting is more costly than sugaring. 



