CATCHING BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 89 



In addition to this you must go out provided with your net, 

 killing bottle, and a number of pill boxes. Choose your night 

 according to the hints already given, and if you are on the look-out 

 for any particular species, be careful that the date of your outing is 

 well timed, making any necessary allowances for the forwardness 

 or backwardness of the season, for a moth that is generally due on 

 a certain average time of the year may appear some weeks sooner 

 if the preceding weeks have been unusually warm, or its emer- 

 gence may be delayed considerably by the prevalence of cold east 

 winds or a late frost. 



Make up your mind as to the field of your operations before you 

 start, and if possible choose a route that will carry you through a 

 variety of situations, so that you may pass the favourite haunts of 

 a number of different species. Clearings in woods with an abundant 

 undergrowth, waste places with plenty of tall and rank vegetation, 

 overgrown railway banks, clover fields, the flowery borders of corn 

 fields, plantations in parks, heaths and moors, sheltered and over- 

 grown hollows such as chalk pits and old disused quarries, reed and 

 marsh land, all these are good localities, each one inhabited by its 

 own peculiar species, and if your route runs through a fair variety 

 of such places you may, other things being equally favourable, 

 depend on a good catch. 



See that your time also is well chosen. Of course you cannot 

 say exactly what the night will be till it actually comes, and, as 

 you have to start off before it is dark, you must consider the 

 probabilities of the future from the present condition of the air. Let 

 it be a night when a bright moon is not due, and if it "follow a 

 warm and moist day with a south or south-west wind, or if drizzly, 

 so much the better ; but let your feet be shod with boots that will 

 permit you to wade through moist herbage without danger, and 

 take a waterproof if necessary. 



It is always advisable to be on your hunting ground before 

 twilight sets in, as a number of moths venture out before the sun 

 has disappeared ; and then you can work on till midnight if you 

 feel inclined, or even extend your labours till the early hours of the 

 morning. 



Before dusk you will meet with many of the little Tortrices 

 (page 298) in sheltered spots, and a little later the Geometrce and 

 Hawks will be on the wing. Thus, before dark, you may make 

 good use of your net, dealing with your captures just in the same 

 way as recommended in the case of butterflies. 



