Common Beetles of our Countryside 



quarry, are perhaps the salient features of the place. 

 Behind the town the valley slopes gently upward first 

 a belt of arable land tilled by scattered farms, then more 

 extensive sheep runs melting gradually into the brown 

 reaches of heather, and far in the distance the peaks and 

 ridges of the line of hills that delimit the valley. Our 

 purpose is to reach these higher solitudes, and to do this 

 most effectively we must discover on the map where 

 some small stream which, rising high up in the recesses 

 of these distant hills, cuts its tortuous way through the 

 intervening moorland and sheep runs " to join the brim- 

 ming river." From that point of juncture next morning 

 we shall do well to start and, following its course, gradually 

 ascend to the uplands beyond. Our equipment need 

 consist of little else than the few sheets of strong brown 

 paper, laurel bottle and tubes we usually carry, and the 

 absence of a sweeping net or sieve will leave room in our 

 bag for the provisions indispensable for a day on the 

 moors. 



For such an expedition as this no time is more suitable 

 than those few halcyon days of early spring which the 

 first week or two of April often bring us ; later on in the 

 summer the heat makes the long, shadeless, uphill tramp- 

 ing through the heather too arduous an undertaking, and 

 in the writer's experience, beetle life in such places is 

 much less abundant after than before May is ended, and 

 of course in the autumn we become possibly unwelcome 

 intruders in areas dedicated to the slaughter of grouse. 



Usually a high road runs through our little town and 

 continues by the side of the main river over-arched by 



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