The Beetles of the Downs 



sheets of strong brown paper on which to tear moss 

 in pieces, and the usual laurel bottle or tubes. If 

 the country is not quite familiar to us, an inch ordnance 

 survey map of the particular locality we are exploring 

 will prove useful. By its means, if not otherwise, we 

 may discover where some narrow lane gives upon the 

 high road which will bring us up beyond the tilled 

 fields to the bare slopes above, such a one as Richard 

 Jefferies, with that wonderful sense of his of the 

 " values " of accurate detail, has described for us as 

 " Clematis Lane " ; such a one as, in fact, actually 

 exists running off the main road to the North of Box 

 Hill, and under the name of Headley Lane has become 

 classic ground for the coleopterist. But there are 

 plenty of such lanes what serves for the hedge a 

 tangle of clematis, perhaps we are led through a little 

 copse of beeches in the lower part, higher up yews 

 bent to the prevailing winds will probably line the 

 track. 



We might begin operations by tapping over the net 

 the spreading beech boughs where they hang low and 

 accessible. We are almost sure to find one beetle 

 at least in the net, a little grey brown thing, that hops 

 about with surprising agility ; it is Orchestes fagi 

 (the Orchestes of the beech), Fig. n, Plate IV. Possibly 

 it may be remembered that we beat another member 

 of the same genus Orchestes rusci out of birch on 

 our first expedition. This present species is very 

 similar in shape and size, but inconspicuous in colour, 

 being black and covered with a thick grey-brown 



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