Common Beetles of our Countryside 



their species. Hence we find a Donacia (a beetle 

 of the marshlands) on the top of Ben Nevis, or other 

 species equally irrelevant to their environment on 

 other summits ; but the true mountain species are found 

 on mountains and nowhere else, and to secure them 

 we must ascend these heights and extract them from 

 their natural fastnesses. 



But mountains by which I mean eminences that 

 approach or exceed at least 3,000 feet high are neither 

 so accessible as the chalk downs nor so abundant as 

 the moorlands, and if we happen to live anywhere 

 in the south of England we shall have to make a con- 

 siderable journey to reach one. Pen-y-gent, or Crossfell, 

 the Wrekin or Moel Faumau, none of these or similar 

 summits reach the necessary level ; in fact, both in 

 England and Wales one little corner in the extreme 

 north-west of each will alone afford what we desire, 

 in Ireland there are more, distributed all round 

 the Island about the central plain, and in the Scottish 

 Highlands of course our only difficulty about the 

 mountains is to get at them. 



Assuming, then, that we can find or make time for 

 the two or three days or more (unless, of course we live 

 somewhere near the mountains) necessary for the 

 quest, we can take our choice of the particular peak 

 we mean to explore Cadr-Idris or the Carnydds; 

 Helveylln or Skiddaw ; Lugnaquilla or Croagh Patrick ; 

 Ben Lomond or one of the remoter heights of Inver- 

 nesshire, and many others, the fauna of each may 

 slightly differ, and there are perhaps one or two species 



56 



