FEBRUARY. 27 



" And thou, wild bramble, back dost bring, 



In all thy beauteous power, 

 The fresh green days of life's fond spring, 

 And boyhood's blossomy hour. 



" Again, thou bidd'st me be a boy, 



More fair than bird or bee, 

 To gad in freedom and in joy, 

 O'er bank and brae with thee."* 



Having fitted our nets and procured a beating-stick, 

 if we have not brought one with us, we commence 

 operations ; and first the pines are the objects of our 

 scrutiny. Holding our nets under the branches with 

 the left hand, we proceed gently to strike the branches 

 with the beating-stick in our right, carefully catching 

 whatever falls in our nets; having well beaten one 

 branch we proceed to another and another, treating 

 them all in the same manner, until we have operated 

 upon all that are within our reach upon the tree. The 

 nets being now well covered at the bottom with what 

 has fallen from the tree during the beating process, we 

 proceed to examine its contents : having laid the net 

 upon the ground, and (if it be a bag net) partially 

 turned it inside out, or (if a clap net) spread it open, 

 we proceed to examine its contents; and truly there 

 is a goodly assortment spiders, earwigs, beetles, gnats, 

 and Diptera of various kinds, together with larvae, 

 commence a mutual race, each anxious to secure for 

 himself a safe retreat, of the precise locality of which 

 he is at present oblivious. It is amusing, during this 

 belter skelter, to see an active little beetle, in his haste 

 to escape, running foul of a spider, whom, under other 



* Elliott. 



c2 



