1893.] 69 



connects with another stream, known as the Moy burn, wliich also runs into the 

 Findhorn estuary. When the Findhorn river is in flood it runs by this course into 

 the Moy burn. To the west of the estuary lie the Culbin sands, probably the largest 

 sandhills in the British Isles, mostly bare and devoid of vegetation, and, as far as I 

 could jud.e, of life of any description. The drifting sand, which seems ever 

 changing, is at places piled up to the height of about one hundred feet. The sand- 

 hills proper, some two miles or more each way, are surrounded by a sandy district, 

 more or less covered by vegetation, and both on the side of the sea and on the land 

 side there is the usual coai-se grass, with some sallow. Plantations of birch at places 

 run out into the sandhills, with finer grass and heather beneath ; also broom and 

 conifers, a strong belt of these trees lying to the south of the sandhills, and preventing 

 their extension in this direction. At one point, where the sandhills run down to 

 the Findhorn estuary, near the mouth of the Moy burn, there is a sort of salt marsh 

 covered at times by the tide, and a short distance inland from this is a bare marshy 

 spot or lake, which, however, must often be quite dry, and near this a place resemb- 

 ling a dry water course, with loose stones. 



As to collecting. So far as I was concerned, sweephig, beating, and searching 

 over what I may term the general country produced little or nothing, and hardly an 

 insect was brought to me by a non-collector during my stay, but in my description 

 I have indicated the places which proved suitable for autumn collecting, and these 

 may be grouped as follows : — (a) The river bed and banks suitable for Bemhidia, and 

 other Adephaga^ Bledii, and other Staphs., Cryptohypnus, &c., but where, though I 

 spent many days in searching, I could find no trace of C. pulchellus, recorded by 

 Mr. Hislop in about 1867. (6) The salt marsh on the banks of the Moy burn for 

 Reteroceri, Ci/lenus, Bledii, Dt/schirii, and small Staphs., besides miscellaneous things, 

 under seaweed and rubbish. Digging, and throwing the sand into a pail of water, 

 was the most satisfactory method of working here, (c) The lake in the sandhills, where 

 Bledii exist in thousands, with, of course, parasitic Dyschirii, and a few other 

 insects, chiefly Carabidcp., under stones, {d) The birch and fir plantations, and the 

 country adjoining the sandhills, (e) Flood rubbish ; a couple of days' hard rain 

 brings down an enormous quantity of this material, leaves, pine-needles, twigs, 

 boughs, and even trunks of trees are hurried down by the torrent ; above the Red 

 Crag, as will be gathered from my description, nothing is deposited, so that it is 

 quite possible that the material is brought down from the upper parts of the river, 

 and that the river has been collecting insects for miles of its course before they are 

 deposited ; below the Crag, in places where there is a backwater, or on the shingle, 

 or even on the bushes adjoining the river, and down by the estuary, and especially 

 along the banks of the Moy burn, below the point where it is joined by the overflow 

 from the Findhorn, flood rubbish at times teeming with insect life may be found. 

 The plan which I finally adopted was to collect a good supply of rubbish, either 

 freshly deposited, or while still floating, into stout canvas bags or sacks, and then to 

 turn it into large muslin bags, and dry it in the sun or before a fire, when tlie beetles 

 soon showed themselves.* Unfortunately, the first flood, which probably was the best, 

 occurred before I knew the country, so that I brought back comparatively little refuse. 



* One of our most sviccessful collectors at this sort of work, the late Mr. R. Lawson, of 

 Scarborough, adopted the plan of using a long, tapering bag with a hole at the bottom, and by 

 the application above of rags saturated with ammonia compelled the insects to leave the rubbish 

 by the siriall opening below, the insects passing into a bottle placed beneath. By this means he 

 obtained an immense number of vavg Anlsotomidw, iSiaphylinidK, &c. — G. C. 0. 



G 



