Insects. 7061 



trees, nor was I long in discovering a very promising stump, nicely decayed, and full 

 of holes enough to captivate the heart of any beetle. Being, however, fatigued with 

 my scansorial efforts, I sat down before the citadel of the Dermaster, and assisted my 

 deliberations by smoking a solemn pipe. Having propitiated Nicotiana and matured 

 my plan of operations I commenced the work of destruction, when, lo ! among the 

 vegetable dibris T described a long dusky leg, anon two more, and then, buried among 

 the ruins, the struggling Dermaster. Tn this manner was the rarest beetle known 

 captured by a wandering disciple of iEsculapius and an eccentric Fellow of the Linnean 

 Society. — Arthur Adams. 



On the Capture of Carabi in Manchuria. — Some " innocent " not yet versed in the 

 deep mysteries of beetle lore, and not inured to the toils of beetle-hunting, who may 

 never have seen as I have the indefatigable Doctor Power on his stomach in a ditch, 

 spectacles on nose, and the perspiration streaming down his cheeks with his fossorial 

 exertions ; such complacent " know-nothing'' may imagine that because I have some 

 thousand beetles nicely carded in ray store-box that I have only picked them up, and 

 only put them down. To such young person I can severely answer, You are quite mis- 

 taken. Take, my friend, those great carnivorous ground-beetles, for instance the 

 Carabi. Could you but see certain enthusiasts (for I had imbued many with the love 

 of beetles) rushing wildly over the boulders and large flat stones in dried-up water- 

 courses, at the " imminent deadly risk " of bruised shins and sprained ankles, eager in 

 the pursuit of tantalizing, active Cicindelae, or could you but mark their progress on 

 the plain by huge stones upturned, or witness their frantic struggles and torn habili- 

 ments in the scrub along some beach-fringing belt of trees, you would certainly, my 

 dear young friend, modify your opinion. Come with me ; we are in Manchuria (spelt 

 all kind's of ways, and vulgarly called " China Tartary ") ; we land in a ship's boat, and 

 are left to the tender mercies of the mosquitos and bears. I put the gnats first because 

 their name is legion, and their torment is nearly unbearable ; but the angelic bears 

 are " few and far between ; " in fact, although I may have several of their skulls, I 

 only had a good look at one, and he escaped with his valuable life, though several of 

 us thirsted for his blood. We push our way breast-high in tangled brushwood, long 

 hard grass and creepers and bamboos up the sloping sides of the sea-skirting hills, and 

 when we reach the top we find it comparatively level, and instead of breast high in 

 brushwood, it is knee-deep in flowers — peonies, monkshood, Hoteras and Campanulas ; 

 the trees are large, and there is more animal life astir. The pied woodpecker is scru- 

 tinizing the whereabouts of grubs, and giving now and then an inquiring tap, while 

 the little striped ground-squirrel plays at hide-and-seek among the branches of fallen 

 trees. The head of a startled deer may be seen for an instant (a long brown nose and 

 two great inquiring eyes), and then a portion of his other extremity, as he bounds away 

 in the dim vistas of the trees. But T am wandering ; my business is beetles. One 

 thing in this wild green wilderness of Manchuria is the prodigious number of charred 

 and blackened trees that strew the ground in every direction, though often so over- 

 grown with weeds that the way you become acquainted with them is generally more 

 practical than pleasant, namely, by finding yourself on your face among the flowers, 

 your shins barked and your temper ruffled. The phenomenon of the prostrate trees is 

 owing to the wandering shooting and fishing parties of Manchoo Tartars, who always 

 fire the scrub and burn down the trees, to clear the land and make it yield good 

 pasturage. It is, however, under these burnt logs that Carabs " most do congregate ;" 

 and the labour it requires to dislodge and capture them is really no joke. Two small 



