28o ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



trees drying too rapidly when exposed to the sun. Burning 

 the brush-wood is, however, advisable at anyrate, and it is 

 very probable that, by doing this in March or early in April, 

 large numbers of swarming beetles may be driven off by the 

 smoke hanging about the timber strewn around ; but the fact 

 remains that preventive measures of this kind are often 

 more difficult to carry out in practice than many may think. 

 In game preserves especially, fires are objected to about this 

 time, as the smoke is said to disturb the nesting pheasants. 

 Whether it does so or not we do not know, but, if the keepers 

 say so, the fact or otherwise is a mere detail. At any rate, 

 there is no certainty about any such measures being possible 

 on average estates, and no reliance can be placed upon 

 methods which may be looked upon as heroic and pro- 

 gressive, and outside the scope of ordinary practice. 



The Pine Weevil. 



This beetle is chiefly confined to the north of England 

 and Scotland, and gives little or no trouble in the south, 

 where extensive coniferous woods are not so common. It 

 has been reported in the New Forest, and Miss Ormerod 

 mentions it having been found in West Gloucestershire some 

 years back.^ So far as can be learned, however, its occurence 

 in large numbers south of the Trent is not common, although 

 its presence may be anticipated in districts containing large 

 fir woods. 



The life-history of the beetle is somewhat as follows : — 

 The beetle appears early in summer — May, June, and July. 

 Some of these beetles appeared the previous year, and have 

 hibernated under moss or leaves during the winter ; but those 

 from eggs laid the previous year have come direct from the 

 cocoons, in which they have pupated in stumps and roots of 

 felled trees. Their next proceeding is to pair and look out 

 for suitable feeding and breeding places. To find a piece of 



^ Since the above was written we have found a few weevils in recently 

 planted larch in the Longleat woods (August 1904). They occurred in two 

 different places on limited areas adjoining ground cleared of Soots pine, etc., 

 the previous year, but they appeared to be few in number. 



