3516 Insects. 



in copula. When it became dark, the night-jar set up his whirring 

 note; we then lighted our lamps, and about 10 o'clock my female tre- 

 pida began to call. In less than half an hour, as Mr. G. was examin- 

 ing a specimen of Coremia unidentaria, or some such rubbish, that he 

 had got in his net, I sang out, — " Here comes trepida ! " I could 

 see it coming several yards off, by the light of my lamp, in a straight 

 line towards the female I had in a cage held in my hand. A stroke 

 of my net, and 1 had captured the finest male I ever saw. 6< Hip ! 

 Hip ! Hurrah for trepida ! " shouted we, in a very excited state, and 

 expected we were going to take at least fifty more ; but in about an 

 hour, as none came, we cooled down, and lay down on the dry leaves 

 to smoke. Several species came to our lamps during the night, such 

 as Odontopera bidentaria, Tephrosia crepuscularia, Harpalyce suffu- 

 maria, Lozogramma petraria, Trachea piniperda, &c. We were lying 

 about half asleep, near 12 o'clock, when Mr. G. shouted out " Here's 

 another trepida 1" I rose up in a great hurry to a sitting posture, and 

 saw one dart past me towards the female, and then back close past 

 my face to the ground. I thought there were two, and told Mr. G. so 

 as I clapped my net over this one ; however, as we could not find ano- 

 ther, we were obliged to be content with securing one. 



About an hour after this it began to rain, so we went into a hut near 

 the water, kindled a fire upon the floor with dead brackens and fir- 

 twigs, and proceeded to cook our fish. It would have been a fine 

 subject for a painter : — me on my hands and knees blowing the fire, 

 which filled the hut with smoke almost to suffocation, and Mr. G. 

 holding the fish on a forked stick over the flame, until it was roasted 

 to a nicety; and notwithstanding our rude way of cooking, we thought 

 the fish excellent, as we ate them in our fingers after peeling them like 

 onions, their skins being as black as coal. 



Bats were flying about all night, and we tried to catch them by pin- 

 ning a moth to the end of a string suspended from a bough of a tree, 

 but they were not to be caught in that way. At about 2 o'clock the 

 cuckoo began to call ; then the sedge- warbler, skylark, black-cap, 

 blackbird, thrush, willow-wren, wood-wren, chiff-chaff, &c; and every 

 now and then were heard the wild cries of the heron, coot, and crested 

 grebe. When the day began to dawn we went to our rods again, 

 which we had left baited, and found two of the lines fast amongst the 

 tangled roots of the reeds. I stripped and went in to loose them ; one 

 line had a fine eel on the hook, but from the other the hook had been 

 twisted off, and the line itself tangled into such a mess as nothing but 

 an eel can make. 



