240 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



[November 



otherwise be an impassable swamp. Pausing for a moment before 

 leaping one of these dykes, we notice, motionless in the brown wet 

 surface of the peat, a shining bronze brown beetle, in a second it is off, 

 as quickly we intercept its course. This turns out to be Elaplinis 

 aipreus and we capture quite a series by intently watching the wet 

 peat. They are generally invisible, being coloured so exactly like 

 their environment, but their agile movements betray them and lead to 

 heir untimely doom. Among them are some specimens very similar 

 but rather smaller, this is E. riparius, and they are far less numerous 

 than the others. Here we think, should be the spot for Carabks nitens, 

 calling to mind the accounts of that insect's lucky capturer on Chat 

 Moss, but we look for our resplendent Carab in vain ; Notiophiliis 

 palustvis is common however, but is hardly a consoling substitute. 

 Trying the sluggish waters of the ditch, the net brings up several 

 specimens of Hydrophoms melanocephalus, H. efytJirocephalus , and H. 

 planus, and me or two H. Gyllenhalii but little else, so relinquishing 

 the net, we pass on our way through the birches and the firs, and 

 emerge presently into one of those long straight rides which are cut 

 at intervals through the forest, rarely used by any wayfarer; the track 

 is deep with ling and heather and clumps of whinberry, the sides of 

 the low ditches which line the path are festooned with the long fronds 

 of the Blechnum fern, and their hollows yellow with kingcups. On 

 either side stand the dark walls of the pines, redolent in the warm 

 summer air; and far down in the utmost recesses comes the sleepy 

 fitful murmur of the wood pigeons, now and then broken by the 

 sudden cackle of a jay, and anon you see the streak of white and 

 and russet flash across the gap between the trees, which de- 

 notes that shy but garrulous bird. Here in the summer twilight 

 you will see the mysterious goatsuckers flitting silently, bat-like, in 

 and out from the fir trees, or note the cry of the horned owls break 

 the silence of the swampy bottoms. But as we pass along through 

 the heather and the whinberries, more intent on the insect denizens of 

 the place, we notice some pink and white fungi growing just within 

 the wood and in the gills of these we find some specimens of 

 Cychramiis fungicola, some others, more decayed, swarm with Autalia 

 impressa, Bolitophagus pygmcBiis, and Homnlia of two or three species, 

 besides a couple of Cholevce and a number of Homalota fungicola and 

 Cfyptophagiis pilosus. After this, we try beating the lower branches 



