iSgi.] 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



261 



further they go. I have sometimes obtained as many as five from a 

 single clump, and cn a dull day this method I find is the only 

 successful means of taking Haworthii. 



By the time we have filled all our boxes, the rooks can be heard 

 making their way leisurely to the various local rookeries, reminding 

 us of approaching sundown and therefore time to return home. Until 

 within the last three years, my brother and I w^orked this place more 

 or less successfully; but one day failing to obtain a full supply, we 

 decided to remain until dusk, and were rewarded for our perseverance 

 by taking more Haworthii that night than we ever took in the 

 daytime. We found that we could, by a considerable amount of 

 fatigue, take them on the wing as they flew wildly over the moor at a 

 break-neck speed; and often have we come home wet to the skm as a 

 result of racing after this insect. Naturally keeping our eyes open, 

 we were, on one of these evenings, rewarded with a still more 

 important discovery. I cannot say whether the discovery is original 

 or even known to a few ; but we found that female Saworthii had the 

 additional virtue of "assembling." Wandering over the ground one 

 wet evening, and feeling a ''wee bit" disgusted with my ill-luck, I sat 

 down for a quiet smoke while my brother worked his way up to my 

 end. Comfortably seated, I had barely time to light my pipe when, 

 in the dim distance, I saw what appeared to me half-a-dozen or so of 

 Haworthii hovering, H, hiuniili fashion, over a tuft of Cotton grass. 

 Down went my hand to the net, and keeping to leeward, I slowly 

 crept up and took three of them at one single swoop. I simply 

 howled for my brother, and we diligently helped ourselves, for the rest 

 of that evening, to the droves of males that were attracted by that one 

 female. The following extracts from my brother's diary show with 

 what success we followed this mode of capture: — In the year 1888 

 our biggest bags were, Sept. 12th, 80; Sept. 17th, 60; Sept. 8th, 35. 

 In 1889, Aug. loth, 57; Aug. gth, 34, &c. ; and my brother's records 

 show that our total muster for the last three years is nearly 1000! 

 and when one comes to consider that the species does not commence 

 to fly until the last quarter of an hour before dark, one can imagine 

 the excitement when, having found the female, we each stood over 

 the spot taking all that came. I have marked a male going by at a 

 terrific pace, when, coming to leeward of my clump it immediately 

 sobers down into a steady flying insect wending its way slowly, and 



