l893 .] THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 191 



The tract we speak of is in shape roughly triangular ; on two sides 

 the valley of the sacred stream of the two fountains describes it ; on 

 the third, a vast and level strath sweeps down northward to the sea. 

 None of its elevations exceed some two thousand feet, and such 

 peaks rise up from the brown sea of heather which swells for mile after 

 mile around their flanks, often dimly crowned by the rude entrench- 

 ments of forgotten races. 



The region is principally composed of the older Cambrian rocks, 

 but we also find, overlying such formations, detached masses of the 

 mountain limestone which, where they occur, completely alter the 

 physiology of the hills. Among those solitudes you may walk for a long 

 summer's day and } T our feet never leave the heather, and you shall 

 hear no sound save the cackle of the whirring grouse and the wail of 

 the distant curlew. 



To such a spot did a kind fate lead the Coleopterist when the 

 mounting sun had but newly entered Aries. And not without hope 

 of memorable captures did we arrive at that sequestered valley. 

 Was there not to explore — first, the river itself, with its beds of shingle 

 and boulder-strewn banks ; then the woods, thick and mossy, that 

 clothed the lower valley slopes ; then the upland furze-clad stretches, 

 and finally the highest peaks and a vast wilderness of heather ? 



The spring had been an exceptionally dry one, and the river, as 

 v T e crossed it in the early morning, rippled very low among its pebbles, 

 The hoar-frost lay white where the shadow of the hills fell, but a 

 steady south-east wind spoke of a cloudless day and a hot noon. 



Our first attack is made upon the river bank, where the shingle 

 lies much exposed owing to the low river, and here we should probably, 

 were the season advanced another month or two, take Pevileptus areola- 

 ris, flying in the sunshine. This small beetle, once supposed to 

 inhabit in Wales only the shingle beds of the Conway and Llugwy, 

 has been, of recent years, taken on most of the clear streams of the 

 district. Under stones by the margin of the river we have taken here 

 in May at least five species of Bembidium, viz. : B. atvoccevuleum, B. 

 tibiale, B. decorum, B. monticola, and B. punctulatum. For these species, 

 however, we are as yet too early, but we find that graceful beetle 

 Anchomenus angusticollis in profusion, and a ' Staph,' not uncommon 

 under these stones, conspicuous by its bright scarlet elytra, proves to 

 be Philontlius fulvipes. Where the ebbing water has left banks of dry 

 sand, now warming under the steady sunshine, a bright steely flash 

 of wings and sudden drop tells of the familiar Cicindela campcstvis. Of 

 course Anchomenus albipcs is abundant everywhere here ; but, besides 

 a few common Pterostichi and some Homalotcc, carefully bottled for 

 future investigation, there is little else under these stones. Let us 

 turn then for a moment to the river birds, they at least are character- 



