THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



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the great sexton beetle Necrophorus humator besides endless quantities 

 of Cholevce and Tachini, beetles which elude capture by a swift and 

 almost magical disappearance. None of these species were of much 

 value. A much better find and more beautiful insect we took beneath 

 a dead thrush in this same wood, Necrophorus morhwrum, wit h its brilliant 

 black and scarlet wing cases. 



Higher up, the larches give place to oaks and birch, and finally 

 these thin out and leave only the rough gorse and fern of the open hill 

 side. These oaks are all pale and grey to the utmost twig with a 

 thick incrustation of lichen, whereas our lowland oak boughs are 

 a rich clean brown. The cause of this difference is not quite obvious, 

 perhaps the more moderate winds and humid air of this sheltered 

 valley may encourage such growths, as it appears to favour other 

 cryptogams such as ferns and mosses. 



The Coleopterist finds but little here ; the oaks do not of course as 

 yet show even the smallest speck of leaf. The birches, where they 

 cluster together thick in the hollows, exhibit a perfect harmony of 

 tints of pink and purple, and warm Indian red, but only glazed here 

 and there with the faintest veil of green. Thus, there is no beating 

 possible, nor are there any stones just here, so we can but follow the 

 lane still clear between the trees till it brings us out on the fell above. 

 We have now left behind and below us the last oak and the last birch, 

 and only the scattered ash trees still bear us company. We have 

 indeed passed through arboreal zones distinct as those they tell us of 

 on the flanks of Alp or Appennine. Far below us we can see the 

 river gleaming between its sycamores — -a tree that shuns the wind and 

 loves the damp rich sands of the river levels. Higher up are wild 

 cherries just now breaking into snow, then larches and oaks ; higher 

 up still, hollies and birches where the soil is thin and poorest, but 

 highest of all the ash and contorted wind buffeted whitethorns. But 

 on this open hill side, with its short grass and dead brown bracken 

 stalks, the first beetle to be observed is Oiisthopus rotundatus. This is 

 not exactly a mountain species although it occurs more frequently at 

 high elevations, but it is restricted always to dry and uncultivated 

 lands. Under the next stone lurk a couple oiPatrobus excavatus and with 

 these we feel we have got amongst the genuine upland fauna. In such 

 a place as this, however, the mountain and the lowland forms meet ; 

 here, for instance, we have Chrysomela staphyloma, Badister bipustidatus, 

 Othius fulvipenne, Calathus flavipes, and here also are Calathus micropterus 

 and Corym bitesaneus, distinctly mountain species. NotiopJiilus cequatkus 

 is very common, the glitter of its polished elytra continually betraying 

 it, as it runs among the short grass. A few Byrrhus pilula varying 

 greatly in size, as is usual with this species, occur under stones, but 

 one individual, conspicuous by a broad golden belt across the elytra, 



