THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



197 



of the best of our captures, superficially it is exceedingly like A. 

 stuvmii but the wholly black thorax at once distinguishes it. It seems 

 to be quite a mountain species. We find the net no manner of use 

 for the small Hydropovi with which we can see that the pool abounds, 

 a steady hand and an inverted pill box proves to be a more excellent 

 method of ensuring their capture. They are very numerous and 

 appear to be of two kinds, a black and a red, the red ones without ex- 

 ception proved to be H. gyllenhah, and none H. obscurus as we expected. 

 The black are principally H. mono (A triceps J, rather an uncommon 

 species, there were also a few H» pubescens, rather darker than the 

 usual type, and one specimen which we conclude after careful 

 examination to be H. melanarius or monticola of Dr. Sharp's Catalogue. 

 This was a most satisfactory capture, indeed one of the best things 

 our expedition yielded. The worst feature of this group of Hydropovi 

 is the difficulty, indeed usually the impossibility of recognising the 

 species on capture, and therefore unreturning opportunities are not 

 made the most of ; on the other hand it is an excellent genus for 

 yielding surprises to patient investigation at home. On this occasion 

 the exploration of this small pool was all that we attempted among 

 the Hydradephaga, with the notable exception of H. fermgineus, taken 

 on our way up. We were now on the very summit, but the scattered 

 stones of the ruined ordnance cairn there, at so bleak an altitude only 

 yielded a few more P. vitreus and M. arctica, and we were not unwilling 

 to rest for a moment and look around. Away to the eastward a dim 

 bank of smoke hung over the collieries and ironworks of the English 

 border ; but north and south moorland lay beyond moorland, summit 

 behind summit in brown undulations of endless heather. Far to the 

 west the trifid peak of Snowdon clear on the horizon just split the 

 setting sun, and a thin cold wind admonished us of what we had well 

 nigh forgotten during the day, that we had hardly as yet stepped 

 clear of the winter solstice, and indeed months after this date we have 

 seen all these hills buried deep in snow. On this occasion we might 

 well deem ourselves fortunate, we had taken nearly all the species 

 peculiar to the hills, and a few others besides ; something like ninety- 

 six species had been noted since the morning, many of course common 

 and ubiquitous, but several distinctly local, and one or two even rare. 

 It will be observed that with the exception of four Clavicovnia, three 

 Stemoxi, two Phytophaga, two Aphodii, all of these were amongst the 

 Adcphaga or the Staphylinidce . The Aphodii -were, A. lapponum, quite a 

 mountain species and a single specimen of A . prodromits. We took no 

 species of Rhyncophora and among the Phytophaga only Chrysomela 

 staphylcua, and Adimonia stituralis. It is interesting to remark that very 

 few of even the Geodephagous beetles proper to the valley, such as 

 the river Bembidia, had as yet appeared, whereas on the exposed hill 



