THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



157 



ous scattered stains and blotches of yellow- 

 ish olive brown, and one or two black lines. 



Fig. 8. — Bluish green, sparingly blotched 

 with amber brown. This is a rare form. 



All the eggs figured are from my own 

 collection. 



The number laid is five or sometimes six. 



A DAY 



AMONG THE COLEOPTERA 



OF LLANGOLLEN. 



By Dr. J. W. Ellis. 



Two years ago I recorded (Y.N., vol. iii., 

 p. 199) the results of a day's beetle-hunting 

 in the neighbourhood of Llangollen, and it 

 may be further experience gained in a recent 

 day's visit to the same place will prove of 

 interest to some of the readers of this peri- 

 odical, if even it only goes to show how a 

 party of town-confined individuals can enjoy 

 themselves when liberated from the tram- 

 mels of business and professional life. For 

 company I had on this occasion Dr. Dixon 

 and Messrs. Smedley and Wilding — the first 

 and last of whom had never before visited 

 delightful Wales. (N.B.— I am not a Welsh- 

 man, so that my praise of the principality 

 is quite disinterested.) 



We left Liverpool about 6.30 on the 

 morning of April nth, and arrived at Llan- 

 gollen about nine, with every promise of a 

 fine day before us — a promise that was so 

 fully realised that I am afraid to say that 

 one at least of the party would have been 

 pleased had it not proved quite so warm, 

 not to say "decidedly 'ot," for toiling up a 

 mountain slope at an angle of about 45 0 — 

 said slope being covered with the most slip- 

 pery short grass,— in a blazing sun is warm 

 work, and a bottle of refreshment produced 

 by one of the party, whose forethought 

 deserves every praise, proved very accept- 



able to most of us. Should any of my read- 

 ers visit the neighbourhood of the slate 

 quarries and find on the rill side a pint 

 spirit-bottle borne aloft upon a stout sapling, 

 let them not — if inclined towards total ab- 

 stinence — lecture their friends upon the 

 iniquity of defiling the beauties of the land- 

 scape with such a common-place production 

 as the aforesaid bottle and the desecration 

 of the place by the odour of spirits, for this 

 witness deponeth that the fluid refreshment 

 conveyed therein was only that food which 

 is found so indispensable to each of us when 

 we make our debut upon the stage of life as 



"The iiifant, 

 Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms." 



Leaving the station, we at once turned up 

 the path leading to the "Jenny Jones," and 

 reaching the canal bank followed it until 

 we came to the slate-yard. A few paces 

 past this we were able to scramble down to 

 the Dee-side, where a small brook joins it 

 by passing under the canal, and by search- 

 ing among the shingle we found, among 

 other species, Beinbidium decorum, atrocce- 

 ruleum and tibiale, and Anchomenus junceus. 

 Leaving this ground, which we had not time 

 to work thoroughly, but where Mr. Smedley 

 has taken (in the autumn of 1S82) Orecto- 

 chilus villosus and Bembidium prasinum, we 

 retraced our steps, crossed the canal, and 

 followed the Ruthin Road until abreast of 

 Valle Crucis Abbey, when, crossing a spur 

 of the hill on the left, we descended through 

 a farm-yard and crossed a swampy field or 

 two until we reached the foot of Moel-y- 

 Gamelin, where Mr. Smedley at the time 

 just mentioned had taken Aphodius Zenkeri, 

 We worked this slope well, but, with the 

 exception of a colony of Aphodius sticticus 

 found by Mr. Wilding, none of the genus 

 occurred worth bringing home. Probably 

 Zenkeri is a late summer species like can- 

 taminatus, which I found plentifully here — 

 I could have taken thousands — last Septem- 

 ber, but of which not a single specimen 



