THE YOUNG NATUEALIST. 



271 



The craving now is for manufactured 

 and compounded perfumes of the Eau- 

 de-Cologne type ; and the sweet sim- 

 plicity of lavender flowers laid amongst 

 the linen, or the more pungent tansy 

 or sweet gale hung up in bedrooms to 

 test the antipathies of various lively 

 and frolicsome insects, is rapidly be- 

 coming a forgotten relic of the past. 



COLLECTING IN ARRAN. 



IN JULY AND SEPTEMBER, 1884. 



By John McKay, Glasgow. 



In July of this year I had the pleasure of 

 having a day's collecting in Arran, and 

 perhaps a short account of my experience 

 in this famous insect locality may prove 

 interesting to those of your readers who 

 know it by name only. 



At the invitation of some friends from 

 Paisley, who were spending their holiday 

 collecting at Lamlash, I left Glasgow by 

 the early train on Fair Saturday morning, 

 and after a very pleasant sail in the 

 " Brodick Castle" from Ardrossan, I landed 

 at my destination and was pleased to find a 

 friend waiting for me on the quay. The 

 day was a lovely one, and with the exception 

 of a pretty stiff breeze which was blowing, 

 was in every way favourable for collecting. 

 After dinner we provided ourselves with 

 the usual accessories for a collecting expe- 

 dition and began ascending the series of 

 hills which rise to a great height at the 

 back of the village. In the pasture fields 

 the Small Heath (C. fiampliilus) was flitting 

 about in numbers, while the Meadow 

 Brown (H. janira) was every now and then 

 starting up from the grass at our feet and 

 skipping in that peculiar jerking style 



which is so characteristic of it. L. alexis 

 presented a very pleasing sight, their pretty 

 blue wings sparkling in the bright rays of 

 the sun as they flitted hither and thither in 

 their gambols. With the exception of a few 

 Whites these were all theDiurni we encoun- 

 tered. 



On reaching the heather L. casiata soon 

 presented itself in pretty fair numbers, and 

 two specimens of the rare Arran form of C. 

 russata were also added to our captures. 

 The casiata were remarkable for being very 

 dark varieties, I did not notice any like the 

 ordinary type. Russata, I may say, has 

 been unusually scarce this season, and 

 during my friends' stay they only mauaged 

 to take very few of it. Plusia interrogationis 

 was observed several times on the wing, 

 flying very swiftly, but there was no 

 possibility of getting within a reasonable 

 distance of them, owing to the strong wind 

 which was blowing. A rather good pyralite, 

 Physics carbonariella was plentiful on the 

 heather ; but on the grass which stretches 

 along the shore I afterwards observed it in 

 great abundance. Larvae on the heather 

 was very scarce, only one or two of the 

 caterpillar of the Oak Eggar (B. quercus) 

 being seen, while S. carpini was totally 

 absent. Two years ago the larvae of quercus 

 could have been taken in hundreds, while 

 no reason can be given explanatory of their 

 scarcity this season. 



I left Lamlash in the evening well pleased 

 with my visit and fully determined to spend 

 a week at that place as soon as it was 

 possible to spare that time. 



It was the first week in September before 

 I could find time to put my resolution into 

 practice, and it was with the fond intention 

 of having a spendid week's collecting, that 

 an entomological friend and myself found 

 ourselves in Arran. The weather was 

 unsettled and at night the cold was extreme. 

 We soon discovered that insects were very 

 scarce and those we did find were all 



