124 



THE TOUNG NATURALIST. 



London and South-western Railway, we flushed a full snipe from the edge of 

 the swampy ground. This was the only one of these birds we saw in the 

 Forest. 



As we were not much acquainted with marshes, none of us had originally 

 intended to venture far from firm ground, but when we had got rather more 

 than half-way round we noticed some cattle well out in the middle of the 

 bog, browsing on the leaves of Meny anther trifoliata, and not sinking in 

 more than a foot or so. This seemed to show that the bog was not a deep 

 one, and I was accordingly told off to make my way to a clump of bushes in 

 the centre, to see if I could find any wild ducks' or water rails' nests. 1 

 found that there was no difficulty in getting to the bushes, the mud being 

 nowhere more than knee-deep, but the search for nests proved quite unsuc- 

 cessful. There was a water-rail about, and from its excitement it was evident 

 that it had either a nest or young somewhere very close at hand, but what 

 between mud, rushes, bushes, and water (of which there was plenty among the 

 bushes), getting about was no easy matter. Some moor hens were seen ; and 

 two herons and five wild ducks rose and winged their way towards the Beaulieu 

 River. 



Having walked completely round the bog, we went home almost exactly 

 the same way we had come, seeing nothing of interest however. On our 

 return we found that one of the party having been out for a short time in 

 another direction had taken a nice specimen of B. repandata ; and had also 

 discovered, on the trunk of a small oak, just outside Lyndhurst, what we 

 consider to have been one of our greatest prizes, viz., two fine larvse of C, 

 promissa. I went out again at dusk, but was quite unsuccessful, the evening 

 being very cold. 



The following morning (the 18th) was bitterly cold, cloudy, and with a 

 north wind. We did not go out before lunch, but in the afternoon we did a 

 good deal of larva beating among the trees and bushes on the west of the 

 Brockenhurst road. We got a good many larvse on this occasion, 

 but the only ones we seem to have known were E. abbreviata (several) and 

 T. cruda (one), both of which species were beaten from oak. The only insects 

 taken on the wing during the afternoon were two or three C. iemerata and 

 one E. trilinearia, whilst one H. hecius was boxed at rest on the leaf of an 

 oak. About five o'clock the wind began to lull, and there was a rise in the 

 temperature, which was immediately followed by the appearance of an un- 

 pleasantly large number of midges among the bracken. 



In the evening we sugared in Whitley wood, and on going our rounds 

 found that moths were coming a good deal more plentifully than usual. G. 

 trilinea was tolerably numerous, and several were taken ; one E. lucipara. 



