244 



THE YOUNG 



NATURALIST. 



different modes of flight, to observe the 

 various flowers they frequent, all give great 

 enjoyment to me. I like to see a little pug- 

 nacious butterfly drive off another big fellow 

 that seemed to be coming too near its 

 domain. I like to observe their courtship 

 or their play. All these things give me 

 much more pleasure than the mere posses- 

 sion of the specimen could do. Then 

 in night collecting there are some of the 

 same pleasures to be found mixed with 

 others peculiar to itself. I like collecting at 

 flowers best. How one insect flies boldly to 

 the topmost bloom, almost inviting capture, 

 while another seems to be trying to reach 

 the flowers unobserved. One species flies 

 straight to the flower or bush, alights at 

 once, and goes to work on the nectar with a 

 will. Another hovers about ever so long, 

 tries one flower and then flies away, tries 

 another, and another, before it meets one 

 quite to its taste. Then sometimes a hawk 

 moth will come. Someone has most appro- 

 priately likened a hawk at flowers to a flying 

 shadow. It does not alight at all, but hovers 

 like a kestrel, perfectly motionless in the air, 

 poised over the flower from which its long 

 proboscis is extracting the nectar. You 

 move and it is gone. You need to be quick 

 with the eye and quick with the hand to 

 secure a hawk on the wing, but is not the 

 pleasure a thousand times greater than pick- 

 ing the same specimens off a wall or a tree 

 trunk could give. Then, again, there is the 

 glorious uncertainty of not knowing what 

 you have got. Some species one may re- 

 cognize on the wing in the dusk of evening, 

 but we cannot know them all ; and what 

 pleasure there is on reaching home in find- 

 ing that the insect whose flight you failed to 

 recognise is something you have not taken 

 before. I could enlarge on this theme to 

 any extent, but must not trespass too much 

 in your space, especially as I know I am 

 uttering sentiments that may not meet with 

 your approval. 



A RAMBLE TO GRASSING- 

 TON. 



By H. T. SoppiTT, Saltaire. 



On the 17th May, two of us, Mr. T. 

 Walsh, of Frizinghall, and myself, left 

 Saltaire for a day's ramble in the neighbour- 

 hood of Grassington, for the purpose of 

 investigating the flora of the district, also 

 to collect specimens of Conchology. In the 

 former respect we were very successful, 

 in the latter on the contrary, very few 

 species fell to our lot, which I believe was 

 entirely due to the weather. Rain had not 

 fallen for upwards of a week, and I noticed 

 when on the mountain limestone, a circum- 

 stance v/ith which I have often been struck, 

 namely, the sensitiveness to moisture which 

 many of the land molluses exhibit, especially 

 such species as Helix lajncida, and the genera 

 PtipcL and Verti/jo, Sec. To visit the same 

 district when it is raining or just after, 

 these shells may be collected with little 

 difliculty. On the occasion of our visit, 

 none of the above were noticed, the only 

 species collected were Coclilicopa tridens, 

 Helix ncmoralis, var. liortcnsis, Helix erice- 

 torum,, Clausilia laininata, Ancylus Jiaviati' 

 tes, and Planoi'hls vortex. 



Grassington is a rather out of the way 

 place, being situated on the wharf, ten 

 miles from Skipton, yet it is well worth 

 visiting by the botanist, for the many 

 botanical treasures that occur in the neigh- 

 hood. Passing through the villages of 

 Rilstone and Cracoe we found ourselves 

 fairly on the mountain limestone. Here 

 we noticed exceedingly fine specimens of 

 the Bird Cherry {Prunus padus), Saxfraga, 

 tridactylytes, hypnodes and granulata, Viola 

 IdHa and Uutea. We eventually arrived at 

 Grassington, and followed the river for 

 several miles up to Kilnsey, where we had 

 the pleasure of seeing a great many uncom- 

 mon Yorkshire plants. Amongst these 

 were Hippoorcpa^ comosa, Primula farinom^ 



