i 4 4 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



[August 



have alutaceus but not the true nigriceps. We also took the two com- 

 mon AnaccBua limbata and variabilis and some small Helophovi, 

 probably Brevipalpus, the inevitable Hydrobius fuscipes and a couple 

 of Helochares lividus. 



However our attacks on several other ponds only resulting in 

 further specimens of these not very desirable species, and as we were 

 getting tired of water-boatmen and spiders, shells and water fleas, 

 instead of new Hydvopori we gave up the net, that is hid it safely 

 under a hedge to await our return, and crossed the pastures in the 

 direction of a hilly ridge where the Bunter sandstone breaks through 

 its cloak of clay, and stands out in a line of fir crowned heights faulted 

 down to a broad river estuary beyond. In the meadows the cattle 

 were not yet put out and it was too early for the creophilous Aphodii. 

 We listened only to the melancholy wail of the tossing plover, whose 

 eggs the farm boys hunt on Sunday mornings ; for the silence of these 

 country places is unbroken in these early spring days save by the 

 voice of birds. The ploughing is almost over except on the potato 

 land and the sower as he walks down the shining furrows with 

 measured tread and waving hands says never a word ; the sharp 

 rattle of the reaping machine which has now so universally replaced 

 the more musical whetting of scyth and sickle is unheard till June ? 

 only far away one can faintly hear the ploughman as he calls to his 

 horses to turn at the end of the long potato furrows, and above the 

 innumerable music of the larks. 



Crossing a style we notice the bark loose on one of the stumps 

 which form it, and carefully detaching it find a weevil Mecinus py raster 

 and a specimen or two of Rhinosimuss planirostris. If the stumps are 

 of elm we are nearly sure to find under the bark the curious tunnels 

 of the Scolytus destructor but never the beetle, sometimes dead speci- 

 mens fill up the galleries, but it seems that when the wood is 

 sufficiently dry and dead to loosen the bark, it is also too dry for the 

 Scolytus. Under bark of a dead tree we took Dvomius 4. notatus. 



After crossing another field or two we enter on a country road 

 straight and white in the sunshine. A marge of grass, low furze and 

 brambles and rough broken banks show this to be a good spot for 

 beating later in the year, but there are no wayside stones beneath 

 which Geodephaga may lurk, so instead of scarifying our fingers with 

 turning over blocks of sandstone, we note the persistent yellow ham- 

 mer waiting about ten yards in front, just long enough to hurry through 



