102 
NOTES ON THE COLLECTING AND 
Sanely districts, especially towards the coast, are at all 
times preferable to clayey ones; but the intermediate soils, 
as for instance the deep black loam of the alluvial countries 
and of the fens, are perhaps the most productive—and where 
woods can be found in such tracts, the Coleopterist has 
attained his Paradise. The higher the position above the 
sea, the later (as a general rule) will be the season for col¬ 
lecting in it; and hence the lower regions (particularly the 
shore) should be selected in the early spring, whilst the 
mountains and moorlands are reserved for the autumn. In 
maritime tracts, where a very large proportion of our rarer 
species occur, the sweeping-net will be of comparatively 
little use, the insects in such situations being best obtained 
either from beneath pebbles and rejectamenta in open grassy 
spots, or else harbouring around the roots and stems of plants 
amongst sand. In Alpine countries, again, the net may be 
almost dispensed with, there being seldom vegetation enough 
in such districts to admit of its action; whilst the species 
which obtain are for the most part (even more peculiarly so 
than the littoral ones) attached to the undersides of stones. 
It is a mistake to suppose that the progress of agriculture 
tends to lay waste our Entomological preserves, and to ex¬ 
terminate insect life. In some few instances (as in the de- 
struction of forests) this may be, and probably is, the case; 
but I am convinced that, in a general way, the very reverse 
is nearer the truth. The vast superiority of the London 
district (highly cultivated as it is) over almost every other m 
England, may be quoted in support of this ; and I may add, 
from personal observation, that I have never met with such 
marked success as along railway embankments, and on other 
grounds recently turned-up by the edges of gardens and 
fields, where the vegetation is rank and redundant. Let not 
the collector assume, therefore, that he must needs sally to a 
distance for his game, since he will often reap a richer hat'* 
