RAHHOCH 
15 
taken there before; moreover Ruckmaster pointed out to me a larva 
of Acronycta alni on a hazel just outside the wood. At Darenth I 
took Hadena contigua at rest on a tree-trunk, also Tortrix sorbiana 
and two specimens of the local T. semialbana. Box Hill produced 
Miopia dolabraria , Lithosia rubricollis (abundant among yews) and 
Crambus chrysonuchellus. To this day I have scarcely got over my 
disappointment at missing two of the lovely little Leptogramma 
liter ana beaten from oaks on Ashstead Common; it has a bad habit 
of darting to the ground when disturbed, and is almost as cryptic on 
the wing as at rest. 
Several of these boyish expeditions remain with me as vivid 
impressions, but it was in July, 1868, that, to quote an old diary, 
“I spent the most glorious month of my life,” with that perfect 
travelling companion, the late John B. Blackburn, in a peasant's 
cot at Oamghouran on the shore of Loch Rannoch. To give my 
fellow collector's account: 1 “ At the somewhat gloomy close of a fine 
day early in July, we left the road which borders Loch Rannoch, 
and crossed the rough fields which lead to Camghouran. We had 
reached the end of a somewhat harassing journey, and it was with 
feelings of intense satisfaction that we saw the collecting-cases and 
portmanteaux, containing all necessaries for a Scotch campaign, laid 
on the stone floor of our little abode. Our kind hostesses very soon 
put before us a meal, such as all who have visited Oamghouran 
will vividly remember; and the sight of the newest of milk and the 
freshest of eggs 2 urged us to recruit before we turned out, as we 
had resolved to do, for a few hours' collecting on our first night. 
“ To one of us the scenery, and, better still, the insects, of the 
district were quite new; and, as we passed down the long barley- 
field beyond which lies the great sugaring-ground of Rannoch, the 
other set himself to combat the slightly gloomy impression conveyed 
to the mind by the grand mountain solitudes and sloping moors 
veiled partially, as we saw them now, by uncomfortable looking 
masses of cloud. Turning to the left, we reached two very different 
tracts of land separated by the high road: that next the loch being 
grass-grown, and covered with fine birch trees, while the other pro¬ 
duces a mingled mass of heather, rushes, and fern, amongst which 
grow, singly or in clumps, birch, fir, and alder trees. Here, at 
nine o'clock, sunset had scarce faded from the sky: dark banks 
of cloud were still shot with vivid lines of light; the air was soft 
1 Entomologist's Monthly Magazine , Vol. V., p. 221. 
2 (Editorial note to original paper.) “ Milch-cows and productive hens appear to 
have been imported since our experience in 1865.—R. McL.(achlan); E. 0. R.(ye) ” 
