The Collector at Work 
account of their sombre colouring, neither of these 
species is so easy to bag as A/dulata, By the time we 
have secured a few, a Noctua dashes past, and reminds - 
us of the flight of time. Ten o’clock! It is now time 
for “sugaring.” A few strides bring us to the corner of 
the wood, and “‘sugaring” begins, Selecting the trees 
along the southern and eastern sides of the wood, by 
‘the time the contents of the tin are exhausted about 
sixty trees carry a perpendicular stripe of treacle, breast- 
high, 2 inches wide and 10 inches long. We throw 
the tin away, wrap the brush in several coverings of 
paper, wipe our hands on the dewy grass, and are 
ready for the next move. How quiet the woods have 
grown! Half an hour ago rabbits and pheasants were 
stealing into the open for their evening meal : the rab- 
bits are now lost in the dusk; the pheasants have 
returned, not without some noise, to roost in the trees, 
An owl flits past on silent wing. Many moths are still 
abroad, but the net is practically useless; these sombre- 
coloured, swift-flying Noctuz, are all but invisible to 
our eyes unless seen against the background of the 
luminous western sky. ‘There, high up, coming and 
going, circling and zigzagging to and fro about the pine- 
tree tops, we can just discern little companies of them, 
and dimly guess at the probable species, We have 
learned that these Noctue fly far beyond our reach— 
hence the “sugar.” And so we get out our lamp and 
light it. It is not much of a lamp, for particular 
reasons. All that is needed is sufficient light to box 
by, and not enough to scare any living creature. We 
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