Sweeping may commence in the forenoon as soon as the dew has disappeared; it is less profitable in the heat of the midday, but produces the best results late in the afternoon and more especially in the short interval from just before sunset until dark. At this time many rare Pselaphidae and Scydmaenidae, species of the genera _Colon_ and _Anisotoma_, and other small Silphidae can be beaten from the tips of grasses, all being species which can not, or only accidentally, be found during daytime, when they hide between the roots of plants. _Collecting on mud and gravel Banks._--The mud or gravel banks of rivers, creeks, and stagnant bodies of water are inhabited, especially early in summer, with an astonishing multitude of Coleoptera. Countless specimens of smaller Carabidae (_Dyschirius_, _Clivina_, _Bembidium_, _Tachys_, etc.) and Staphylinidae (_Tachyusa_, _Philonthus_, _Actobius_, _Stenus_, _Lathrobium_, _Trogophlaeus_ and many other genera) will be seen actively running over the mud or sand; many other specimens are hiding under the pebbles in company with other species (_Cryptohypnus_, _Georyssus_, etc.) or in little subterranean galleries (_Dyschirius_, _Bledius_, _Heterocerus_). All these beetles must be collected by picking them up with the fingers, an operation which, owing to the activity of the specimens, requires some little practice. The beginner will at first crush or otherwise injure many of the delicate specimens, the capture of which is moreover by no means facilitated by the rapidity with which most of them are able to take wing. The collector must necessarily kneel down and he must not mind getting covered with mud. A good device for driving these species out of their galleries or from their hiding places under stones or in cracks of the ground is to pour water over the banks, and this can in most cases be done with the hand. Larger stones and pieces of wood or bark lying on the bank are favorite hiding places of certain larger Carabidae (_Nebria_, _Chlaenius_, _Platynus_, etc.), and should of course be turned over. Finally, the moss growing on rocks and logs close to the water's edge, and in which, besides other beetles, some rare Staphylinidae and the Byrrhid genus _Limnichus_ can be found, should be scraped off and investigated on the collecting cloth or on the surface of a flat rock, if such be conveniently at hand.