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VOL. XXIV.

eae | ae
‘ ae ee fi c a 3 res bee
S OTTAWA NATURALIST. >
aan A ; ; n. Pie rena
S e nS Being Volume XXVI. of the ; | : fe oe a

=) 6 TRANSACTIONS

“

4 OF THE

i Sed tard SF

.

“v7

“4

cai FR age

ss OTTAWA FIELD-NATURALISTS’ CLUB. ¢

mh

oe

4
nt,
<a
—————
—WJX
ee,
_—__—
>

_ Organized March, 1879. Incorporated March, 1884 at

t

The Ottawa fField-Waturalists’ Club.

Patron: — “A =

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EARL GREY. ~ her }
GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA.

Council 1919=1911 \.

President:
Mr. Andrew Halkett. s

Vice=Presidents:
Mr. A. G. Kingston. Mr. L. H. Newman, B.S.A.

Secretary: we Treasurer:
Mr. J. J. Carter. Mr. Herbert Groh, B.S.A.
(521 Somerset St.) ey es (Experimental Farm )

Editor: sb Librarian :
Mr. Arthur Gibson. BBA 6 Mr. C. H. Young.

(Experimental Farm) 5 (Geological Survey)

Mr. Alex. McNeill. Mr. W. J. Wilson, Ph.B.
Mr. T..E. Clarke, B:A: Miss McKay Scott.

Mr. J. W. Gibson, M.A. Miss A. L. Matthews.
Mr. W. T. Macoun. Miss Q. Jackson.

Past President:
Mr. A. E. Attwood, M.A.

Standing Committees of Council:
Publications: L. H. Newman, Alex. McNeill, C. H. Young, A. Gibson,
Miss McKay Scott.

Excursions: A. Halkett, W. J. Wilson, J. W. Gibson, A. G. Kingston,
H. Groh, Miss A. L. Matthews.

Lectures: A. G. Kingston, T. E. Clarke, L. H. Newman, J. J. Carter,
Miss Q. Jackson.
Leaders at Ercursions:
Archeology: T. W. E. Sowter, J. Ballantyne.

Botany: W. T. Macoun, John Macoun, D. A. Campbell, L. H. Newman,
T. E. Clarke, H. Groh.

Conchology: S. E. O’Brien.

Entomology: W. H. Harrington, A. Gibson, C. H. Young, J. W. Baldwin.

Geology: H. M. Ami, W. J. Wilson, T. W. E. Sowter, W. A. Johnston. —

Meteorology: A. McNeill, Otto Klotz., D. A. Campbell.

Ornithology: A. G. Kingston, A. H. Galiup, H. Groh, H. U. Morris.

Zoology: E. E. Prince, A. Halkett, E. E. Lemieux, E. LeSueur.

Auditors:
R. B. Whyte. J. Ballantyne.

Membership Fee to O.F.N.C., with “Ottawa Naturalist,’”’
$1.00 per annum.

Teen FA

_ Adams, Prof. Poa),
Z (Montreal).
PAmiH. M., M.A., D.Sc.,
Bree . SC.

Ami, Mrs. H. M.

“Ami, S..T.

Anderson, Miss Constance
_ Anderson, James R. (Victoria,
B.C.)
~ Anderson, Lieut.-Col. W. PS
=e, M. Inst. Cm., FRG:S.
_ Attwood, A. E., M.A.

’ Baker, R. M., B.S.A.

Baldwin, J. W.

_ Ballantyne, James.

_ Bangs, J. S.

: Bate, Miss Marjorie St. H. (East-
bury, Watford, Eng.)

Beaupre, Edwin, (Kingston, Ont.)

- Bell, Robert, B.A.Sc., M.D., LL.D.

a On sae oe R.S. oe F.G:S.A.

» Bell, W. ‘As, (Camp Creek, Lake

_ Nepigon, Ont.)

MeBennett, H.C..- ~

Bennett, Miss K. E.

- Bennett, L. H., (Regina, Sask.)

Bentley, Miss W. K.
Billings, C. M.

- Binnie, BSE. 8 SsA-
' Blackader, Dr. E. H.
Blackadar, Lloyd.

Blackhall, John, (Toronto).

Eeiilain’ Pro}. <.,
~ Que.)

Bond, W.
Borden, Hon. Sir F. W., M.D.

* Bradshaw, G. H. (Morden, Man.)
Brainerd, Dwight, (Montreal).
Brewster, W., (Cambridge, Mass.)

_ Brittain, John, (Macdonald College,

Que.)

Seprock, R. W., 14.A.

_ Brown, Lewis B., (Toronto).

- Brown, Mrs. R. D.

Brown, W. J., (Westmount, Que.)

Brown, T. A.

‘Bryce, P. H., M.D.

M.Sc., Ph.D.

HES.

Aa

, (Toronto).

ae

tes Mowaay Pl rie.

(Macdonald College,

a

3 are FIELD-NATURALISTS’ CLUB
oe 1910-1911 |

Burgess, T. J. W., M.D., F.R.S.C.,
(Montreal).

Burt, Miss F. M.

Calder, Alex, (Winnipeg).

Cameron, E. R., M.A.

ean Roy.

Carr, F. S., (Edmonton, te)

Carter, r J.

Carson, W. H.

Campbell, A.-D., B.S:A.
burg, Ont.)

Campbell, D. A., B.A.

Campbell, A. M.

Campbell, R. H.

Carman, Mrs. F. W.

Glark-Gs Ee bs Ate

Clarke, IT. E., B.A., B. -Paed.

Cleave, A. H. W., M.I.M.E.,
F.R.M.S.

Cobbold, Paul A.,
Ont.)

Cole, John E., (Westboro’, Ont.)

Collins, J. Franklin, (Prov idence,
1 Sl Ke

Collins, W. H.

Connor, M. F., B.Sc.

CotescieCs

Cox, Mrs.. J.-C.

Crabtree, C. A.

Craig, Prof. John, (Ithaca, N.Y.)

Cram, A. S.

Criddle, N., (Treesbank, Man.)

Currie, P. W.

Curry, Miss E. E.

Dawson, S. E., C.M.G., Lit.D.,
FRSC.

Deam, C. C. (Bluffton, Ind.)

Dempsey, : H. C., (Hamilton).

, (Morris-

(Haileybury,

Dent, W. _ (Sarnia, Ont.)

Dewar, ee ‘Ethel.

Dixon, F. A.

Dod, F. H. Wolley-, (Millarville,
Alta.)

Dowling, D. B., B.A.Sce.

Duo. CyB: S.A., (Norwood, Ont.)

Dunne, J. P.

Dwight, Jonathan, Jr., W.D.,
York).

(New

4 List oF MEMBERS”

Eddy, E. D., B.S.A.

Eifrig, Rev. Prof. G., (Addison, Il.) —

Elis. W.,.Li).; F.G.S.A.,
F.R.S.C.

Evans, John. D., C.E., (Trenton,
Ont

Bing W.C., M.A.

Ewart, D.

Farley, Miss J. E.

Farley, F. L., teas Alta.)

Farr, Miss E. M., (Philadelphia).

Pras, ft .3 2 ng

Fisher, Hon. Sydney A., B.A.

FitzHenry, W. " (Myrtle, Man.)

Fitzpatrick, Hon. Chas.

Fleck, A. W.

Fleming, J. H.,

Fleming, R. F.

Fleming, Sir Sandford, K.C.M.G.,
CHE PCL, FR S.C.

Fortier, Miss F. M.

Fraser, Geo., (Ucluelet, B.C.)

(Toronto).

Gallup, A. H.

Gibson, Arthur.

Gibson, J. W., B.A.

Gilbertson, Miss B.

Glashan- J.C: LE.D:F-R-Y.C,

Gormen, M. J., LL.B.

Graham, W.

Grant, Sir J. A., K.C.M.G., M.D
ORIG 5S eULDEN DS, is Rwiale SAL Cy

Grenfell, Miss C. P., B.A

Grisdale, J. H., B. Agr.

Grist, Miss Mary L.

Groh, H., B.S.A.

Gussow, H. T., F.R.M.S.

>)

Haldane, Miss Maude.

Halkett, Andrew.

Hamilton, Mrs. F. L. H.

Hann, H. A., (Summit, N.J.)
Harcourt, Geo., (Edmonton, Alta.)
Hargrave, Miss I., (Toronto).
Harmer, Miss G., (Entwistle, Alta.)
Harrington, W. Hague.

Harrison, Le ut.-Col. Edward.

Ha-ti Fk. B.S A

Harterre, y S.

Harvey, R. V., (Victoria, B.C.)
Hay, George, Sr.
Hay, G. U., DiSc.,. MAY PAE

#.R.S.C.. (St: John, NB)
Hayes, J. A., (Sheffington, Que.)
Hennessey, F. C.

Herriot, W., (Galt, Ont.)

"Hodge, C. F., Ph.D., (Wercester, ~igete

Hewit, H. 0. 22 2 €.
Hewitt, C. Gordon, D. Se., FES,

Mass.) E Paes
Holmes, Miss A. S. 507 NA ay
Hope, James. -
Houghton, J. A. , (Bennington, A 8 oe
Hunt, Miss L. E. te

Irwin, Lieut.-Col. D. T. cae
Irvin, Ward M. 2

Jackson, Miss Queenie.

Jac bs, Miss C. M., (Hamilton,
Ohio).

Jacombe, F. W. H., M.A., M.-F.

Johnson, Miss A. E. -

Jamieson, Thos., B.A.

James, C. C., M.A., (Toronto)

James, H. C.

Jenkins, S. ee B.A;

Jennings, O. ee Pa.) ©

Johnston, W. ae B.Sct

Johnstone, Miss A. vai a

Johnson, Miss A. E. ,

Jones, Harold, (Maitland, Ont.)

Jones, J. W., B. A., (Macdonald
College, Que.)

Kearns [2G

Keefer, Thos. -C:/ CMG 36.
ARS NG.

Keele; J.-B Asse

Kingston, A. G.

Klotz, Dr. Otto. 5

Klotz, Julius, M.D., (Lanark, Ont.) —

Klug , A. B., (Kingston).

Knechtel, A.

Labarthe, J. (Trail) BiG)
] 2;2unesse, Rev. ie ‘A. /
Lambart, Hon. OH
Lambart, The Hon. Mrs.
Lambe, L: M.; GS 762s
UF Raton
Latchford, Hon. F. R., B.A.
Leclaire, J. M.
Lee, Miss K. G.,
Lees, Miss V. |
Lemieux, E. E.
Le Sueur, E. A.
Le Sueur, Miss Helen.
Letourneau, Jos. A.
Lewis, JoB3,.C&
Leyden, Miss M.
Lochhead, W., B.A., M.Se., (Mac-
donald College, Que. ) ;
Lyman, H. H., M.A. , (eats

(Clinton, N.Y.) .

a ‘MeLeod, "Miss M. F.
©» McMillan; H. R., B.S.A.
McMillan, G. A., M.A.
% McMillan, Thos., (Seaforth).
McNeill, Alex.
= <McNeill, Miss F. J., (Toronto).
McOQuat, Miss E. -
g. ~MacCraken, John I., B.A.
MacKay, A. Hs: 7L-D:: BSG
PRS .C., (Halifax).
‘MacLaughlin, 4 EN ©
_ Maenamara, C., (Aruprior).
- Macoun, Prof. John, MOA FL S.3
BR. 2FRSC.
<i Macoun, J. M:
e Macoun, W. T.
A “Malcolm, John, eee: Ont.)
= Mallock, G. S., B.A.
> “Matthews, Miss Annie L.
je Mason, A. E. Se ae IBA Ca
Megill, W. H. 4 bake
- Metcalfe, W.

&
+
_

Michaud, Geo.
_ Miller, Prof. W. G. (Toronto).
— Milne, Wm.
Y Moore, W. H., (Scotch Lake, N.B.)
» Morris, F. J. A., B.A., (Port Hope,
: B+ (Fat)
_ Morris, 15 lag 9G
~ Moule, Miss F., B.A.
- Munro, GATS (Toronto).
Murphy, John.
Murray, James, B.S
Man.)

., (Brandon,

_ Nash, C. W., (Toronto).
Se Welles, D. H., D.L.S:
' Newcombe, C. F., M.D., (Victoria,
Bee B.C.)_
_ Newman, ates SA.
Nieuwland, Rev. Prof. J. A., (Notre
Dame, Ind.)

- O’Brien, S. E.

~ Oakley, Mrs.
Odell. W..S.

~ Orde, J. F.

~ O’Sullivan, Owen.

: eeey, Bt SBA:

Pitts/ HoH.

Poole, PAG:

Power, Hprbeist le 4 (Teroate).
Prince, Prof. EES BoA Seo
Putman, JH B.A. B.Paed. |

Raine, Walter, (Toronto).
Raynor, T. G., B.S.A
Richard, Rev. A. E.

Ritchie, Miss Isabella.
Robertson, C. N.

Robertson, Prof. J. W., LL.D.
Robinson, Miss M.

Robinson, Hiram.

Rush, M. L., B.A.

Saunders, Wm., C.M.G., LL.D..,
TAGS FIGS. dees Ge

Saunders, W. E., (London, Ont.)

Scott, Geo. Inglis.

Scott, Mrs. G. I.

Scott, Harry S.

Scott, Miss wae McKay.

Scott, W. , (Toronto).

Scotts Rev. € 7 , (Brantford, Ont.)

Seton, E. Thompson, (Coscob,
Conn. )

Shannon, Frank.

Shearman, F. J. W.

Shortt, Miss Muriel.

Shite 5 MeAS vRNA fS.2
BS SIC:

Simpson, Willibert.

Sinclair, S$. B., B.A., Ph.D., (Mac-
donald College, Que.)

Skales, Howard, (Mt. Forest, Ont.)

Small, H. Beaumont, M.D.

Smythe, J. E.

Snider, W. W.

Soper, John.

Sowter, T. W. E.

Spence, J.C), BA;

Spreckley, R. O.

St. Jacques, H.

Summerby, Wm. J., M.A... ‘Rus-
sell, Ont.)

Sutton, Mirs.-baLs

Swaine, J. M., (Macdonaid College,

Que.)
Sweaton, W., B.A.
Symes, P. B: .

Taylor, F. B., (Fort Wayne, Ind.)
Terrill, L. M., (Montreal).
Thompson, R.

Thompson, Rev. B. W., B.A.
Thorne, James, B.A.

6

Topley, Mrs. W. J.

atts iis >

Eyre Jr Be BAP BS EGOS
F.G.S.A. (T oronto).

Venables, E. P., (Vernon, B.C.)
Waddell, Miss K. F.

Walker, B. E., F.G.S., (Toronto.)
Walker, E. M., TSA? 'M.B.,

(T oronto).
Walker, ee (Detroit).
Wallace, J. S., (Toronto).

Wallis, q ian (Winnipeg, Man.)

Warwick, F. W., B.Sc., (Bucking-

_ ham, Que.)

Watson, A. D.

Weston, T. C.,-/.G.S.A.,
(Minneapolis, Minn.)

Whelen, Peter.

Whelen, Miss A.

White, Mrs. Annie G. H., (Toronto).

White, E. G.

CORRESPONDING MEMBERS.

M.A. D.C_L F.RS.C,, Guelph, Oaa
GREENE, Dr. E. | oi United States National Museum, Mie oi DC.
M. A., C.E., New Westminster, B. e

Hou, THEODOR, Ph.D., Brookland, Washington, BC;

MERRIAM, DRraCy arr Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
Rutger’s College, New Brunswick, N.J.
M.A. FiRo Gs b eres | Departure ave
WickHaM, Pror. H. F., Iowa City, Iowa, US.

BETHUNE, REv.C. J. S.,

Hitz, ALBERT FA

SMITH, PRor. JOHN B., D.Sc.,
TAYLOR, Rey. G. W.,

List OF Mewpers x

White, Gcaces ‘ge ae
White, James (Snelgrove,
White, J. F., M.A., 5 ee
White, Lieut.-Col. W. .. C.M.G.
Whyte, Miss Ida V.
Whyte, Miss Isabella.
Whyte, R. B.
Wight, E. C.
Williams, Miss M. B., B.A. =
Williams, J. B., (Toronto).
Willing, e N., (Regina, Sask.)
Wilson, Miss A. ES

Wilson, Morley E.
Wilson, Miss L., Peas |
Wilson, W. J.,

Wilson, E., B. C.)
Winchester, H.-S:

Young, C. H.
Young, Wm., B.Sc.

Tie: nat

he a

=
aan

THE OTTAWA NATURALIST

VOL. XXIV. OTTAWA, APRIL, 1910 No. 1

OUR MEMBERSHIP.

4

- Another milestorie has been passed in the history of the
Ottawa Field-Naturalists’ Club. Since the Club was organized
in 1879, the membership has grown from 94 to 320. The Club

is unique in many ways. The work it accomplishes through its

excursions in the field, lectures and branch meetings during the
winter, and the publishing regularly of Toe Orrawa NATURALIST
each month, is truly remarkable, and indicates the varied

_ interests and wide scope of its activities. This work has proved

and is proving itself most helpful and inspiring to its members.
There is probably no other natural history society in
America which does more work than the Ottawa Field-Natur-
alists’ Club. There is, however, still much to do. Instead of
having a membership of 320, we should at least have double this
number interested in our work in the city of Ottawa alone. The
new Council of the Club-is a particularly strong one and every
member will do his or her utmost to make the year a success.

The members themselves, it is hoped, will assist the Council in

making known more widely the workings and nature of the
Club.

- A larger membership means better returns in every: way.
Particularly would it mean a better Orrawa Naturauist. In
these days of high living, the cost of printing has gone up in

company with almost everything else, and it is really beginning

to be quite a serious matter to keep up the size of the Natur-
ALIST with the present revenue. . If additional funds were avail-
able more illustrations could be used and of course many more
articles.

~ It is to be hopedthat the year of 1910-1911 will be a record
one. The work of the society should appeal to almost everyone,
and if our present members would only induce their friends to
join, the Council would be much encouraged and the Club very
much strengthened.

8 THe Ottawa NATURALIST.

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL OF THE OTTAWA . FIELD. a
NATURALISTS’ CLUB FOR THE YEAR ENDING see
MARCH 15Te, 1910. a

In accordance with proposed amendments to the Constitu-

tion of the Club, the following report is largely a compilation
of reports submitted by the various branches of the Club and
the Standing Committees of Council.

MEMBERSHIP.

During the year 28 new members have been elected, making
the present membership 320, composed of 312 ordinary members
and 8 corresponding members.

PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE.

In accordance with the recommendation of the Council,
action has been taken by the Publications Committee toward
devising some practicable scheme whereby the publications
received by the Club might be of greater service not only to our
members, but to the public as a whole. As a result, arrange-
ments have been made with the Librarian of the Carnegie
Library whereby practically all regular periodicals received in
exchange are now placed on file in the reading room of the
Library and subsequently laid away to be used as directed by ~
the Club. :

The following is a list of the publications which are now
being received by the Carnegie Library on behalf of the Club:—

The Nature Study Review,

The Auk,

The Canadian Entomologist,

Journal of the New York Entomological Society.
The Journal of Geography,

Le Naturaliste Canadien,

Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society,
Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh,
Publications of the Field Museum of Natural History,
The Ohio Naturalist,

Torreya,

—_—_ —
= OO COATO tn mW DOR

12. The Wilson Bulletin of Ornithology,

13. The University of California Chronicle,

14. Queen’s Quarterly,

15. Bulletin of the New York Botanical Garden,

16. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History,

.:
a
.

“rap

x
ed
“y
a
a

ater

“a a

_ Tue Ottawa NaTurRAList. — 9.

17. Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History,
18. Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences,

19. Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science,

20. Missouri Botanical Garden Annual Reports,

21. Proceedings of the Hamilton Scientific Association.

In addition to this list of periodicals, a considerable number

3 of miscellaneous publications are received during the year.

Some of these are of much interest and value, but, as a rule,
- they constitute reports of proceedings of meetings, catalogues
of birds and mammals, annual reports of societies, etc., and are
available elsewhere. There is on hand at present an accumula-
tion of a number of years representing some six or seven hundred

pamphlets, etc. These are practically all in the basement of the

Normal School and have been carefully examined and sorted.
The Committee suggest that these publications be made available
_ for free distribution to members of the Club on a certain date
- and that due notice of this offer be made in the Orrawa
NaTuRAListT. It is suggested further that after two weeks have
expired from the date on which this offer opens that the remain-

-ing publications be placed in a convenient place in the Normal
School and made available to the students and to the general

_ public.

The Librarian of the Club reports that approximately one

_ dozen complete sets of the NaTuRALIst are now on hand, none

c

vd

."

pans

having been sold during the year. Several single copies of back
issues and of the Fletcher Memorial number have been disposed
of.

Owing to the renovation of the Carnegie Library, the Club’s
books are now in the basement but will be placed in a special
section of the stack room in a short time. The Committee
recommend to the new Publications Committee that all publica-
tions of the Club be properly stamped, and that a select list of
the bound copies be placed on file in the reference library of the
reading room, providing this meet the approval of the Librarian.

THE OTTAWA NATURALIST.

Volume XXIII of Tue Orrawa Narturatitst, the official
organ of the Club, has been published monthly under the editor-
ship of Mr. Arthur Gibson. It contains 230 pages and three full-
_ page plates.

The following are among the papers that appear in this
volume :—

On Geology—
1. ‘‘A Canadian Stepheoceras,”’ J. F. Whiteaves.

10 THE Orrawa. Weaken

2. ‘The Ornamentation of Parisiypiocians priscus, (3 Wp z
A. Parks.

On Botany—

1. ‘Canadian Species of Thalictrum,’’ Edward L. Greene.

2. “Certain Biological Principles and their Practical Ap-
plication in the Improvement of the Field Crops of Canada,”
L. H. Newman.

3. “New Contributions to Canadian Bryology,”’ N. C.
Kindberg.

4. “Contributions from the Herbarium of the Geological
Survey,’’ James M. Macoun.

5. “German Field Methods of Botanical Excursions,”’
John Craig.

6. ‘Some of the Best Native Plants for Cultivation,’ W.
T. Macoun.

On Ornithology—

1. ‘‘Winter Birds at Point Pelee,’’ W. E. Saunders.
2. ‘Bird Notes from Northern Ontario,” Rev. C. G. Eifrig.
3. “Birds of Stony Plain, Alberta,” S. S. Stansell.
4. ‘Everyday Ornithology,’’ Norman Criddle.
“The Passenger Pigeon,’’ W. Lochhead.

5

On Entomology—
1
2

“Discourses upon the Lepidoptera,” F. H. Wolley-Dod.
“Snow Worms,” Arthur Gibson. .
3. “Tent Building Habits of Ants,” C. Gordon Hewitt.

On Zoology—

1. ‘“‘The Prong-horn Antelope,” E. E. Prince.
2. ‘A Rare Weasel at Ottawa,’ W. E. Saunders.
3. “A Shrew new to New Brunswick,’ W. H. Moore.

On Arche ology—

1. ‘“Algonkin and Huron Occupation of the Ottawa
Valley,’ T. W. E. Sowter.

Excursions COMMITTEE.

The programme of spring excursions was as follows :—
April 24th—Experimental Farm.

May 1st—Beechwood.

May 8th—Blueberry Point.

May 15th—Britannia.

May 22nd—Beaver Meadow, Hull,

1910 THE Ottawa NATURALIST. 11
ear # as
a te May 29th—Carp (General Excursion).
‘June 5th—Chelsea (General Excursion).
eer June 12th—Beaver Meadow.
June 19th—Stittsville (General Excursion).

Some of these excursions were cancelled because of un-
favorable weather; reports of those which were held appeared in
the June and the July numbers of THE Otrawa NATURALIST,
_most of the reports having been prepared by Rev. C. G. Eifrig,
Chairman of the Committee.

The programme for the fall months was:—

September 18th—Mckay’s Lake and outlet.
September 25th—Experimental Farm.
October 2nd—Blueberry Point.

The planning of an excursion programme is becoming more
and more difficult from vear to year. The rapid extension of
the city and the development of suburban resorts are greatly
restricting such valuable collecting grounds as Rockcliffe, Dow’s
Swamp, Blueberry Point and Britannia.

The Council, desiring to extend the sphere of the Cluh’s
work, proposed to establish branches in some of the centres near
Ottawa, such as Carp and Stittsville. It was thought that
valuable field work could be done by members of such branches,
the results of which would appear in THE OTTAWA NATURALIST.
It was thought also that leaders from the parent Club might
occasionally direct local excursions, and that a joint field day
could be arranged for at least once a year. An attempt was
made to establish such a branch at Carp. Two members of the
Council, Mr. J. W. Gibson and the Secretary addressed a public
meeting at Carp on May 28th, outlining the proposed plan. A
local committee was then elected for the purpose of organizing
a branch. On the following day the Club held an excursion to
Carp, and gave a demonstration of its methods of field work.
Although there was a large local attendance and much interest
was manifested, no organization has fcllowed this experiment.
Under the circumstances the Council deemed it unwise to
attempt similar work in other localities.

SOIREES COMMITTEE.

A comparison of the programmes for the season 1908-9 and
1909-10 shows the varied character of the addresses, lectures,
and exhibition of specimens given under the auspices of the
Club. The Club has now contributed three lectures to the joint
course which has proved to be a success. During the season
which expires to-night, six of the meetings were held in the

12 Tue Ottawa NATURALIST. |

Assembly Hall of the Norman School and three, including tos
or the annual meeting, in the hall of the Carnegie Library.
The first lecture for 1909-10 entitled ‘Home Birds and Wan-
derers,’’ was given by Mr.W. E. Saunders, of London, Ont., and
was illustrated with prepared birds’ skins. The opening meeting,
which followed this lecture a few evenings later, took the nature
of a conversazione at which short addresses were delivered by
a few members of the Club, besides which there was an exhibi-

tion of zoological, and botanical specimens, including some

minute forms shown under the lens of the microscope, and an

account of this meeting has already appeared in a recent issue —

of THe Orrawa NATuRALIST. We were next favoured with an
address by our President entitled ‘‘Instinct and Education,” in
which was presented a great deal to stimulate our thinking
faculties; and following this was an admirable lecture given by
Mr. A. H. W. Cleave, F.R.M.S., entitled ‘Life,’ which was
illustrated with a series of beautiful lantern slides. A very
instructive lecture entitled ‘‘The Flora and Fauna of the West
Coast of Vancouver Island,’ was delivered by Professor John
Macoun and was illustrated with a great variety of interesting
specimens. For the first time under the auspices of the Club,

Dr. C. Gordon Hewitt and Mr. H. T. Gussow. F.R.M.S., each ©

contributed a lecture: the former on ‘‘House Flies and their

Relation to Public Health,’ and the latter on ‘‘A Plant Doctor

and His Work.” A series of slides at each of these lectures was
shown upon the screen. The Club’s lecture for the joint course
entitled ‘‘Bacteria in Relation to Plant Life’? was given by
Professor F. C. Harrison, of the Macdonald College, and this
lecture also was fully illustrated with slides. Altogether the
Club is to be congratulated in that such an able body of
specialists was secured, and we owe to them a debt of gratitude

for the selection of their subjects, all of which proved to be —

most interesting and instructive.

THE FLETCHER MEMORIAL COMMITTEE.

This Committee has met many times during the Club year 4

which closes to-night.

As has already been mentioned in the pages of THE OTTAWA
NATURALIST, there has been a very warm response to the appeal
of the Committee for subscriptions, from members of the Club
and friends of the late Dr. Fletcher. On the evening of November
9th last, the Committee reported that by far the larger number
of subscribers had favoured the suggestion that the memorial
take the form of a drinking fountain to be erected at the Central
Experimental Farm. It was then therefore moved by Mr. F. T.

a

- Tue Orrawa NarturRAL.ist.

<<
_-earried, ‘That the tribute about to be made to the memory of
_ the late Dr. Fletcher, take the form of a drinking fountain, con-
sisting of a granite shaft, with bronze medallion, inscription, etc.,
to be erected at the Experimental Farm, Ottawa, and that the
Committee is hereby empowered to make all necessary arrange-
ments for carrying out the work.”

: At a meeting of the Committee held on February 7th, it
~ was decided to place this work in the hands of Dr. R.Tait McKenzie,
of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Dr. McKenzie
has an enviable reputation, more particularly in mural bronzes
and plaques, in the salons of Paris and London, and his work

_was highly commended to the Committee. On the 10th instant
Dr. McKenzie came to Ottawa to meet the Committee, bringing
with him plans and specifications of the proposed memorial, as
well as a smal! model in plaster. The Committee considered
these very carefully and suggested some changes, which, if made,
it was thought would improve the appearan<e of the memorial.
Further plans, drawings and photographs of the work will be
submitted to the Committee from time to time as they are ready.
It is hoped that the memorial will be finally completed and ready
for unveiling towards the latter end of May, or early in June.

The following is a statement of the amounts subscribed to
‘the Fletcher Memorial Fund :—

ceaiermonni subscribed...) 6.24455 flew sis. va ce $1,807.85
SS Beemee Seth Tih Gc. gtk). Dts, sick g terse 1,681.85
The $1,807.85 subscribed is divided as follows -——
Subscribed by members of O.F.N.C., in Ottawa.............. $ 661.50
Subscribed by members of O.F.N.C., outside of Ottawa in
ERA DRA IGA esse. to, Sr, Cas aS cation aya eiM ca R Se ER Eee 307.50
Subscribed by members of O.F.N.C., in United States, etc..... 38.00
Total amount subscribed by members of O.F.N.C........ $1,007.00
Subscribed by friends, not members of Club, in Ottawa...... 213.255
Subscribed by friends, not members of Club, in Canada outside
PRR EAE EN Oo ae Ro, crt Mr At nhc ee aye ge 397.50
Subscribed by friends, not members, in United States, etc.... 190.00

$1,807.85
REPORTS OF BRANCHES.

THe GEOLOGICAL BRANCH.

The Geological Branch have not much to report except the
ordinary work done at the excursions. Members of this branch
attended the excursions and pointed out the interesting features
to be seen in the localities visited. At Britannia a good illustra-

14 Tue Orrawa NATURALIST. s [Ar i

: : &-
tion of conglomerate rock in the process of formation was noted
in the gravel pits near the railway. Several fossils were collected
at the quarries on the west side of Beaver Meadow near the
contact of the Black River and Trenton limestones. The fossils
showed that the quarries are situated in the Trenton. During
the visit to Carp interesting specimens of curved apatite crystals
were collected. These crystals were curved by a constant steady
pressure, so that some of them are not even cracked. Others are
broken on the convex side. ;

Marine shells were collected at nearly all the places visited;
they were particularly abundant in the clays and gravels at Carp.

We feel that a special effort should be made to interest our
young members in the study of geology, as no more healthy or
useful work could be enjoyed by them.

THe BoTANICAL BRANCH.

While there were few botanical workers in the field during
the past summer, the Botanical Branch continues to be one of
the most active in the Club.

Apart from the help rendered at the excursions by the
botanical leaders, most of the field work was done by two or
three individuals. Mr. W. H. Harrington has added the names
of two new species to the Ottawa flora, namely, Potentilla
tridentata, found at King’s Mountain, Que., and Mzmulus
moschatus, obtained at Kingsmere, Que. Mr. H. U. Morris
found the weed Eruca sativa at the Experimental Farm; this is
« new record for the Ottawa district. Mr. H. Groh made a study
of the local hawthorns (Crategus) during the past year. He
examined fifty trees in different localities and collected flower-
ing specimens from each, and later in the season obtained the
fruit. He found marked differences in the number of stamens
and styles, the color of the anthers, and the number of flowers
to a corymb on different trees. The specimens were sent to a
specialist for identification, a the names of the species will be
reported later.

Nine winter meetings of the Botanical Branch were held at
the homes of the members, much interesting material having
been presented. Six of these meetings have already been re-
ported in THe Ortawa NatTurAList, and others, no doubt, will
be. The following is the list of subjects presented at these
meetings :—

1. ‘The Stems of Seed Plants,’ by Mr. D. A. Campbell.

2. “The Adaptation of Plants to their Environment as
Shown by their Internal Structure,’ by Mr. J. W. Gibson.

Tue Ottawa NATURALIST. - 15

- 4. “Some of the best Native Plants for Cultivation,” by
Mr. W. T. Macoun.

2 ——~—s«.:s«S “The Formation of Peat Bogs,” by Mr. J. M. Macoun.
3 a 6. “The Trees of the Ottawa Valley,’ by Prof. John
= Macoun.

5 at. “The Value of Seeds as a Means of Identifying Plants,”’
> by Mr. G. Michaud.

a 8. “The Correlation of Characters in Plants, and its
4 Economic Importance to Plant Breeders,’ by Mr. L. H.
_ Newman.

9. “Some Herbaceous Perennials at the Experimental
= Farm,” by Mr. W. T. Macoun.

THE ENTOMOLOGICAL BRANCH.

The Entomological Branch has had a fairly active year.

_ Unfortunately, as yet, only one evening meeting has been held

during the winter, but it is hoped to hold others before the

spring work begins. During the summer of 1909, the local

members of the Branch did considerable collecting, many interest-

ing species being met with, some of which are new records for

the district. Many insects too were collected in other districts

- far distant from Ottawa, by some of the local members. Mr.

C. H. Young, while assisting Prof. Macoun, at Departure Bay

and Ucluelet, B.C.,foundtimeto collect many species of interest.

Mr. Andrew Halkett made a small collection in Nova Scotia.

Mr. D. H. Nelles collected in the vicinity of Stewart River,

Yukon Territory, and Mr. Arthur Gibson brought back many
specimens from Prince Edward Island.

THE ZOOLOGICAL BRANCH.

The most interesting event of the year was the meeting at
Winnipeg, Man., of the British Association for the Advance-
ment of Science. Some members of the Branch attended the
meeting and exchanged notes with eminent visiting zoologists.
A section of the Association, conducted by Prof. Prince, visited
the Biological Station at Departure Bay, the curator of this
station being the Rev. Geo. W. Taylor, a member of this Club.

_ Mr. A. Halkett, after spending the summer months in Nova
Scotia- investigating the life-history of the lobster, Homarus
americanus, visited New Westminster, B.C., where he had charge
of an exhibit showing the hatching of ‘the eggs of Pacific

_. Salmonoids.

. Prof. John Macoun, assisted by Mr. C. H. Young, made

a i “Reports of Field Work,” presented at the home of Mr.

So ONE

‘gad

16 Tue OTTAWA NATURALIST.

extensive collections of fishes and invertebrates on the coast of
Vancouver Island. Bat

Mr. E. E. Lemieux reports the success of an experiment to __
introduce earthworms near the Upper Lievre lakes, where
formerly anglers were unable to obtain bait. He also. reports —
the abundance of the porcupine in the same district. ‘4;

Mr. E. Le Sueur now has what is perhaps the finest private
collection of turtles on the continent, including as it does, many
Canadian species and a number of exotic forms. i

Mr. W. E. Saunders contributes an interesting record in the ~
capture of a diminutive specimen of Bonaparte stoat (Putorius
cigonant) near Ottawa.

CONSTITUTION OF CLUB.

Early in the year the Council appointed a committee com-
posed of the President and Messrs. Kingston, Newman, and
Shutt, to prepare a revised constitution. The committee has
prepared a carefully detailed constitution, which has been dis-
cussed at great length in the Council, and which will be sub-
mitted to the Club.

The President, Mr. A. E. Attwood, M.A., represented the
Club at the May meeting of the Royal Society of Canada.

The Treasurer’s report shows a balance on hand of $31.85,
the smallness of the balance being due to the slow payment of
membership fees.

The thanks of the Club are due to Principal White for the
use of the Normal School Assembly Hall, to the Library Board
of the City Council, and to the Librarian, Mr. Burpee, for the
use of the Lecture Hall of the Carnegie Library, to the Ottawa
Electric Company for assisting in making the microscope demon-
strations a success, and to the Press of the city for its co-opera-
tion in furthering the work of the Club.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

T. Eo CragER.
Secretary.

SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR THE NEW CLUB YEAR ARE NOW DUE, AND SHOULD BE
PAID TO Mr. HERBERT GROH, EX PERIMENTAL Farm, OTTAWA.

It is to be hoped that members will carefully examine the advertise- _
ments in this volume of THE Ottawa NATURALIST, and make a point of
dealing with those firms who thus help the Club.

I a es OM ae ei Oe ie

Me ee : Pe t=
Geemeremient Grant 00.02 so ee. ee | eee ae:
eee > | Rae eats: a ee
Sa $753.55 e ig
EXPENDITURE. , Seat ope
ths : Tee,
, “Printing. Orrawa Naturatist, Vol. XXIII, 12 Nos., : pepe a =
Speen? ANCLUICING COVET. oc. et. Se ee $460.13 re Sa
se a a a Se are eR nc 15.60 Sees
EES Sno a Sa ile! te epee Winey toe ge 48.60 Z age
Miscellaneous printing: circulars, mailing envelopes, oe *
PROAIRGARGS POUC. if ot B50 os Fate oN ee 40.68 : Me ;
a 565.01 ig
- Postage on RN NATURALIST 2.0. 5/2 N28 eae ere 36.51 Se Pn
_ Editor |, SORE Sen A a ae coreg tt eres 50.00 Bees
- 651.52 ¥
ees 2 per cent. for cash on scme accounts of printer. . 1.89 hn a
649 63 a a
| Sa Peiaaceetat 3228 OTs wd Ree ae A200 a
- Soiree Expenses. «GE RG SRE ee ae Si. S2
Loss on General Excursion to Carp in May........... 16.60 7 aie
Sundry expenses, postage, etc..........5.-...-2000s 13:05.-> ae a
MEM IRE ES 2 rs Soh ate Si etal n > civ, # 50S 6 « Hv ieoe meet See 31.85 >
$753.55
ARTHUR GIBSON, Treasurer,
Examined and found correct
R. B. WHYTE, -
J. BALLANTYNE, | Auiitors.
|

18 Tue Orrawa NATURALIST. Bo ce [April

STOMACH CONTENTS OF SOME CANADIAN BIRDS.

By C. W. G. Eirric, Appison, ILL.

The appended list gives the stomach contents of a small

number of birds, the stomachs of which I have examined. In

most of the stomachs of small birds, like finches, vireos, and
warblers, the investigator who has not unlimited time at his
disposal can usually only tell whether the contents is of vegetable
or animal origin; in the latter case it takes expert knowledge
of the microscopic parts of small insects to unable one to tell
what insects have been eaten. The following birds have been
selected either for their rarity or because they are well known.
The majority have been taken near Ottawa, the others at least
in Canada. Several in the list have been bought in the market.
The contents of the stomachs of the birds near the end of the

list, of which the percentage of the different parts is stated, have —

been kindly determined for the writer by the Bureau of Biological
Survey, Washington, D.C., under the direction of Dr. A. K.
Fisher, to whom the writer ‘would extend his sincere thanks.

Ho.sa@u’s GReEBE, Colymbus holbelli; October 17, 1905, a
large bunch of its own feathers.

HorneEpD GREBE, C. auritus; October 10, 1905, a bunch of

its own feathers.
Loon, Gavia imber; May, 20, 1907, bones of fish, including

at least one of the Catostomide (the Suckers). Some of the ~

gravel stones, also found, are at least half an inch long.

BitteRN, Botaurus lentiginosus; 1. May 12, 1904, several
large beetles and other insects; 2. ?, 1905, 1 frog, 2 mice, 8
leeches; 3. October 30, 1906, 2 frogs, 2 small sunfish.

-Biue Heron, Ardea herodias; July 25, 1905, 1 fish, six —

inches long.

Spruce Grouse, Canachites canadensis; October 31, 1904,
pair, male and female, both full of spruce tips.

RurFrLep Grouse, Bonasa umbellus togata; 1. September
30, 1904, clover leaves; 2. October 22, 1904, leaves, gravel and
sand; 3. October 15, 1904, hawthorn (Crategus) leaves; 4.
April 25, 1905, leaves of Goldthread (Captts trifolta), and sharp-
edged pebbles of quartz; 5. October 10, 1905, leaves of Aromatic
Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens) and clover; 6. October 19,
1905, clover leaves only.

WiLtow Prarmican, Lagopus lagopus; 1. January 1907,
(market), stomach filled with ends of willow twigs; 2. January,
1909, completely filled with oats.

Marsu Hawk, Circus hudsonius; September 17, 1907, 2
sparrows (Vesper, or Song?).

Tue OtTtawa NATURALIST. 19

ee § SHARP-SHINNED Hawk, Accipiter velox; January 16, 1904,
1 English sparrow.

_ ted squirrel; 2. November 1, 1906, 1 grouse.
_ Broap-wincep Hawk, Buieo latissimus; May 8, 1908,
_ several large beetles.
Sparrow Hawk, Falco sparverius; July 26, 1905, remains
of small bird.
. LONG-EARED OWL, Asio wilsonianus; October 28, 1904, 2
mice.
¥. SHORT-EARED Owl, A. accipitrinus; October 20, 1904, a
- chipmunk or similar smal! rodent.
Snowy OwL, Nycteanyctea; January 1, 1906, 1 whole mouse,
a large pellet of mouse hair, and 5 skulls and bones of mice or
similar small rodents.
Hawk OwL., Surma ulula caparoch; October 9, 1906, a
sparrow.
Arctic THREE-TOED WooDPECKER, Picoides arcticus; No-
vember 21, 1904, 8 large grubs.
PILEATED WoopPECKER, Ceophieus pileatus abteticola: No-
vember 1, 1906, two specimens, both stomachs filled to bursting
with large black ants.

EVENING GrosBEAK, Hesperiphona vespertina; 1. December
20, 1908, seeds of Vaccinium, 5 per cent., cotyledons of ash-and
some other seed that had been enclosed in a hard shell, 95 per
cent.; 2. February 13, 1909, seeds of sumach 8 per cent., seeds
or rather cotyledons of a species of ash 92 per cent.; 3 and 4

3 February 13, 1909, cotyledons of a species of ash.

PINE GrRosBEAK, Pinicola enucleator; 1. March 18, 1909,
seeds and fragments of Rubus, 8 per cent., pulp or seeds, probably
of conifers, but so thoroughly ground up as to be further un-
identifiable, 92 per cent; -2. February 27, 1909, seeds of Rubus,
75 per cent., strips of something like bark, probably the remains
of birds, 25 per cent.; 3. November 12, 1908, seeds of Rubus, 5
per cent., seeds of Vaccinium, 20 per cent., seeds all ground up
to a pulp but probably of conifers, 75 per cent.; 4. November
12, 1908, seeds of Rubus, 5 per cent., seeds of Vaccinium, 20 per
cent., remainder, like 3; 5. January 18, 1909, seeds of Fraxinus
americana more or less broken; 6. February 27, 1909, unde-
_ veloped flowers, ee of a poplar, 92 per cent., pulp of fruit,

probably of apple, 8 per cent.

Pine SISKIN, Spinus pinus; April 24, 1909, a few remains

E. of ground-up seeds.
SAVANNA SPARROW, Passerculus s. savanna; bits of a beetle,
probably a Tenebrionid, 12 per cent., skins of caterpillars, 13

\

__ -GosHAwKk, Accipiter atricapillus; 1. December 17, 1904, 1 ~ |

20 Tue Orrawa NATURALIST. ere 2 [April a

per cent., seeds and fragments of Echinochloa crusgalli, 75 per —
cent. i on
Fox Sparrow, Passerella iliaca; 1. April 22, 1908, seeds of
Phleum pratense, and 2 or 3 of asmall Rumex; 2. April 24, 1908,

a hash of beetles and true bugs in about equal proportions, 50

per cent., small larve, probably lepidopterous, but too badly
crushed for positive identification, 40 per cent., bits of seeds of _
Lithospermum, 10 per cent.; 3. April 24, 1908, remains of ©
beetles all broken up, in which can be distinguished a weevil

and an Aphodius, 66 per cent., trace of a bug, remains of spiders,

10 per cent.; 2 small millipeds, 6 per cent., one beetle larva,
probably an Elaterid,3 per cent., seeds and fragments of Litho-
spermum, Panicum, and Polygonum, 15 per cent.

CEDAR BIRD, Ampelis cedrorum; June 11, 1907, full of cherry
blossoms; 2. Full of Eulecanium fletcher, a parasite on the white ~
cedar (named after Dr. Fletcher).

BoHEMIAN WAXWING, A. garrulus; 1. March 1, 1909, pulp,
skin and one seed of apple; 2. Same date, pulp and skin of

apple.

NOTES.

THe Brack RaiLt In Ontario.—In a review of Macoun’s
““Catalogue of Canadian Birds’ by “‘W. E.S,”’ whois, I pre=
sume, W. E. Saunders, the statement is made with regard to the
Black Rail that ‘‘the three records given are none of them thor-
oughly reliable, one was a bird seen in flight; another refers

to the taking of a number of specimens in he Dundas Marsh,
’ which have since proved to be the Virginia Rail; and the third
depends u.von the ability of a gentleman the honesty of whose
intention- is not open to question, but who may have fallen into
the same error as did Mr. Nash regarding the Virginia Rail.”

As T am responsible for the record of the Black Rails taken
by me in the Dundas Marsh on the 18th of August, 1874, I should
be glad if W. E. S. will let us know when and by whom it was
proved that my specimens were Virginia Rails, and upon what
evidence he has based his statement.

C. W. NAsH.

A Few Winter Brirp Notes.—Mr. Eifrig’s note on the
abundance of Redpolls in the spring of 1909, which appeared
in the September number of THE Orrawa NATURALIST, reminde
me that these same birds were exceedingly numerous in this

~

THe Ottawa NATURALIST. 21

ge. Fe district at the same season; as stated, they were most common
at Ottawa in April, whereas in this district they were seen in

enormous flocks early in March. They frequented orchards and
meadows overgrown with weeds. I examined the crop of one
and found it to be filled largely with the seeds of Amaranthus sp.

Meadow-larks are not in this district strictly migatory; a
few mdividuals are to be seen during the winter frequenting
stock yards and other sheltered spots. In the winter of 1908-09,
during the colder periods, I found seven of these birds frozen to
death in a barley stack.

Another bird that was more than usually abundant was the
Bohemian Waxwing. These birds were to be seen if large flocks
during the winter. They move rapidly from spot to spot, pro-
ducing a loud whirring sound with their wings, each bird taking
flight at the same instant and alighting with the same wonderful
precision. They are attracted to the berries of the Mountain

_ Ash, descending in clouds upon the trees and removing every
berry. They then descend to the ground and pick up what has

been shaken down
E. P. VENagLEs; Vernon, B.C.

Birps or ALBERTA.—In the October number of THE OrTawa
NATURALIST, appears a list of birds of central Alberta, by Mr. S.
S. Stansell, and in the contemporary number of the Auk, there
is a similar list with more complete notes, by the same writer.
Neither of these two lists agree with my experience in those dis-
tricts, nor dothey agree with each other, and I would suggest a
revision of theremarks madein regard tothe following species —

American Golden-Eye, ‘Very rare.’’ In the Auk this is
stated to be quite common, which it doubtless isin the migrations
and probably breeds in some numbers.

Rusty Blackbird, ‘Most common Blackbird.”” In the Auk
it is stated that this species is outnumbered by Brewer’s Black-

ird and this is doubtless true, although both of them should be
fairly numerous.

White-winged Crossbill, “Common breeder.”’ In the Auk
this species is marked ‘ ‘Once seen.” Doubtless this bird is con-
siderably irregular in the West, as in the East, and it is altogether
probable that it may breed i in that territory.

Evening Grosbeak, ‘(Quite common breeder.” Stated in
the Auk to be quite rare. The latter remark is probably correct.
Gray-crowned Leucosticte, “Abundant winter visitor.’

Stated in the Auk to be quite rare. This is probably an irregular
species whose numbers will vary in different seasons.
Nelson’s Sparrow, ‘‘Once seen.’’ The note in the Auk reads,

tas’

22 : Tue Ottawa NATURALIST.

“pak
2 =

‘Fairly common,’ which it probably is in suitable locations. Bay 8 3

Whooping Crane. Stated in the Auk to be common, but

omitted from the list in THe Ottawa NaTurRAListT. This is

doubtless exceedingly rare as Mr. Preble in his ‘Birds of Atha-

basca-McKenzie District,’’ reports that “it has now hecome
almost extinct in the north.” ' A ae

Lincoln’s Sparrow. This bird is not mentioned in either
list. Mr. Preble calls it “The common song sparrow of the
region,” referring to a district not very far from Mr. Stansell’s
location, and it is certainly a common breeder in the Red Deer
district and becomes less so farther south, the inference from ~
which is, that it would be more common in the north.

It is unfortunate that so many errors should have crept into
such an interesting paper, and it is to be hoped that Mr. Stansell
will have an opportunity of revising this work in the near future.

W. E. Saunpers, LONDON, ONT.-

Tue PARASITIC JAEGER NEAR OTTawa. In the first part of
September of last year (1909), Mr. George Smith brought me a
bird with the remark that he had a ‘“‘web-footed hawk.” The
bird had been shot on September 4th on the Ottawa River, near
the mouth of the Lievre. Although the bird did not turn out to
be the astounding monstrosity the captor had pronounced it,
it is, however, a remarkable capture for the Ottawa district, it
being nothing less than a Parasitic Jaeger, Stercorartus parasiticus,
a new record for the vicinity. It is a bird of the year, that is,
in the brown plumage, in which the young gulls and their allies
are often so puzzling. I have identified it beyond doubt by com-
paring the skin with material in the Field Museum, Chicago,
kindly placed at my disposal by Mr. C. B. Cory and Mr. Wilfrid.
H. Osgood.

It may also be worth mentioning that we have both the
species and the subspecies of the Palm Warbler, Dendrotca
palmarum. On comparing the skins in my collection with those
of the Field Museum, I find that the species D. palmarum is
here at least as a migrant, one of my specimens being taken on
May 10th, and one probably belonging here taken on Sept. 20th.
The form breeding in the district, however, that is at the Mer
Bleue only, so far as I am aware, is undoubtedly the subspecies.
the Yellow Palm Warbler, Dendroica palmarum hypochrysea.

G. EIrric. |

Mera econ DE
-é Se ~ < as E -, 2 ede
Ss, Satine , HFS

ns ee

Tue Ottawa NATURALIST. , 23

~ SPRING EXCURSIONS.

oe At a meeting of the Excursions Committee held on the 5th
2

ta ‘inst., the following Spring sub-excursions were decided upon:—
: ‘April 16th—Rockcliffe.

5 April 23rd—Britannia.

April 30th—Billings’ Bridge.

May 7th—Blueberry Point, near Aylmer.

May 14th—Beaver Meadow, near Hull.

CORRESPONDENCE.

4
Epitor, Otrrawa NaATURALIST,—

Not having a photo I send a rough pencil sketch of a freak
of nature in the shape of two cedar trees (Thuja gigantea)
naturally grafted together on the property of my brother, Mr.
A. B. Anderson, South Saanich, B.C., the like of which I have
never previously experienced in all my travels through the
forests of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. The butts
of the original trees are about 15 feet apart and the point of
junction I judge to be about 18 feet from the ground; the size
ot the butts being respectively about 2 and 3 feet in diameter.
Apparently the larger tree had fallen over (probably in youth)
on to the smaller and presumably by continual friction had
effected. a junction; the larger tree then taking precedence and
forming the head, the top of the smaller being eventually forced
out of place.

This is not a case of a tree having grown on the trunk of a
fallen tree and the roots thus forming an arch after the dis-
appearance of the dead trunk, as is frequently the case, as can
easily be scen by the distance of the trunks from each other and
the height at which the junction is effected.

It would be interesting to learn whether any of your readers
know of a similar case.

J. R. Anderson, Victoria, B.C.

MEETING OF THE BOTANICAL BRANCH.

The ninth meeting of the Botanical Branch was held at the
home of Mr. W. T. Macoun, Experimental Farm, on March Sth,
1910. There were present, in addition to the Chairman, Messrs.
G. H. Clark, R. B. Whyte, L. H. Newman, H. Groh, A. E.
Attwood, W. H. Harrington, Dr. Blackader, and Be Gots yt

rN Macoun. The subject chosen for the evening was “Hardy
Herbaceous Plants,”’ with especial reference to the habitats of the

ae | deli

24 THe Otrrawa NATURALIST.
herbaceous perennials tested at the Central Experimental Farm, o.4
of which over 2,000 species and varieties have been grown.
These have been obtained from the wild, from nurserymen, and
from many persons who have collections of herbaceous perennials.
A large number of species have been grown from seeds which were
donated by botanical gardens and private individuals in many
parts of the world; among these being the botanic gardens at
Kew, Dublin, Copenhagen, Upsala, Lausanne, Nancy, Lyons,
Tabor, Jurjew, St. Petersburgh, Odessa, Tiflis, Siena, St.
Louis, Tokio. Miss Willmott, of Warley, England, has been
very generous in supplying seeds. Most of the plants are raised
from the seeds in beds outside, a lath screen being used to shade
the beds, making conditions better for the young plants.

It has been noted that annuals are most abundant in
climates where there is a wet and a dry season, the reason ap-
parently, being that seeds are able to withstand extremes of
drought and heat better than roots. Seeds also appear to with-
stand extremes of cold better than roots. There are compara-
tively few annuals which are natives of Canada, and most of
these are found in the dry districts. Most biennials appear to
be natives of temperate climates where there are no very low
temperatures and where there is an abundance of moisture.
There are few biennials native to the colder parts of Canada.
There are few troublesome biennial weeds in Canada. The
sappy shallow roots do not seem to stand the sudden changes
of temperature. Herbaceous perennials are most abundant
where there is a good distribution of rainfall, and where the cool
weather of autumn favors the development of roots. The deep-
rooted perennials are, many of them, natives of the coldest and
also of the drier climates where their deep roots are able to
withstand extreme conditions. The shallow rooted perennials
spread much more rapidly, as a rule, than the deeper rooted
ones. Most of the shallow fibrous rooted species do best in
moist ground; but those which bloom in the spring when the
ground is moist are, for the most part, natives of rocky or
mountain regions. The shallow rooted perennials with fleshy
roots, such as Aguilegia, are not long lived as, like biennials,
fleshy roots are exposed to sudden changes of temperature.
They do best in well drained ground.

There was considerable discussion in regard to the observa-
tions which had been made as to the habitats of herbaceous
plants. the members present agreeing on the whole with the
conclusions drawn. It was thought that if gardeners studied
more the habitats of the plants they cultivated better success
would be obtained.

W. T. M:

THE OTTAWA NATURALIST

~ VOL. XXIV. OTTAWA, MAY, 1910 No. 2

CANADIAN SPECIES OF THALICTRUM.—IIL*

By Epwarp L. GREENE.

A most difficult chapter in the past history of Canadian
meadow-rues is that relating to the summer-blooming white-
flowered kinds; tall plants, usually inhabiting wet meadows or
banks, and not coming into flower until early summer, their
panicles often ample and of a plumy whiteness, making their
fine display at a time when the early kinds, always green-
flowered and inconspicuous, have passed to the fruiting stage.

The whiteness of the panicles of these white-flowered kinds
is due to the fact that the numerous filaments that make up the
bulk of the flowers are flattened, or at least thickened above, and
are of a pure white, thus resembling in some degree narrow
petals; and they even stand upnght, after the manner of petals,
whereas the filaments of the vernal green-flowered sorts are
finely capillary and altogether pendulous.

Some member of this white-stamened group appears to

have been the first among American meadow-rues to gain a
place in European gardens. As early as the year 1635 there
grew and flowered in Paris a Canadian meadow-rue with up-
right white stamens, and the name of it as Thalictrum Canadense
was published in that year, at Paris, in a book on Canadian
plants with the Latin title: Canadensium Plantarum Historia.
If the printing of the name had been accompanied by an adequate
description of the piant,we should have had here the beginning
of the written history of some one of the several white-stamened
meadow-rues of Canada; for, by such description the competent
botanist of to-day might have identified some one or another of
them as the T. Canadense of Cornut. That early description is
not, however, of the least help to us in that direction, and all
for the reason that said author, at least as to the fruit, describes
precisely that of a familiar white-stamened European species

Pa eOLg. Nat; xxii. 17, 37.

26 Tue Ortrawa NATURALIST.

long known as T. aquilegifolium. By some one’s blunder, the
fruit of the well known Old World plant was placed before the
botanist for diagnosis instead of that of the new Canadian species.
Presumably the two were growing side by side in that Paris
garden, and, by the time the plants were in fruit, the one be-
came mistaken for the other; but the result was that we can
make no use of the rather full description of Cornut in our
attempt to identify that particular Canadian Thalictrum.

As regards the plant itself, its fertility on Old World soil,
its free dissemination to other gardens near to and far from —
Paris, and its universal recognition as an American and even a
Canadian species, there is copious evidence. We trace it easily
in the published records of various European gardens and in
other prints, all the way from Cornut in 1635 to Moench in 1794,
a period of 160 years. It is mentioned usually as T. Canadense,
Cornut, in the works of Hermann, Tournefort and others on the
continent, and in those of Parkinson, of Ray, of Morison and of
Philip Miller in England. Meanwhile Linnzus had arbitrarily
altered the name to 7. Cornutt. It was in no respect more ap-
propriate than the original, and in Linnzus’s time already long
established T. Canadense. A mere caprice often seems to have
ruled the mind of that nomenclator, so that changes in nomen-
clature were made as if in sheer defiance of the principle of
priority. But Philip Miller very soon restored the original name
put forth by Cornut. Nevertheless so abject was the Linnezolatry
of the after years that, until almost the end of the nineteenth
century the name 7. Cornuti was the one that stood in almost
all the books, whether of American or of universal botany.
Moench, indeed, in the year 1794, displaced both names, averse
as he was to using either personal or geographic specific names.
He called the plant from Canada T. confertum; and so a third
appellation had been assigned, yet all the while no such descrip-
tion of the species had ever been published as would enable the
most expert descriptive botanist to identify the plant. T.
Canadense, T. Cornutt and T. confertum were all three little or
no better than nomina nuda, names only, and therefore without
any title whatsoever to adoption in any kind of systematic
botany.

In respect only to the T. Canadense of Philip Miller will this
comment of mine be likely to be called in question. Miller de-
votes quite a paragraph of his Dictionary to an informal account
of the plant. It is the fifth of his meadow-rues, and he says of it:

“The fifth sort grows naturally.in North America. This
has a fibrous root of a dark colour. The stalks are smooth, of
a purple colour, and rise three or four feet high, branching to-
ward the top. The leaves are like those of the Columbine, of a

_ THe Ortrawa NATURALIST. 27

BS grayish colour, and smooth. The flowers are produced in large

‘panicles at the top of the stalks; they are larger than those of

the former sorts, and have five white petals which soon fall off,

and a great number of white stamina with yellow summits.

This flowers in June, and the seeds ripen in August.”’

As a description, this is specious rather than definitive; yet
it comes twenty times nearer being definite than all which had
ever been printed about the plant during the 135 years that had
intervened between Cornut and Miller. Let us see what this
description tells us that may help somewhat toward a placing
of the plant. That its roots are fibrous and dark-coloured may
assure us that it was not one of our numerous meadow-rues that
are yellow-rooted. Its attaining the height of three or four feet
is a statement that might be helpful; for, in Canada where this
thing came from there are white-stamened kinds that com-
monly attain that height, and more, and there are others that
are exceptionally large plants of their kind if two feet high.
That its leaves were those of columbines is of no moment. Most
American meadow-rues, and many of those of Europe and of
Asia, are columbine-leaved. But when we are informed that
the F. Canadense, Mill., has leaves that are ‘‘grayish’’ and
also ‘‘smooth,’’ we are compelled to picture in our minds a
Thalictrum with glaucescent foliage, that is,if we are instructed
as to the terms that were in use in Miller’s day and earlier for
designating that which we of a later time know as glaucous.
There are white-stamened Canadian Thalictrums in plenty, the
foliage of which is deep-green or dark-green, and one or two that
are glaucescent-leaved. We have now the word of Miller that
the real T. Canadense, involving T. Cornutt, Linn., is a plant
with light blue-green foliage, and glabrous, at least above.
Another very useful item in his account of the plant is, that its
flowers are produced in large panicles. This definitely excludes
several rather northerly Canadian meadow-rues the leafy stems
of which can not be said to end in any panicle at all, but in an
umbel of only two or three—sometimes solitary—large white-
stamened flowers; yet all these manifestly distinct plants were
formerly catalogued as T. Cornutt, which, by Miller’s testimony,
they can not be. And, finally, it is evident by the same authority
that the plant as they had it in Europe in the seventeenth century
and in the eighteenth was hermaphrodite, for the authority seems
to say that stamens and pistils were in all the flowers. Miller’s
account does not indeed define anything. We can not, in the
light of it, enable ourselves to say just what one of the Canadian
white-stamened Thalictrums it was, though by the same token
we can seem to see in the Canadian flora a number of members
of that group which can not be referred thereto.

28 Tue Orrawa NATURALIST. [May

To most botanists of this generation the name T. Cornutt
is unfamiliar. They meet with it nowhere in the newer books but
in synonymy ; and in the older herbaria they are apt to find it
erased, and the name T. polygamum written in its stead. It had
been in constant use among American botanists for more than
a century when, late in the nineteenth century it was remanded
to synonymy by Asa Gray. The condition of meadow-rue
nomenclature was not thereby improved, for T. polygamum had
been from the first a nomen nudum, that is, it had been printed
in a catalogue, without any accompanying description. All that
Dr. Gray was able to cite by way of diagnosis was ‘‘smooth,
polygamous;” so that any kind of Thalictrum showing glabrous
herbage and a tendency to polygamy would have to be 7.
polygamum. Yet despite all this, the author at once began to
include in his own T. polygamum plants glabrous and plants
pubescent, and that in several different ways. They who use
the name 7. polygamun use it on the mere dictum of authority.
There is less reason for it than for the old name T. Cornutt. Yet
even Muhlenberg, the inventor of the vacuous name 7. poly-
gamum, had admitted T. Cornuti, holding T. polygamum, what-
ever that may have been, toe be distinct from it; thus by no
means intending to make a name that should be substituted in
place of T. Cornutt.

The discovery of the invalidity of the name T. Cornutt was
not made by Dr. Gray. That point had been made clear
by Augustin Pyramus De Candolle away back in 1818, long
enough before the time of Gray; and De Candolle, suppressing
the unauthenticated T. Cornutt, gave a new name, and
therewith a description that is intelligible. I do not think
I can do students of Canadian Thalictums a better service here
than to give them, an English version of De Candolle’s descrip-
tion; for the author says that his specimen was from Canada.

“THALICTRUM CORYNELLUM. Stem erect, terete, finely
striate, hollow; leaves twice or thrice ternately divided, the
segments oval, at apex obtusely 3-lobed, otherwise entire, upper
face dark green, the lower glaucous, and beset with scattered
hairs, especially on the veins and veinlets; panicle erect, sub-
corymbose; flowers dioecious erect; sepals oval; filaments clav-
ate at summit ;anthers oval-oblong; fruits 12 to 15, sessile, striate,
oblong.”” _[A. D.C. Systema, 1. 172, 173].

M. De Candolle drew up the description from herbarium
specimens. He does not seem to have known that the filaments
are white. They seldom remain so in old specimens. The
specimens were in the herbarium of Vaillant, and the plant was
from Quebec, by Sarracenius. It is to be noted that he supposed
the species to be dioecious; and so it is, in the main. Rarely

1910] “4 _ Tue Orrawa NaturRAList. 29

does the pistillate plant in flower show a stamen or two, or three,
in some of the flowers; but the staminate plants appear to be
always purely staminate. Truly hermaphrodite individuals are
a rarity. ‘

In the Herbarium of the Geological Survey T. corynellum is
well represented, and I cite a few of the numbers: 32,763, from
King’s Co., N.B., A. P. Chadbourne, July, 1883; 66,630, Port a
Persis, Que., 18 Aug., 1905, Macoun, pistillate plants, with no
trace of stamens; Cache Lake, Algonquin Park, 5 July, 1900,
two numbers, 23,260 a purely staminate plant with ample panicle,
23,259, several small panicles of truly hermaphrodite flowers,
but stamens very few nevertheless; 32,755 is a sheet from
Southern New Hampshire, by Miss M. A. Day, at Jaffray, 23
July, 1896. The two specimens are strictly male and female;
and in two or three points they fall short of responding to De
Candolle’s diagnosis of T. corynellum, for the traces of pubescence
in the lower face of the leaves are very faint, while the carpels,
instead of being glabrous are distinctly though sparsely setulose-
hairy; also they are fairly, though shortly stipitate, thus inclining
to T. dasycarpum, to which, however, they do not seem to be
referable.

THALICTRUM LEUCOCRINUM. Stout and large, the thick
hollow stems both angled and striate, green and glabrous, the
branches of the panicle sparsely and minutely setulose; lowest
leaves not known; middle cauline sessile, not large, of a deep
but not dark green above and beset with scattered short setulose
hairs, underneath of a yellowish rather than glaucous green, and
subtomentulose with yellowish hairs, these more copious along
the veins; terminal leaflets hardly ?-inch long, round-obovate,
obtuse at base, 3-lobed at apex, the lobes obtuse, the large middle
one mucronate, lateral leaflets smaller, oval, entire; panicle of
staminate plant ample, its branches ascending, copiously flori-
ferous, the flowers large; sepals oval, obtuse; filaments strongly
clavate, the outer series thicker at summit than their oblong
obtuse anthers; panicle of pistillate plant smaller, compact;
immature carpels slenderly fusiform, substipitate, sprinkled with
a few minute setulose hairs, the stigmas straight.

Specimens in the herbarium of Mr. John Donnell Smith,
collected by himself on Campobello Island, N.B., between 17
July and 20 Aug., 1888. They are labelled T. purpurascens, and
for the usual reason, no doubt.that the plant is strictly dioecious,
the clavate character of the stamens of course failing to be noted.
The peculiar hue of the herbage,and the characteristic pubescence,
this on both faces of the leaves, precludes our referring this to
either T. corynellum on the one hand, or T. dasycarpum on the
other.

30 THE Ottawa NATURALIST. : i [May

THALICTRUM ZIBELLINUM. Usually a foot high, sometimes
larger, slender but firm, with striate stem leafy to the summit,
glabrous below the summit; leaves of a dull bluish green above,
glaucous beneath, all except the floral glabrous on both faces,
the floral with traces of some minute pubescence; terminal leaf-
lets about 3-inch wide above the middle, the length a trifle less,
rather deeply and not very unequally 3-lobed, the lobes broader
than long and very obtuse, laterals smaller, oval, mostly entire;
panicles small, rather compact; sepals of staminate plant round-
obovate, very obtuse; filaments gradually clavellate from the
base, at summit not approaching the width of the anthers, also
not very long; anthers oblong, obtuse; sepals of pistillate plant
oval, obtuse or abruptly acute, glabrous, deciduous; immature
carpels short pubescent. ;

The type specimens of this small member of the white-
stamened group are in Herb. Geol. Surv., No. 21,134, and were
obtained on Sable Island, off Nova Scotia, July 26 to Aug. 8,
1899, by Mr. Macoun. These appear to represent a plant strictly
dioecious.

HOUSE-FLIES AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH.*

By_€. Gorpow Hewitt; DSc.) EES.
Dominion Entomologist, Ottawa.

In a city like Ottawa and in many other Canadian cities the
house-fly problem and the dangers resulting therefrom are of far
greater and more vital importance than one is accustomed to
find in other cities of less rapid growth and longer establishment.
Certain facts, to which reference will be made later, are present
which increase the potential danger, already very great, of these
ubiquitous pests. Whether you penetrate the huts of the Lapps
or swelter in the burning heat of an equatorial clime you will not
be permitted to forget the existence of the ‘‘domestic”’ house-fly ;
there are no means of escape; by street-car, by Pullman or by
liner it has a free pass. A fearless, dashing and careless mass of
heat-infused vitality. Let the day be cool or dull Musca
domestica, as the great name giver Linnzus described it, is
obsessed with inertia, but an hour’s sunshine or a warm room
and it is as attentive as ever. The activities of most living
beings, not excluding man, are dependent on the great source of
energy, the sun, but the question of temperature is a matter of

* An abstract of a lecture delivered before The Ottawa Field-
Naturali ts’ Clib on Feb. ist, 1910.

Tue Orrawa NaTuraLisT. | 3h

- most vital import to the fly and to those stages of its life history
through which it passes in hidden preparation for its great
adventure, the crowning of its career, its emergence as a fly.

How many people are acquainted with the lives of the
things around them? The house-fly is too humble, too common
a creature to stimulate thought on its origin, use in life and
destiny; we are tco concerned, those of us who have time to be
concerned, in these questions in their personal relations and the
house-fly is dismissed with a word of comment on its power of
provocation and possible unknown utility. But public interest
does not alwaysslumter. Science disguised as the Prince Charm-
ing has at last succeeded in awakening this Princess. The
mantle of mystery and veil of ignorance have been torn off, and
the house-fly stands alone, known and condemned with clear
convincing proof that it must be classed with the mosquito as
one of the scourges of man and destroyers of his children.
Instead of being the harmless, bright little insect, though annoy-
ing by its attentions, it is the embodiment and emblem of filth
swathed with the germs of decay.

What are the facts? They are that no house-fly can be
caught indoors or out of doors that is not carrying on its legs
and body bacteria of all kinds and the spores of moulds and
other organisms which accompany decay. No living fly is free
from germs: the existence of such would be more than a miracle.
Its legs and body, proboscis and wings are covered with small
hairs and bristles, so that its legs may be compared to fine bristle
brushes; it frequents every kind of filth imaginable and be-
smirches itself with the microscopic bacteria and other decay-
producing organisms of which it cannot possibly rid itself, and
flies about a winged and wandering bundle of bacteria. All this
might be expected as a result of reasoning alone, but such would
not be proof, and the proof is astonishing in its vindication. Any
house-fly, whether caught in one’s room or out in the open and
allowed to walk over a medium suitable for the growth of
bacteria and moulds, will deposit the germs of these organisms
in its tracks, which in a short time will yield colonies of bacteria ~
and decay-producing fungi. This experiment has been performed
times innumerable, and not only does this take place in the
warm summer months, but I am able to show you a collection of
bacterial fungal colonies obtained from the feet of a fly caught in
one of my rooms at the Experimental Farm a few days ago.
One of the most interesting and convincing experiments to prove
that house-flies normally carry about the spores of fungi and
bacteria was made by my friend and colleague, Mr.H. T. Gussow,
who caught three flies, the first in his room (in London, England),
the second in the street, and the thirdon a household dust bin.

32 Tue Orrawa NATURALIST. : [May

From the first of these he obtained 30 colonies comprising six
kinds of bacteria and six colonies of four species of fungi. From
the second he obtained 46 colonies comprising 8 kinds of bacteria,
and 7 colonies of four species of fungi, and from the fly caught
on the dust bin he obtained 116 colonies comprising 11 kinds of
bacteria, one of which is only found in the intestinal tract, and
10 colonies of six species of fungi.

It does not require any play of the imagination therefore, to
appreciate the ability of house-flies, if they normally infect
themselves in this manner and carry about such germs, to infect
themselves with the bacilli of typhoid fever, tuberculosis,
infantile diarrhoea, and other similarly infectious diseases.
Typhoid bacilli have been obtained from flies frequenting places
where the disease existed. It has been found that such flies will
remain infected for some time, and also that typhoid and
tubercular bacilli can pass through the digestive tract of the ~
fly in a virulent condition and that their dejecta are infective.
It has further been demonstrated that flies reared from maggots —
which have been bred in matter infected with typhoid bacilli
are infected with the bacillus. In the South Afncan and
Spanish-American wars flies were responsible for more deaths
than bullets. Enteric fever in those wars carried off its thousands,
which was not to be wondered at, in view of the prevailing
sanitary conditions with open latrines frequented by incipient
cases of enteric and myriads of flies swarming indiscriminately
about the latrines and the mess tents. On a smaller scale
similar conditions occur in the unsanitary districts of our towns
and cities where the house-flies frequent indiscriminately and
in turn the privies and kitchen tables Once typhoid establishes
itself in such places the house-flies will account for the subsequent
spread of the infection. The warmer the weather the more
active will the flies be, and with greater ease and rapidity will
the disease be spread.

An allied disease, infantile or summer diarrhoea, is responsible
for the greatest mortality among young children during the
summer months or third quarter of the year. The specific
cause of this disease has not been satisfactorily determined as
yet, but it is probably a germ allied to the typhoid bacilli, and,
in the same way that we know that the mosquito carries the
germ of yellow fever, although it has not as yet been discovered,
it is fairly certain from statistical and circumstantial or epi-
demiological evidence that house-flies are the chief agents in
the dissemination of this disease. I have prepared a chart extend-
ing over a period of twenty years and giving the number of deaths
per thousand living duetothis disease, and the mean temperature
during the third quarter of the year in a large English city, and

Tue Otrrawa NATURALIST. 33

it will he seen that with the excep*tion of one year, wherever there
has been a rise or fall in the mean temperature for the third
> quarter of the year, there has been a corresponding rise or fall
in the number of deaths: associated with a rise or fall in the
temperature would be an increase or decrease in the number of
_ flies, as the two are intimately connected. A high temperature

is responsible for a more rapid development of flies, and therefore
for an increase in their numbers. The shortest time in which I
and other investigators have been able to rear house-flies through
all the stages of their life history, that is through the egg, larval
or maggot and pupal stages, is slightly over eight days by keeping
them at a constant high temperature. It was also found that in
ten to fourteen days these flies could lay eggs. As each fly is
carable of laying from 120 to 150 eggs in a single batch, and
may iay six or even more batches of eggs during its life, it is an
easy Matter to understand how a single fly may be responsible
for an incredible number of descendants during a single season,
and in the light of these facts, ihe enormous number of flies
present in a hot season ceases to bea matter of wonder, and still
~ more so when it is learnt ‘‘where they all come from.”’

The chief and favourite breeding place of the house-fly
is in stable refuse, which may sometimes be found to be
literally alive with the “maggots” of the house-fly. In a city
like Ottawa where stables are located behind houses in almost
every street, and each single horse stable has its pile of refuse,
is it to be wondered at that house-flies are so numerous? It is
little use complaining about these pests, and potentially the
most dangerous pesis we have, while such conditions are allowed
to exist. A single refuse heap will supply a whole street with
flies; a single, unclosed, and not frequently emptied refuse bin
will colonise a house, for they breed in incredible numbers in
waste and decaying vegetable products, such as accumulate in
the household refuse bin. All decaying and excremental sub-
stances, provided the temperature is sui‘able, serve as breeding
places for house-flies, and in these facts lies the solution to the
house-fly problem which we are compelled to face if we would
reduce the infantile mortality rate and the death rate of typhoid
fever. There are two ways of dealing with a nuisance, the one
is to abolish it; the other to render it innocuous. Boards of
health and local authorities should make it illegal to keep stable
refuse exposed for more than six days, that is, a period of time
less than that required by the fly to pass through its complete
development from egg to fly. Within that time it should be
compulsorily removed to well without the boundaries of the
city. Refuse bins should be similarly treated. Refuse should

-s oy st ty <=> is “rey ms ge <
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34 THe Orrawa NATURALIs‘. | [May —

be burnt in public and municipal destructors, and it should be
made compulsory to keep refuse receptacles closed, and
consequently fly-proof. The alternative, to render such nuisances
innocuous, can be accomplished by the provision of darkened
fly-proof pits or chambers for the reception of stable refuse, to be
frequently and periodically removed. Flies may be prevented
from breeding in such refuse by treating it with such substances
as chloride of lime or kerosene. By scattering chloride of lime
over the refuse after each addition in the closed chamber, or
spraying with kerosene (which is not so effective), the flies are
prevented, should they have access, from breeding in the
excremental or vegetable refuse. But the removal method is the
most successful wherever it can be accomplished; and in the case
of small stables this is not impossible.

These may seem somewhat utopian suggestions, but
success has followed their adoption, and drastic initial
measures are essential if it is desired to reduce, so far as
is humanly possible, this evil in our midst. Until such
measures are adopted the public must hold the offending
parties responsible for the dangers resulting from the germ-
carrying powers of the house-fly; and it is no small matter to be
responsible for an unnecessarily high and reducible infantile
mortality, not to mention the increased possibility of the rapid
spread of outbreaks of typhoid fever, to which new and rapidly
growing cities are especially liable. In houses it is not sufficient
to provide fly screens to windows and doors, but such foods as
milk and sugar, to which flies are especially attracted, and which
are more than usually suited for the reception of whatever germs
they are carrying, should be carefully covered with muslin. A
fly should be regarded in its true light as a winged carrier of
disease and decay. The sooner this is realized the more speedy
will be the advent of more healthy and less dangerous conditions.
Time was when the fly acted as a scavenger, its larve destroying
by disintegration decaying substances. Its function has now
been superseded by health and sanitary authorities, and now its
sole function is that of a danger signal. Wherever flies abound
in such places will refuse and decaying substances be found, and
on such occasions it will serve as a disseminator of the germs
which are associated with such substances. If we are to reduce
the mortality from these infectious diseases and make our towns
and cities.more healthy, the house flies must be reduced. The
time is past when these ideas were considered the alarmist
croakings of scientific cranks: we have the facts before us which
condemns in no unmeasured terms this most serious pest—the
common house-fly.

THe Ottawa NATURALIST. 35

WINTER BIRDS AT POINT PELEE, ONT.

By W. E. SaunpErRs, Lonpon, ONT.

On February ist, 1909, Mr. J. S. Wallace and the writer
made an expedition to Point Pelee to determine what birds were
passing the winter in that locality. This is the spot where a
greater winter population may be expected than in any other
part of the mainland of Ontario, on account of its being the
- most southerly extension, and although our observations were
partly made during a cold blizzard, and the ground was snow
covered during the entire visit, yet we found more than forty
species, as detailed in a number of THE Otrawa NATURALIST
of last year.

The winter of 1909-1910 came on slowly, and there was
really no very severe weather. The lowest temperature at
London, up to the 19th of February, was about 10 below zero,
and this would indicate that the lowest temperature at Point
Pelee was about 10 above zero. This is approximately the same
temperature that we met with last year on our winter trip.
During the earlier parts of the present winter, the ground was
comparatively free from snow, and yet. even in November, when
winter had not yet begun, the dearth of birds, not only at Point
-Pelee, but all through Ontario, was striking.

During January and early February there was an unusual
quantity of snow, and this is the only respect in which the
winter has apparently been a difficult one for the birds. More-
over, snow itself is not supposed to be an inconvenience to many
birds, except as it covers their food, and I noticed in November,
as well as February, that the crop of berries at Point Pelee on
.the various species of Cornus and Viburnum was very large, so
that food for a good many species must have been abundant.
Nevertheless, we succeeded in recording only twenty-four
species from February 11th to 14th, 1910, as against over forty
in the first few days of February, 1909. The former winter was
signalized by the influx of many northern species. Redpolls
were abundant, and Crosstills, Evening Grosbeaks and others
were seen; but along with them were found at the Point,
Hermit Thrushes, Chewinks, and White-throated Sparrows in
considerable numbers, which species were entirely absent during
our visits in November, December, January, and February of
the past winter. Robins, Bluebirds and Flickers, which were
there in large numbers a year ago, were comparatively rare this
year. Several other species which were seen the previous
winter in small numbers, were absent, but this, of course,
would be expected. The surprising part of the whole matter is

36 Tue Orrawa NaTuRALIST

that nearly all of these birds vanished before November, pert es
have heard of only one Chewink having been seen in Ontario
since the middle of last November,and absolutely none of many

other species which were common at Point Pelee in the winter
of 1908-1909.

These facts indicate that there is a great.variation in the
number of summer birds which are found there during the winter,
or in other words, they prove that while Chewinks and other
similar species may stay in considerable numbers during one
winter, they may be entirely absent in the next, under circum-
stances which appear to us to be equally favorable.

Another peculiar feature of bird life on the Point, which
was impressed on us very strongly during the recent trip, is that
the birds change their location in a very decided and thorough
manner, without reasons which appear adequate to the human
observer. For instance, in our former visit, the Robins and
Flickers were in the jungle, which is where the berries and grapes
are to be found, and Bluebirds were in the open field nearby,
feeding in the edge of the jungle, and around the mullein stalks.
On our recent visit we found all that region to be absolutely
deserted by such species, but they were living in a little section
of Red Cedar forest, nearly three miles north of the old location,
where their food was apparently limited to berries of Celastrus
and Red Cedar.

* Altogether, the visits of these two winters, instead of mak-
ing migration and residence problems clearer, seem to have com-
plicated them the more.

The list of birds noted in the four days of the last trip is
as follows :—

Marsh Hawi => 0.2302 1” Blie Jay... eee _
Great Horned Owl....... 1 Prairie Horned Lark...-. 25
Ronin 2.5550": aha Se tees 20 Downy Woodpecker...... 20
Golden-crowned Kinglet.. 10 Hairy Woodpecker....... 1
White-breasted Nuthatch. 8 Goshawk...........-. Sate 5
Brown Creeper se cee es 12 Golden-eye Duck........ 38
Cedar: Bird... ae eas 80° Carolina Wréen.<S2 eee 20
Gardinal )):.4 3 See ee 15- Sharp-shinned Hawk..... 1
pong. Sparrow... 0. sésBo ae 1. Crow: 3.35 52 ee 1
OOO so s.r 6. Purple Finch. >; 3a 10
Pree Spatrow... :.. aeees 500°: Flicker )> 325.ia0 eee ee 4
Goldfinch’: |. . Bee 20° Snowflake... «a ee “12

The numbers are taken from the day on which most were
seen, and it is likely that these numbers include most, if not
all, of those seen on the other days.

19101 Tue Ortrawa NATURALIST. at

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE HERBARIUM OF THE
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

By James M. Macoun.
SPERGULA SATIVA, Boenn.

Common on Vancouver Island and the only species collected
there. Collected by Prof. John Macoun at Victoria in 1908, No.
78,504 and Ucluelet, No. 78,505, in 1909; Klondike River,
Yukon, No. 58,406. The specimens collected at Victoria in
1885 by Dr. Fletcher and recorded under S. arvensis, Macoun,
Cat. Can. Plants I, 499, are this species. In Rhodora, Vol. VII,
p. 151, Dr. Fernald writing of this species credits Dr. Fletcher-
with having collected it at Ottawa in July, 1892, distributed as
S. arvensis, and in the last edition of Gray’s Manual it is credited
to Ontario. While it is possible that Dr. Fletcher collected S.
sativa at Ottawa none of the specimens from Ottawa in the
herbaria of the Central Experimental Farm or of the Geological
Survey are this species, and it is more than probable that in dis-
tributing specimens Dr. Fletcher mixed those collected on the
Pacific Coast with those collected at Ottawa, the former being
S. sativa, the latter S. arvensis.

LYCHNIS CORONARIA, Desy.

Common in the streets of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island in
July, 1908, Herb. No. 78,534. (John Macoun). Probably a
recent introduction as it was not seen at Nanaimo in 1887 or
1893 by Prof. Macoun, and is not recorded elsewhere in Canada
though found in several places in Washington and the Eastern
States.

Rosa Atcea, Greene, Leaflets II: 63.

Collected at Moose Jaw, Sask., in 1892 by Wm. Spread-
borough and until recently in our herbarium without a name.
Will probably be found in other localities in the dry prairie
region. ‘‘Calyx-tube with not a few stout sharp spreading spines,
but sepals quite densely glandular-prickly; corolla large, the
petals obcordate.”’

HisBiscus OPuLIFOLIuS, Greene, Leaflets II: 65.

H. Moscheuius, Macoun, Cat. Can. Pl. I: 87.

This fine Hibiscus recently described by Dr. Greene and
represented in our herbarium by specimens collected by Prof.
John Macoun at Point Pelee, Lake Erie, in 1882, and at Leam-
ington, Ont., in 1892, is probably to be found in suitable situa-
tions from Point Pelee west to Windsor, Ont., as H. Moscheutus
has been recorded from the Detroit River.

38 THE OtTtrawa NATURALIST.

PLEUROGNE FONTANA, A. Nels.
P. rotata, Macoun, Cat. Can. Pl. Vol. I, p. 325, in part.
Easily distinguished from P. rotata by its greater height,

linear leaves, the lower of which are soon deciduous leaving the

stem below almost naked. All our prairie specimens are this
species. Very fine specimens 15 to 18 inches high were collected
west of Battle River, Alta., in 1906, by Macoun and Herriot.

Herb. No. 78,463.

PENSTEMON PROCERUS, Dougl.

St. Lazare near Fort Ellice, Man., No. 78,446. (Macoun
@& Herriot). Not recorded from Manitoba.
VERONICA TOURNEFORTII, C. C. Gmel.

In waste places, Portage la Prairie, Man., No. 78,451.
(John Macoun). Not recorded from west of Ontario.

NOTES ON WINTER BIRDS IN HOCHELAGA AND
COMPTON COUNTIES.

By L. McI. TERRILL, WESTMOUNT, QUE.

While at Robinson, Compton County, Que., during two
weeks in the early part of December, 1909, I found birds fairly
numerous, chiefly Woodpeckers, the unusual birds being two
flocks of Goldfinches, one Pigeon Hawk and one Goshawk. The-
Goshawk, an immature bird, was brought to me alive, by a
farmer who informed me that he had caught it in his barn in the
act of devouring one of his fowl. He had been attracted there
by the outcries of the other poultry.

Returning to Montreal I found a scarcity of birds beyond
the ordinary. From the 15th of December, 1909, to the 6th of
March, 1910, during weekly walks, I have noted only the follow-
ing :—

Dec. 19, 1909—One Pigeon Hawk.

Jany. 1, 1910—Flock of 25 Snowbirds and a few Chickadees.

Jany. 2, 1910—One Pigeon Hawk.

Jany. 16, 1910—Flock of 25 Cedar Waxwings, mostly immature
birds, feeding on Mountain Ash berries.

Jany. 30, 1910—One Pigeon Hawk.

Feby. 6, 1910—Flock of 15 Snowbirds.

March 3, 1910—One Crow.

March 5, 1910—Six Prairie Horned Larks in song; as they were
paired they have probably been here a week;
Fifteen Crows.

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_ - Tue Ottawa NaturaList. 39

March 6, 1910—Chickadees numerous, heard notes ‘‘sweet-
sugar’’; Prairie Horned Larks noted abund-
antly in pairs; Crows numerous, saw upwards
of 200.

Owing to the very mild weather this winter one might have
expected to see something unusual in bird life, or at least an
early spring arrival; but, as the foregoing list will show, not even
a Crow has remained in this district, whilst conditions in the

north were evidently favourable enough to retain most of our

winter visitors, such as the Redpoll and Grosbeak, leaving us -
with only a few stragglers of the later migrants.

The following is a list of the birds observed in Compton
County :—

DECEMBER 5TH TO 20TH, 1908.

Can. Ruffed Grouse—These birds are fairly common in this
district, but presumably on account of dark, stormy weather
in December they keep well hidden, only coming out at
dusk to feed in the birch tops.

Downy Woodpecker—Common, noted daily.

Hairy Woodpecker—Common, noted daily.

Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker—Several seen.

Pileated Woodpecker—Two heard.

Canada Jay—One seen.

Blue Jay—A few noted almost daily.

Redpoll—Common.

Pine Siskin—Numerous.

Snowbird—Several small flocks.

Am. Crossbill—Several flocks.

Pine Grosbeak—Common; noted daily; one flock of 20 with
several bright males.

Brown Creeper—Several.

White-breasted Nuthatch—Three seen.

Red-breasted Nuthatch—Common; noted daily.

B. C. Chickadee—noted daily.

Golden C. Kinglet—Several small flocks seen.

DECEMBER 2ND TO 15TH, 1909.

Goshawk—Examined one immature bird.

Pigeon Hawk—One seen in flight.

Barred Owl—Found remains of one in woods.

Downy Woodpecker—A few seen.

Hairy Woodpecker—Common.

Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker—One or two seen almost daily.
Pileated Woodpecker—Noted on four occasions.

Blue Jay—-Common; seen daily.

40 Tue OTrawa NATURALIST. [May ©

Am. Goldfinch—Saw a flock on each of two days, the 8th and
9th December.

Snowbird—Noted almost daily in small flocks.

Am. Crossbill—Saw two flocks in flight, presumably .of this
species.

White-breasted Nuthatch—One seen.

Red-breasted Nuthatch—Fairly common; seen on several occa-
sions.

B. C. Chickadee—Fairly common; noted daily.

Golden C. Kinglet—Saw several flocks daily; apparently the
most common bird here at this season.

Pileated Woodpeckers are a fairly common resident in
this district; Canada Jays much less so, only an occasional pair
remaining through the winter.

The feathers of a Barred Owl found on the crust in pine
woods, pointed to an unusual tragedy; a hunter hunted. A clot
of blood beneath the feather-laden limb of a large pine,almost
proved that some carnivorous animal, possibly Pine Marten or
Fisher, had crept out on the limb and caught the owl napping.

MEETING OF ENTOMOLOGICAL BRANCH.

Held at the residence of Mr. J. W. Baldwin, on the evening
of the 7th April, 1910.

Mr. Baldwin had on exhibit most of his collection of local
lepidoptera. This collection is becoming an interesting one and
is considerably added to every season. Species of uncommon
occurrence in the Ottawa District; and which had been collected
during 1909, were pointed oui. Among these the writer noted
particularly, Sphinx lucitiosa, which is very rare at Ottawa,
Ampelophaga versicolor, A pantests virguncula, A patela retardata,
Orthosia helva and Autographa rectangula. Most of these speci-
mens had been collected at the Electric Railway Power House
on the Britannia line. The powerful electric lights at this place
are wonderfully attractive to insects of many kinds and the above
is, therefore, a favourite rendezvous for some of the local ento-
mologists.

Mr. Groh showed two thorns of Crategus on each of which
a’ Lachnosternid beetle had been impaled, the work most prob-
ably of the Northern Shrike. These had been collected in June
from a tree at Dow’s swamp. This exhibit led to an interesting
discussion on the attraction of certain plants to insects, as for
instance Dogbane, Milkweed, Tarry Cockle or Sleeply Catchfly
etc.

THe Ottawa NATURALIST 41

_ Mr. Criddle exhibited a box of rare Manitoban lepidoptera,
all taken at Aweme. Among these was an interesting Sphinx
which had recently been determined as a variety of S. gordius.
_ The form had a conspicuous blackish band near the outside
_ margin of the primaries, and showed other differences from
eastern specimens of gordius. Mr. Criddle hopes by getting
eggs of the form and studying the larve to decide whether it
really is a variety of the above named species. Other specimens
of interest in the box were: Polia aedon, Mamestra scapularis,
Xylina fletcheri and Tapinostola variana. The latter species,
although identified by Dr. J. B. Smith, looked different from
other examples also named by Dr. Smith, from the east. Mr.
Criddle will try and get other specimens for study.

Mr. Gibson spoke of a recent visit he had made to the home
of Mr. J. D. Evans, a well known entomologist, at Trenton, Ont.
He described in brief the nature of Mr. Evans’ collections, and
of the perfect order of the arrangement and most of the speci-
mens. The collection of coleoptera is a particularly rich one,
containing many very rare species. Mr. Gibson also showed a
box containing an interesting series of the Arctiid moth, Phrag-
matobia assimilans, var. franconia. These had been reared from
larve sent by Mr. Horace Dawson, of Hymers, Ont. The species
is an uncommon one and notes on its life-history will soon be
published.

Ate:

EXCURSIONS.

The first excursion of 1910 was held at Rockcliffe on Saiur-
day, 16th April, when about a dozen members spent the afternoon
in gathering specimens representing the different branches of
the Club’s work. At five o’clock the parties met, and under the
direction of Mr. Andrew Halkett, the president, exhibited and
discussed the material collected. Miss A. L. Matthews referred
_to nature study from the poet’s point of view and briefly showed
by quotations how Burns, Wordsworth and Tennyson had gone
to nature for their best inspirations.

Mr. Groh, reporting on the afternoon’s work in botany,
exhibited about fifteen plants already in flower, as follows:
Hepatica, acutiloba and iriloba, Spring Beauty, Blue Cohosh, Wild
Ginger, Dutchman’s Breeches, a low sedge, and,among shrubs
and trees; the hazelnut, ‘“‘pussy’’ willow, aspen, red maple,
American elm and white cedar. Shepherdia canadensts in full
flower was also collected by the party. Mr. Groh called attention
to the fact that many of the trees blooming at this early date

Oe ee ES ke i ee bi ee ae

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42 THE Ottawa NATURALIST. [May _

produced their stamens in catkins, and depended on the wind x
to transmit the pollen to the pistillate flowers; while later on
when the leaves become an obstruction, insects are the chief
pollenizing agents. An interesting series of seedlings of the
white cedar showed clearly the transition which this tree under-
goes, from its earliest lance-shaped, spruce-like leaves to the
scaly covered foliage with which most people are alone familiar.
The curious, inconspicuous flowers of the cedar, terminating its
branchlets, were also pointed out.

Mr. Criddle spoke briefly of the birds and insects observed.
These were all comparatively common species but of interest on
account of their indicating the advancement of the season in
comparison with other years. Among birds, crows, sapsuckers,
juncoes, American goldfinches, a phoebe, song sparrow, and |
numerous purple finches were observed in the order named.
Mention was made of the somewhat destructive habits of the
yellow-bellied sapsucker which punctures the tree in search of
sap, and eats the inner bark, in some cases the injury being
sufficient to kill the tree. These birds, however, compensate for
the injury they do, by destroying many noxious insects. Two
butterflies—Vanessa antiopa and V. mulberti—both hibernating
species, were recognized. A few beetles were dislodged from
beneath stones ; these included a specimen of Cicindela sexguttata,
which had undoubtedly reached maturity last fall and hibernated.

The president spoke of the habits of the red squirrel, which
he observed in a pine tree. He also referred to several of the birds
and insects mentioned by Mr. Criddle, and to the larve of several
species of aquatic insects, including larve of caddice flies in their
tubes or cases, made of little sticks and stones closely held together
with silk.

The writer exhibited a number of well preserved fossils
from the Black River and Trenton limestones of Governor’s Bay
and spoke briefly of the geological features of the park, referring
specially to the granite boulders scattered over the surface of
the ground. W. J. W.

NOTES.

SHORT-EARED OwL.—Note on the flight of Asio acctpiirinus,
observed at the Eastern Sandbar, Toronto, September and
October, 1909. During the period of migration the remains of
forty-seven small birds were found on the beach. Enough
feathers remained of the following to make identification possible:

Sora Rail, 1; Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, 3; Hermit
Thrush, 1; Slate-colored Junco, 1; Tree Sparrow, 1; White-

3 Seal! Tue Ottawa NarTurRALIST. 43

- throated Sparrow, 2; Myrtle Warbler, 4; Long-billed Marsh
- Wren, 1; Olive- backed Thrush, 1.

The stomachs of four specimens examined contained pellets
of feathers and bird bones. Numerous pellets picked up on the
beach were also examined and found to consist of feathers and
bird bones.

Following are the dates on which the owls were seen:—
September 28th, 6 seen; October 2nd, 9 seen; October 3rd, 20
seen; October 6th, 2 seen; October 16th, 3 seen; October 24th,
4 seen; October 25th, 1 seen. J. A. Munro, Toronto.

PHALAROPES IN WESTERN ONTARIO.—These birds are suf-
ficiently rare to make almost every occurrence worth recording.
My collection contains only three skins from this part of the
_country, and it happens that these three are each of different
species.

My Wilson’s is the old one recorded in Macoun’ s catalogue,
and I had no chance to add other Ontario specimens until the
fall of 1906 when a friend at- Rondeau sent me on October 10th
a Northern Phalarope. This was followed on the 20th by a Red
Phalarope, both in the juvenal plumage. This was a first record
of either species for that district, although I have no doubt of
their being there with as much regularity as can be expected
from such stragglers from the north and west.

The Red Phalarope is a common breeder among the Arctic
Islands of Northern Canada, but its migrations do not bring it
this way, but take it out to sea.

W. E. Saunpvers, London, Ont.

BrunnicH Murre, Uria lomvia.—One male bird was found
in a dying condition in the snow, in the early part of December,
1908, near the village of Heaspeler, New Ontario, which is near
the upper end of Lake Temiskaming, and sent by the one who
found it, Mr. Levi Smith, to the undersigned to be mounted.
It was a fine specimen; the stomach was quite empty. The bird
had the appearance of having died from starvation.

On December 21st, 1894, I shot a Brunnich’s Murre on the
river at my place three miles below Port Sydney. The river is
known as the north-east branch of the Muskoka River. It had
been frozen over, but owing to a few mild days it had opened up
down the centre, leaving a strip of ice along the shore about
thirty feet wide. The Murre was sitting on the outer edge of
this strip of ice when I shot it. On skinning it I found it to be
in a very emaciated condition. This was the first Brunnich’s
Murre that I ever saw or heard of in these parts.

ALFRED Kay, Port Sydney, Ont.

44 Tue Ottawa NATURALIST. [May | |

YELLOW-FLOWERED VARIETY OF LARGE CORAL-ROOT.—
Perhaps the finding of a yellow-flowered variety of Corallorhiza
multiflora is a sufficiently rare occurrence to be of interest. I
do not recall any Canadian record of it.

A very fine scape with thirty-two flowers was brought to
me for identification by an artist associate here, and on going
to the spot from which it had come I found a clump of about
half a dozen scapes in very good condition and others bearing
evidence of a considerable struggle with the draggled drift
through which they had had to force their way.

The form is quite that of the common variety and the lip
is similar in colour also—white with a few crimson spots, but
the rest of the flower and the scape is a very definite but subdued
yellow, such perhaps as one understands by ‘“‘straw-colour,”
with only the faintest suspicion of green and without even a
slight suspicion of the colour characteristic of the common
C. multiflora. They were growing at the foot of a small hemlock
in a dry pine wood, with Partridge Berry, Wintergreen and
Maianthemum canadense among their nearest neighbours.

R. Hoimegs, Toronto.

Tue Brack RaiLt IN OntTARIO. In the April NATURALIST,
Mr. C. W. Nash questions my conclusions regarding the Black
Rail, as given in my review of Macoun’s Catalogue of Canadian
Birds.

I have a vague recollection of someone telling me that
Mr. Nash now thought the Rails that he recorded as Black,
were Young Virginia, but I could not say with whom the con-
versation took place, and on looking the matter up I find that
the only published basis that I have for this conclusion is the
statement in Fleming’s list of the Birds of Toronto, (Auk, volume
23, page 453), under the heading Black Rail, that “‘ Young
Virginia Rails have been mistaken for this species.”’ This, of
course, does not necessarily refer to the specimens taken by
Mr. Nash, nor have I authority to say that this statement was
ever intended to refer to those specimens, but apparently I put
two and two together, and made something out of them.

I was very glad to have Mr. Nash take this matter up, and
will be still more pleased if he will tell us all that he knows and
thinks about these Rails, recollecting that the Black Rail is
about the size of the Song Sparrow, though a little shorter in
length, with a bill of one-half an inch, whereas the Virginia has
a bill of over an inch long.

W. E. Saunpers, London, Ont.

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|.

; THE OTTAWA NATURALIST

> VOL. XXIV. OTTAWA, JUNE, 1910 No. 3

3 PLANTS GROWING WILD AND WITHOUT CULTIVA-

> TION IN THE COUNTY OF LAMBTON, ONTARIO.

By CuHarves K. Dopce, Port Huron, Micu.

The County of Lambton is situated at the foot of Lake Huron
and east of St. Clair River, having about 40 miles of Lake Huron
shore and about the same amount of St. Clair River shore, and
extending east from the river over 30 miles. One fact not gener-
ally known is that on the south it includes the Delta Islands of
St. Clair River, belonging to Ontario, and lying immediacely

- west of the northern part of Kent County, the largest being

Walpole Island, Squirrel Island and St. Ann’s Island. These
islands include a number of miles of Lake St. Clair shore. The
surface of Lambton County is generally low and level, there be-
ing very few hills and very little rolling land. The small rivers
and creeks especially in the eastern part are often sunk below
the general surface and have narrow flood valleys. The mouths
of those flowing northerly into Lake Huron are usually closed
during the dry seasons of summer with gravel and sand thrown
up by wave and wind. The Aux Sables River, the largest of the
small streams, and entering the county at the north-east, appears
to flow continuously, but its sinuous course and the large number
of its old and abandoned stream beds show conclusively that its

- course to Lake Huron has often been obstructed and changed.
Many small streams flow southerly into Lake St. Clair. Out-

croppings appear at Kettle Point, Rock Glen and a few other
places, exposing fossil-bearing rocks of great interest’ to geologists.
The Delta Islands of St. Clair River without doubt were mostly
formed by the deposit of material carried down by the river
into Lake St. Clair, and it has been estimated that about one-
fourth of the original_area of the lake has thus been filled up.*
On the north shore bordering on the lower ends of these islands,
the water for some distance is very shallow and the adjacent
land recently made very wet and boggy. Parts away from shore
are prairie-like, usually very wet in spring and fall, but very

#See report of Leon J. Cole on ‘‘The Delta Islands of St, Clair River.”’

_ ~Geological Survey of Michigan, Vol. IX, Part I,

=

mt ONE oa ETS Cie Pere re es
2 Pach A Bees es Ne or ker fe Bo
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46 THe OrrAwa NATuRALIST. [June ~.

dry and spongy in summer and covered mostly with sedges and _
grasses. Sandy spots and a few low sand ridges are noticed at
the upper ends. Tamarack swamps, marshy and boggy places, —
ponds and shallow lakes, are noticed in various parts-of the
county, but these hawe been greatly modified and have partially
disappeared in recent years on account of drainage and fires.
Along the Lake Huron shore for nearly the whole distance from
Point Edward to the north-east limit of the county are sand ©
hills and sand ridges, known also as sand dunes, usually parallel
with the shore, ranging from a few to nearly 100 feet in height
and extending back from a few rods to a mile. For a short
distance near Camlachie and Kettle Point, the latter place
famous for its peculiar rock formation, sand ridges for the most
part disappear and flat and naturally wet land covered with
the prevailing forest of the county runs. down to the shore.
These dunes are pure sand and owe their origin exclusively to
local conditions and the combined action of waves and wind.
They are not so extensive as on the west coast of Michigan and
not very prominent here except at and near Port Franks, where
a vast amount of sand has been piled up and ridge succeeds
ridge for a mile back from shore. Most of them are fixed, being |
covered with trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants that sub-
stantially hold the sand in place. Near the lake, especially at
Port Franks, the dunes are still forming and being blown first
one way and then another, but nowhere, so far as observed, are
they encroaching upon good agricultural land. The lake shore
of the county running quite uniformly north-east and south-
west, the question naturally arises as to why the dunes are so
much more prominent and massive at Port Franks than at any
other point. On the west coast of Michigan it has been noticed
that the largest dunes have been formed at the mouths of rivers.*
This, perhaps, fully explains the situation at Port Franks. At
this point the Aux Sables River enters the lake, brings down
and carries into it immense amounts of sand, which is again
washed up by waves and then blown up into dunes.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the district under
consideration may be conveniently divided into three plant
habitats: 1, Hydrophytic, the very wet; 2, Mesophytic. the
medium wet; 3, Xerophytic. the very dry.

HyYDROPHYTIC.

This includes lakes, rivers, creeks, parts of their shores,
ponds and bogs. From the favorable situation of the locality

*The Ecological Relations of theYJVegetation on the Sand Dunes of
Lake Michigan, by Henry Chandler Cowles. Botanical Gazette, Vol.
XXVIII, Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5,

| and apparently stagnant and still water. These are the homes
of the pondweeds (Potamogetons), no less than 27 species or
4 _ forms having been noticed. In many places on the borders of
Lake St. Clair and the mouths of St. Clair River, and extending

out some distance into the water, the rush, Scirpus occidentalis,

is so dense that it is difficult to row a small boat through it.
- With it will often be found an abundance of Equisetum fluviatile.
_. Nearer the shore, sometimes however in shallow water, or in
very wet places, Scirpus validus, S. heterochaetus, Sparganium
eurycarpum and Bidens beckii are abundant. In coves and still
_ water the pickerel-weed, Najas flexilis, water shield, Nymphaea
advena, and Castalia tuberosa, are very frequent, and Eleocharis
quadrangulata, occasional. In very wet places, and often as it
appears in the beds of old but now mostly discontinued streams,
the reed, Phragmites communis, is abundant and very striking
in appearance when in bloom. The renowned Indian rice,
Zizania aquatica and Vallisneria spiralis, known among sports-
men as wild celery, and both said to furnish much food for ducks,
are found, the former plentiful in spots, the latter common

everywhere. Another plant, Sagittaria latifolia, whose root or
__ rootstock is said to furnish food for ducks and swan, and some-
times known as swan-root, is common in mud and shallow water.
The advent of the white man is gradually bringing about per-
manent changes among both our wild animals and plants.
Notwithstanding the modern humane laws for the protection
of game, and the fact that it is naturally one of the finest feeding
grounds, the number of water birds now visiting the once famous
shooting grounds of the ‘“‘St. Clair7Flats’”’ has much diminished
in comparison with former times. 2Proximity of cities and dense
" populations also tend greatly to¥%destroy all wild"plants” with
__ beautiful flowers. “About twenty years ago, Sarnia’ Bay, a piece
of still water lying on the east side of St. Clair River"between the
cities of Sarnia, Ontario, and§Port Huron, Michigan, was noted
_ for its great abundance of the white watervlily, Castalza tuberosa.
Es Constant gathering by the people of both"cities and the closing
_ up of the bay by lumber companies has about extinguished it.
- North-east of Sarnia, but a few years*ago, there were large
_ tamarack swamps, and a few smaller ones were noticed in other
localities. Since then a complete change has taken place." A few
_ trees only skirt the borders of the few swamps now left."¥ Some
3 fine meadows, cultivated fields of corn, other grains, and some-
= times celery, have taken their places. Formerly on the borders
_ of these swamps and among the trees, the pitcher plant was

#

48 Tue Orrawa NarTurAList. Payer | UMS &

abundant, Cypripedium parviflorum, 2 and the beautiful species”
C. hirsutum (C. spectabile), common and Pogonia ophigieeeneae
and Calopogon pulchellus, frequent. At Port Franks, on the

borders of old river beds, long ago abandoned by the Aux Sables ..

River, the pitcher plant still exists, and in wet boggy Sere the
buckbean is abundant.

MESOPHYTIC.

In this habitat may be included by far the largest part of
this region. Perhaps less than seventy years ago Lambton
County was covered with an almost impenetrable forest. At

that time conditions were such that it retained for nearly the

whole summer season large amounts of water received in the
form of rain and snow. The small rivers and creeks, being more
or less clogged with rubbish, drained the surface very slowly
and the forest was then known as ‘“‘wet woods.” Since that
time-a radical change has taken place. At present the whole

region is fairly well drained, and most of the timber cut, there ~

being left here and there ‘‘ wood lots,” partially showing former
conditions, although generally very heavily pastured. The
Indian reservations near Kettle Point, below Sarnia and on the
Delta Islands, having undergone a less radical change, although
parts are fairly cultivated, show and prove better than any
other localities what the original vegetation was. From an
examination of woods near Sarnia, Port Franks, Rock Glen,
Wyoming, Watford, Alvinston and the Indian reservations,
especially on the Delta Islands, these several places extending
fairly well over the county, it appears that the original tree
growth was as follows in order of abundance: American elm,
black ash, white ash, red maple, basswood, beech, sugar maple,
ironwood (Ostrya virginiana), blue beech (Carpinus caroliniana), -
silver maple, Crategus punctata, red oak, bur oak, cottonwood,
yellow birch, shagbark hickory, butternut, sycamore, peach-
leaved willow, red ash, rock elm and slippery elm. Pin oak i is
the dominant tree on the Delta Islands in spots and here or
perhaps in parts of Kent County reaches its northern limit.
_ One large tree of the mocker nut hickory was noticed on Squirrel
Island, probably its extreme northern limit for this region. In
such wet. forests the species of plant undergrowth are not very
numerous. Among others were noticed the spice bush, moose-

wood, red-berried elder, lizard’s tail, jack-in-the-pulpit, wild leek ~

(formerly very abundant), wild garlic, ground nut (Panax trijo-
lium) ,spikenard, wild sarsaparilla, Circaea alpina, wood nettle,
Cardamine douglassti, Claytonia virginica. Much of the prairie-
like land of the Delta Islands naturally falls within this division,
Hundreds of acres there are covered with Habenaria leucophaeg

~

a

iatris spicata, a Peautiten plant in bloom, Indian grass, Gerardia

- paupercula and Spartina michauxiana. In spots are found
_ Asclepias sullivantii, Tradescantia reflexa, Viola sagittata,

» Vernonia missurica, Polygala incarnata, Panicum virgatum,
_ Aster muiltiflorus, and Cypripedium candidum.

XEROPHYTIC.

=s This plant habitat covers the sandy portion of Lake Huron
_~- shore, sand dunes, sand hills, sand ridges, flat, dry and sandy
- land, and all dry and sterile ground. The Lake Huron beach
- included under this division may be regarded as that part of
_ the sandy shore frequently washed by waves. This part has a
_ very sparse vegetation, plants peculiar to itself and not equally
_ distributed. Cakzle edentula is seldom abundant, but fairly well
distributed, and often near the water. Euphorbia polygontfolia
is abundant in spots and often in the drifting sand of the beach.
Artemisia caudata is frequent, but this is also found on the dunes.
One plant of the beach, perhaps deserving particular notice, is
Cirsium pitcheri, a thistle known only, I believe, along the Great
Lakes, and named for Dr. Zina Pitcher, an army physician
stationed more than sixty years ago at Fort Gratiot, Michigan,
“now a part of the City of Port Huron. This plant, common at
- Port Franks, loves the wave-washed shore, and often creeps up
the first shoreward dune, but very seldom beyond. Ammophila
arenaria and Calamovilja longifolia, two grasses often found in
abundance on the beach, are true and efficient sand binders,
both having a root or rootstock system which very effectually
protects the sand from the action of wind and waves. The
former is usually nearer the water, the latter farther up on the
beach, but both are also noticed on dunes. So well adapted are
these two grasses for holding down and binding the drifting sands
or shores that governments in Europe and America have much
_ encouraged their planting to protect sea coasts and to prevent
the sand from encroaching upon good agricultural land. The
beach pea also frequent at Port Franks is another strong sand
binder and has been known to extend its rootstock in sand over

x

MGS PP UE TE pity ee le: etn a ne a

2
fine feet horizontally. These three plants are said to be abundant
- inmany places on the Atlantic shores. Juncus balticus littoralis .
3 frequently establishes itself as a strong sand binder, but is also
found in other localities. The sandy beach and sand dunes are
z the least productive of any part of the county, at present the
_ dunes being useful only for timber growth and a small amount of
_ pasturage. Generally only such plants grow on the dunes as

are adapted to dry sandy conditions. Here vegetation has not
been much changed and hence is fairly primitive. Only those
plants thrive there that can best endure the hard conditions

tS 5 OS
c pes Ly ig } aed <s
= ¢ Py ~ ee
50 THE Ottawa NATURALIST. | [JUNE

<<

imposed upon them and have developed special powers of resist-
ance. On account of these special modifications to fit the
environment, the plants of the sand dunes are of great interest
to the botanist and worthy of much study. The dune plant
covering varies in many respects from point to point. Im-
mediately east of Point Edward the dominant trees are white
oak, yellow-barked oak (Quercus velutina), and red oak. Balsam
poplar is often abundant on the dune nearest the lake, and is a
good sand binder. Bur oak usually occupies rich ground, but
here it is frequent on the shoreward dune and acts as a good
sand binder and dune builder. In this situation, however, it is
generally small and scraggy, often having its trunk buried several
feet in the sand, but usually producing a great abundance of
acorns. White pine and sassafras are also frequent. The com-
mon smaller trees and shrubs are the choke cherry, witch-hazel,
Rhus typhina, R. canadensis, R. toxicodendron, Amelanchier
spicata, black huckleberry, low sweet blueberry, and in spots,
Ceanothus ovatus, bearberry, Ceanothus americanus, Symphori-
carpos racemosus pauciflorus, Rosa humilis, sand cherry, Vitis
vulpina, dewberry, and Amelanchier oblongijolia, On the upper
beach near many of the summer cottages and along the first dune,
Salix purpurea has been planted, thrives and is proving to be a
strong sand binder. The prevailing herbaceous plants, many of
them plentiful in spots, are Sporobolus cryptandrus, Elymus
canadensis Agropyron dasystachyum, Bromus kalmiu, porcupine
grass, Lithospermum gmelini, L. angustifolium, Arabts lyrata,
Liatris scartosa, L. cylindracea, Viola pubescens, V. fimbriatula,
V. pedata lineariloba, Senecio balsamutae, Campanula rotundifolia,
Helianthus divaricatus, Linum virginianum, Desmodium rotundt-
jolium, Lespedeza capitata, L. frutescens, Acerates viridtflora
lanceolata, Polygonum tenue, Draba caroliniana, wild lupine,
Aster azureus, Lilium philadelphicum andinum, Asclepias syriaca
and A. tuberosa. Farther to the north-east beyond Kettle Point
and toward Port Franks, the change in plant associations is very
apparent. The shoreward dunes ate still active and the fixed

ones much larger and higher. Here the Norway pine (red pine),

is well established and abundant reaching its southern limit for
this locality. The white pine is more common, and near Thed-

ford, formerly covered thickly, several large pieces of flat sandy

land, as the remaining stumps now prove. /untperus communts

and red cedar become common. Two new oaks appear, Quercus

muhlenbergvi and Q. prinoides, not noticed elsewhere. Q. coccinea

is occasional. Celtis occidentalis pumila is very common, and

Rev. Mr. Currie, of Thedford, reports having seen one or two

specimens of the species near there. Salix glaucophylla is abund-

ant on the upper beach and dunes and is a substantial sand binder.

THE Orrawa NATURALIST. ; e!

- "Shep fete’ aLiKSis is also very abundant in spots. Many
: ee acecus plants, a few not seen elsewhere, find a congenial
home here. On the shaded sides of high dunes are Oryzopsts
racemosa and Carex eburnea and on the drifting shore and dunes,
-bugseed in abundance. In spots Buchnera americana, Aster
_ ptarmicoides and Viola arenaria are frequent. In a few places
on the Delta Islands, xerophytic conditions prevail. Within a
small area on Squirrel Island the following association of plants
was observed: Liatris scartosa, Hieracium longipilum, butterfly-
weed, wild lupine, Lespedeza capitata, Ceanothus americanus,
Gentiana linearis, Bucknera americana and Andropogon scoparius.
Without particular reference to habitat and divisions given
above, some localities are noted for the appearance of one or
more species seldom seen or not noticed elsewhere. At the north
end of Walpole Island the scarlet painted cup and Cerastium
arvense oblongtjolium are abundant, the latter not noticed else-
where. About the middle of the north half of the same island,
several spots are thickly covered with Silphium terebinthinaceum,
long ago reported by Prof. John Macoun, this, very probably,
being its northern limit for our locality. On the bank of the
Aux Sables River Mr. Newton Tripp, of Forest, found Cacalia
_ tuberosa and Astragalus neglectus, both rare for this region. In
and about a large pond north of Sarnia, Utricularia resupinata
is abundant.

It is perhaps not best to go into the well known methods of
plant distribution by means of seeds, and the various ways in
which they are brought from one country to another, yet it is
interesting to notice the great changes taking place in a com-

-paratively new country. At Point. Edward, where the Grand
Trunk .Railway formerly crossed into Michigan, the following
introduced plants have been well established for a number of
years in the streets and waste places: Datura stramonium,
D. tatula, Ambrosia psilostachya, Amaranthus blitoides, Russian
thistle, catnip, Solanum carolinense, Euphorbia lucida, Artemisia
vulgaris, A. pontica L., Echium vulgare, Ribes aureum, matrimony
vine, Linaria vulgaris, L. minor, Verbena stricta, V. bracteosa,
Cycloloma atriplicifolium, Chenopodium botrys, Erysimum parvi-
florum, Thlaspi arvense, Bromus brizaeformis, B. tectorum,
Sisymbrium altissimum, Petalostemun purpureum and others.

It is very natural for an observer in looking backward to
contrast conditions existing before the advent of Europeans
with those of the present time. The great change that has
been going on from time to time in various parts of North
America for 200 years and more, from a state of nature to one
of civilization has occurred here in recent years. From an almost
impassable forest, the country has been changed by the activity

~ ,

| . BEAD 5 So.
52 Tue Orrawa NATURALIST. - {Junz >

and persistence of white men to one of the best agricultural
districts. The soil is usually clay or clay loam and has been ~
recovered by clearing and a fairly good system of drainage. The
splendid farm buildings throughout and the prosperous appear-
ance of villages and towns show activity, thrift and success.
A few localities have become noted for apples and other fruits.
Some of the finest apple orchards the writer has ever seen were
noticed east of Arkona. ‘The position of the county as to water
front is unusually good. This, no doubt, as it becomes more
and more appreciated, will induce hundreds of people to build
cottages for summer residence on both lake and river shores.
In fact, this is already actively going on. To an outside observer
the suggestion is irresistible that the sand dunes at and near
Port Franks would make a fine Government reservation which
could be easily reached by electric railways from large cities.

The scientific names above used are according to Gray’s New
Manual of Botany. Where this work gave no common names,
these were taken from Britton and Brown’s Illustrated Flora
and Britton’s Manual. In writing specific scientific names,
capital letters have in all cases been purposely omitted.

&

CANADIAN SPECIES OF THALICTRUM.—IV.

By Epwarp L. GREENE.

Continuing our study of the white-flowered meadow-rues
indigenous to Canada, a group of species which, if one regarded
nothing else but their stout white stamens, might be thrown
together as all one—as these had been for a hundred years
formerly as 7. Cornutt, later as T. polygamum—we take up
next after J. zibellinum of Sable Island, two others which, so
‘far as known, are of Newfoundland and Labrador.

THALICTRUM TERRAE Novae. Stems neither stout nor
strongly angled or striate, glabrous throughout, copiously leaty
and very few-flowered, 2 feet high or more; basal leaves not seen,
the several cauline sessile, ample, deep-green above, glaucescent
beneath, all except the uppermost glabrous, but these with a
trace of scattered hairs beneath; terminal leaflets somewhat
round-obovate, 14 to 14 inches long, of nearly equal breadth
above the middle, not deeply but very obtusely 3-lobed, the
medium lobe in the staminate plant much the largest, itself
usually 3-lobed (seldom so in the fertile plant), all lobes broader
than long, the leaflet as a whole always obtuse at base unless
obliquely cordate; lateral leaflets smaller, narrower in propor-
tion, mostly either 3-lobed or 2-lobed, a few obliquely oval and

e

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Tue OTTawa NATURALIST. 53

entire; staminate plants with flowers usually only 5 or 6 in a
5 _ single terminal cyme; sepals 4. obovate, obtuse, glabrous;
* stamens about 20; filaments slenderly clavellate, the thickest
_ part not as wide as the short merely oval anthers: fertile plant
_ bearing a small terminal panicle of 10 to 14 flowers, these with a
_ few stamens and numerous pistils; fruit not seen.
“2 Vicinity of Balena, Hermitage Bay, Newfoundland, along
_ streams, collected by William Palmer, 7 July, 1903; his No. 1398,
asin U. S. Herb.; also on rocky banks of Rennie’s River, by.
Robinson and Schrenck, 4 Aug., 1894; their No. 187, as in U. S.
Herb. and Canad. Geol. Survey.
THALICTRUM LABRADORICUM. Stems not tall, stout, hollow,
striate-angled, glabrous, or the upper part sparingly hirtellous;
foliage thin and delicate, that of the lower part of the plant
glabrous on both faces, but the upper leaves glabrous above,
sparsely pubescent beneath between the veins, not along them;
- terminal leaflets rarely cuneately, usually subquadrately some-
-_ what obovate, about 1 inch long, 3-inch wide just below the
lobes, obtuse or subcordate at base, the 3-lobes neither decidedly
obtuse nor very plainly acute, the middle one largest, often itself
3-lobed; flowers few, in one or two simple, corymbs of 3 or 4, or
even solitary; the staminate very large, $-inch in diameter, the
stamens in no part capillary, their filaments clavellate almost
from the base and little thicker even at summit, their greatest
breadth not exceeding that of the anthers, these oblong-linear,
obscurely mucronulate; fertile flowers with many pistils and
usually 6 to 10 stamens; mature carpels gradually narrowed be-
low the middle but sessile, thickest a little below the summit,
therefore subclavate being only very slightly flattened, sparsely
pubescent both at the flowering stage and at maturity.

Two sheets of specimens of this are before me, one belonging
to the U. S. National Herbarium, consisting of two staminate
plants and one fruiting one. These were collected in ‘‘ Labrador”
by W. E. Stearns in 1875. The other sheet is No. 4,335 of the
Canadian Geol. Survey. This contains the upper portions of
four plants, all fertile, the flowers,though hermaphrodite, con-
- sisting mainly of pistils. These specimens are from thickets

- along the Upper West Branch of Hamilton River, Labrador, by
A. P. Low, 7 July, 1894. Both sheets had been labelled T.
dioicum, in either case the result of a mere glance at the plants
as small and very few-flowered, without the least attention to
the fact that the stamens are all clavate and erect; and, in the
living state, they must have been white, and therefore showy.

By the large size and the small number of these white-
stamened flowers, the plant seems to recall more vividly than
any other North American species the T. aquilegifolium of

a ns e ae ,
- ee Cs G4
ro pay.
54 Tue Ortawa NATURALIST. De <i

Europe; and it is not at all impossible that some such plant as <a
this, from far northward, may have been Cornut’s original —
TG anadense, and therefore the original T. Cornuti of Linnzeus.

THALICTRUM TORTUOSUM. Stout, rigid, evidently tall, —
doubtless a yard high or near it, the stem angled and striate,
also minutely appressed-pubescent, the upper and floriferous
part more or less tortuous; basal leaves not seen, the largest
cauline one sessile, very large, 8 inches long and 10 in breadth, ~
every petiolule and ramification of it singularly tortuous;
terminal leaflets an inch long, nearly as broad, of round ae
contour, cordate at base, at summit variously but always broadly
and not deeply lobed, the median lobe often exceeding the
others and itself 3-lobed, as often only broader and entire, all
lobes very obtuse; lateral leaflets broadly and very obliquely
oval when entire, but some larger and with a lobe or two, all
leaflets of firm texture, dark blue-green above and with scattered
scaberulous hairs, beneath glaucous and thinly tomentulose;
flowers of fertile plants in a rather naked but not large terminal
panicle, the flowers 25 to 40, the several stamens with long
filaments capillary at base, distinctly clavate above the middle,
but nowhere of much more than half the thickness of the anthers,
these oblong to oblong-linear, mucronulate; carpels numerous,
nearly all maturing, small, sessile, scaberulous, their stigmas
closely circinate. :

Thickets at Baddeck, Cape Breton Island, Macoun, 28 July, ~~
1898. Only the middle and upper parts of one or two plants
were collected, all with mainly pistillate flowers, though with
several stamens in each flower; but the species is strongly
marked by its petioles and petiolules all of which are as contorted
as those of a Clematis, and the texture as well as the indument
of the leaflet is of a firmness not known in other meadow-rues of ~
the farther North. The circinate character of the stigmas is
striking, but occurs in one or more other species. The specimens
bear the number 19,006 of the Geol. Survey.

THALICTRUM GLAUCODEUM. Rather slender, 2 feet high or
more, with stem strongly striate-angled and glabrous, simple,~
leafy up to the small and rather naked panicle; leaves rather
small and of many small leaflets, the basal not seen, the lower

cauline petiolate, the upper sessile, all of firm texture, glaucous
on both faces, but beneath almost white with bloom; terminal
leaflets shortly and subquadrately obovate, the largest barely
#-inch long, 4-inch wide under the lobes, these 3, shallow, much
broader than long, rounded, yet abruptely acutish, the base ~~
obtuse or subtruncate, the lateral leaflets not much smaller,
mainly not very dissimilar, but a few quite small round-oval
and entire, all leaflets marked underneath by a few very pro-

55

itly, raised white veins oa a thin indument of short white
hairs; panicle of fertile plant small but rather many-flowered
SS and dense, its branches glabrous, as also the calyx; pistils

numerous, encircled by a row of 3 to 7 or 8 stamens; filaments

* abruptly clavate above,but not to the width of the mostly broad

and merely oval (occasionally oblong) anthers; immature carpels
fusiform, ‘substipitate, glabrous.
= The type specimen of this rather elegant and very pale
- meadow-rue is in the herbarium of the Geol. Survey, under
No. 869, and came from Tignish, at the northern extremity of
Prince Edward Island, where it was obtained by Professor
_ Macoun, 25 July, 1888. The flowers. though mainly pistillate,
are very fairly hermaphrodite.

A plant much like this in habit, quite as pale with bloom,
_ and even with very similar foliage, is in the same herbarium from
- Boyleston, Nova Scotia, by Dr. Charles A. Hamilton, July, 1890.
It also has hermaphrodite flowers, and in these the calyx is
persistent and is of five or six narrow elliptical sepals. This
plant also I refer tentatively to T. glaucodeum, and hope it may
prove to belong with the more northerly and insular type.

os
isk
. =.
>,
=
an

BIRDS OBSERVED AT SHERBROOKE, QUE.—SPRING
MIGRATION; 1909.

By R. G. PRICE.

ai ei a A ca ci.
r ‘ oi } 7 4 rs '¥ ;

to. ee Bep>28;, common. cee S.R.
% eeeetiet ee AD Mar: 12, ig? Sea 320090 2 aks S.R.
4 3 Sg a ‘* 12, fairly common (1)... .S.R.?
meee sronze Grackle..:....... Apress: commorne: “ewes S.R.
3 Stee ee "s 5: BP Sonat el Pe eg Sine
.. Red-tailed Hawk........ fs 5, becoming rare....... S.R.
+3 Red-shouldered Hawk.... “ 6, Common? 4) Sata SR:
= Song Sparrow........... Ft, oo Saree ees S.R.
Beye Marsh Hawk. ......... a 5, fairly common <wt e
Meee Northern Shrike......... ae 6, : St ae R.
a SS Se a 6; comnion ys. 20a R.
} Beer Crossbill.. 2.30.2. 4 6, fairly common (2)... .P.M.
_ White-winged Crossbill... ‘ 6; “fate. .7: Gea ee P.M.
+ PapepieHawk.. or... ap & fairly common...:...S.R.
err fee Ss my rf ‘ iPM.
be Meadow Lark........... “ater hae Per i 72$.R.
a Sparrow Hawk.......... poy ip PA Bate owe oe S.R.
Golden-eye Duck........ Sct £2} Conmnomy Geert S.R.
£5; bP eS Mere ee S.R.

pr 0 a Sn re ¥

Purple Pinch.o: +0. 2535
' Bald Eagle
Osprey
Chipping Sparrow........
Field Sparrow
Barn Swallow
Yellow. Warblers. -50%
Chimney Swift
Chebec
Fox Sparrow
Winter Wren
Bank Swallow...........
Myrtle Warbler
Goldfinch
American Merganser......
Belted Kingfisher
White-crowned Sparrow. .
Golden-crowned Kinglet. .
Wilson’s Thrush
Hermit Thrush
Bobolink
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker..
Jenny Wren
Kingbird
White-throated Sparrow..
Purple Martin
Yellow-throated Vireo... .
Great-crested Flycatcher..
Blue Heron
Maryland Yellowthroat.. .
Water Thrush
Black-sided Blue Warbler.
Rose-breasted Grosbeak. .

ofa s+ eine rea et 6) axe ye ye im

Sharp-shinned Hawk.....
Red-eyed Vireo
Creembird ..05. Li%s.0.. Bees
Swamp Sparrow
Whip-poor-will...........
Ruby-throated Humming-

bird

Tue Orrawa NATURALIST.

“e

21,
21,
oe
21,
29,
29,
30,

9,
10,
10,
10,
11,
11,
11,
1%
12,

ae

ake a "'e| aie

common

iad ae

common

common

common

ce

common

ce

common

ra5 fairly common.......

fairly common...

fairly common....
ce ce

fairly common.....
ce oe

fairly common.......

fairly common.......
ae ce

fairly common......

fairly common.......

o Wiese

660 wae

a, et epee tal

fe Okey

0 @ chee hele!

ao a te "ep a k

Se 6 ew

ie he

THe Orrawa NATURALIST

57

“Night Rawk. ie tee ees June v,-tearly commen... 25.5 S. Re

BEC HOO... 2 e . ‘Ge ake 3s eae aden ic NI aia tee 5:

~ Great Horned Owl....... PPE at ribo SR Se ea 5.

’ Searlet Tanager.......... Sia a Sails See cata Ore cove ea S.R.

Indigo Bunting.......... UPTO Wel rahe. | aie tals Me Some

Chestnut-sided Warbler... “ 16, fairly common.......5.R.

meaemter-capped Warbler..." 18, rare... 200. 3. Re

ueeemtrnian Warblers). “18,0. ot eas a, Se

: Parla Warbler. =. 2.0.55. degintt'.,) Riker Biante More emt ads. 1 Sak.
ferred Owls!) eS. pm et pa, POTATO tere eee he R.
Hairy Woodpecker....-.. ‘“‘ 20, fairly common.......R

a Owing to rather limited time the foregoing observations are

__-very incomplete, neither do they indicate the exact arrival of
_ the birds. Abbreviations used:—P.M., passing migrant; S.R.,
summer resident; R., resident.

(1) Have observed only 2 cases of breeding here.

(2) Some years are quite numerous.

(3) Breeds on Lakes St. Francis, Magog and Aylmer.

SVALOF SEED FARM.

By Geo. H. CLark, SEED COMMISSIONER.

Svalof is the name of a railway station in the south of
Sweden. There is scarcely a village there, but there is a hotel
that would do credit to most of our Canadian towns. A 5,000
acre seed farm at Svalof forms an attraction to agriculturists,
not only from Europe, but from all over the world. There is
where Nilsson has worked for 20 years. He is now 54 years of
age and is reaping some of the fruits of his labors in the pleasure
of having people from all over the world come to Svalof to study
his methods.

There is also an agricultural high school at Svalof which
would compare favorably, in building and equipments, with the
best high schoels in the smaller towns throughout Canada.
There are 46 of these schools of agriculture distributed through-
out Sweden, in a way so that they are conveniently available
to the farming population of Sweden, which cultivates an area
in all not exceeding 9,000,000 acres of land. Because of these
schools of agriculture, the average intelligence of the Swedish
farmers is perhaps superior to that of most other countries, and
the Swedish farmers make good use of the results of the work
done by their experimenters.

The 5,000 acre seed farm at Svalof is officered by a scientific
staff of five experts and their assistants, who have a splendid

z - re ee RAP LS tS “ *
: Ss os AP Seb * " ate. 2 se
' ies J =
’ - ‘ict ee
# ? S x e,
, 1: re ee
58 Tue Orrawa Naturauist. [JUNE ~~

equipment of buildings and apparatus and about 30 acres of
land which are devoted exclusively to plant breeding and seed
selection work. This scientific staff works togethergwith a
commercial organization which is known as the General Swedish
Seed Company. The superior selections of wheat, oats, barley,
grasses, rye, potatoes,and other crops produced by; Nilsson and
his staff are increased on the larger areas of land_and,ultimately
sold for seeding by the commercial company.

Sweden is a storm-driven and rust-ridden country. The
climatic conditions are not dissimilar to those of the north of
Scotland. Proir to 1890, Swedish farmers suffered heavy losses
from their grain crops being driven down by storms and badly
rusted. Dr. Nilsson conceived the idea of going to those storm-
driven and badly rusted fields and selecting individual plants
which had shown their ability to resist both the storm and rust
and were otherwise of good quality. These individual plants of
outstanding merit he calls mutants, or sports that will increase
true to type. Such mutants he has found to be produced by
natural cross fertilization, which occurs but rarely with wheat,
oats and barley. He has found such sports the type of which
was not fixed but would continue to vary in a manner quite
similar to artificial crosses. The good grain from these individual
plants is sown with hand drills in rows about seven inches apart,
to correspond as nearly as possible with field conditions, both
as to soil and thickness of seeding. Out of the 100 or more
plants which were first selected and increased in these single
rows, a few of the very best are selected and continued the next
year on larger plots. From the larger plots the yield and the~
milling, feeding or malting qualities are determined and only
the very best of the new selections—those which are superior
for certain conditions of their soil or climate to any of their
older sorts—are increased and handed over to the commercial
company.

Formerly the average yield per acre of the cereal crops of
Sweden ranked low when compared with the other countries
of Europe. During the last three years Sweden has ranked in
yield of cereal crops per acre among the first five European
countries, which is somewhat remarkable considering her position
to the far north. If we are to consider the south of Sweden
alone, the yield per acre of her grain crops is second only to
that of England. Practically all of the cereal crops now grown
in Sweden are traceable to Nilsson and his staff, and in their
publications the people of Sweden frankly acknowledge their
indebtedness to Nilsson for the advanced condition of their
agriculture.

Se

SM EON ater AT acini RY Se le ot
, ner} SS ae % - - . 5 2
Tue Ottawa NATURALIST. 59

< NATURE STUDY.

Nore.—The following article has been prepared for the
- NATURALIST by Mr. S. E. Percival, a student at the Ottawa
Normal School. It is a straightforward statement of what he
_ himself saw, and as such will commend itself to every naturalist
and reader of this magazine. 2— Jie WG

A WEASEL’s Home.

Not long ago the opportunity was afforded me of discover-
ing some very interesting facts concerning the life habits of our
rather doubtful friend, the weasel. For the benefit of those
who are not already well acquainted with this crafty little animal
I shall narrate a few incidents as they were brought to my notice.

On one occasion as we were removing the sheaves from a
large mow at a threshing bee, near the village of Burrit’s Rapids,
we were struck by the frequent appearance of a weasel at widely
different points about the barn. The little creature seemed
greatly distressed and agitated. The men regar ded it with a
certain amount of interest and amusement, w ondering what in
their work was causing the little animal so much of apparent
worry and excitement. In a very short time, however, the

problem was solved. About half way down in the mow the men

opened up some peculiar but luxurious apartments which had
evidently been the home of the uneasy weasel. The home was
lined throughout with the soft fur of mice. The floor had an
extra thick covering and in the centre, evidently to take the place
of the modern rug, was neatly spread the skin of our pet kitten
which had mysteriously disappeared some days before. This
room appeared to be the main living room and was about the

- size of an ordinary water pail.

From this room a winding passage led into another room
which presented a rather ghastly appearance, being strewn with
the bodies of dead mice, bones, fur, etc. From this commissariat
apartment,.as well as from the living room, passages and cross
passages extended in all directions horizontally forming quite a
perfect system of highways.

The following incidents came under the notice of a friend
of mine who reported to me all the details as he saw them:

One day while returning from the fields through a lane he
heard, before him, a most distressed and dismal squealing.
Approaching cautiously he observed two adult weasels each lead-
ing by force one of their incorrigible offspring, while two others
came quietly along in the rear. There was evidently some cause

for a sudden change of quarters. He was unable to watch them

long enough to determine their destination, but knowing as we

at one Pe eee os HN ER! eS oe 8 re ee
EET ee ig
< % Pe es 6 Se 74> ee ee
; r My, ager GA
60 - Tus Orrawa NATURALIST.

do the nature of the most faeneets quarters they must have $
been forced to leave, we cannot blame the young ones for going __
so reluctantly from it. Again when we note with what determi-
nation the parent weasels persisted in placing their young ones x a
in safety we can here at least find in this ever alert lover of —
blood so much dreaded by other wild and innocent creatures, —
at least one characteristic worthy of our admiration. 7

S. E. PERcIVAL

EXCURSIONS. "

The second excursion of the season was held on the after-
noon of Saturday, 23rd April, at Britannia. The day was
beautiful, and there was a fairly good attendance of members
and their friends. Mr. W. T. Macoun and Mr. Groh were the
leaders of the Botanical Branch, Mr. Wilson of the Geological
Branch and Mr. Halkett of the Zoological Branch. The ob-
servations and addresses at the close of the outing were of a
general nature.: Mr. H. T. Gussow was called on to speak and
made some remarks chiefly on fungi, and Mr. Wilson showed
some conglomerates. Toads were seen in their spawning beds,
and some of their eggs shown. Among the pools were observed
forms such as Physa and Limnea stagnalis of pulmonate mollusks;
phyllopods; water arachnids; and larve of caddis-flies, the tubes
-of these being made of bits of twigs instead of grains of quartz
as were some of those of a species found in the creek at Rockcliffe
at the excursion on the previous Saturday.

Those who attended the excursion expressed themselves as
having enjoyed the outing thoroughly.

AH.

On Saturday afternoon, April 30th, the excursion was held
to Billings’ Bridge and the district south of the Rideau River.
Here a very pretty stream winds between high- banks, the east
side of the ravine being heavily wooded for some distance. The ~
afternoon, although not very promising at first, turned out very —
fine, and although the attendance was not large all seemed to
agree that the excursion was a most enjoyable one.

After having explored the district on all sides the various
parties assembled at a beautiful spot on the bank of the stream.
The president, Mr. Halkett, showed some Crayfish (Cambarus)
which he found in the stream and its adjacent pools. At a
previous excursion to Britannia he had shown a phyllopod with
eggs attached to the abdominal somites and had referred tothe ~
way the lobster and the crayfish carry ‘their eggs attached to —

; gies tage :
Os pore ee

Tue Orrawa NATURALIST. 61

f

B -to: eae his previous St iement from ie livi ing Beecunen:
_ Mr. Halkett also showed a living Brook Stickleback (Eucalia
inconstans) which was caught in the stream, also the eggs of a
' mollusk, presumably Physa, embedded in a jelly mass which
' was attached to a stone. The tiny shells could be seen through
_ the egg membranes.
: Mr. Groh exhibited one of the first Amelanchiers (June
_ berries) of the season taken from a small tree on the bank of the
stream near by. The date was considered early as compared with
_ last year when these were found in bloom a month later. He
- also showed some of the stems of the Climbing Bitter Sweet
_ which, as he pointed out, had become so twisted and coiled as
to choke the stems beneath its coils. The White Trillium was
-found in abundance in one woods near by. Other specimens
exhibited were: Bishop’s Cap, Squirrel Corn, Baneberry, Red
Trillium, a stemless blue violet (probably V. septentrionalts)
and many others collected on a previous excursion.

Mr. Brown distributed specimens of Beech nuts in various
stages of germination and drew attention to the fine flavor of
the cotyledons in the first stages of growth, a fact which first
came to his notice when but a lad on his way to and from school
ina beech country. He also distributed specimens of the Dog’s-

tooth Violet, showing the first year’s growth, which eonsisted
of a single leaf, a small bulb and a shoot penetrating downwards
from this bulb, and the second year’s growth which consisted of
a pair of leaves, a flower and a much larger bulb which had formed
several inches below the former small bulb.

Mr. J. W. Gibson referred to the advantages offered by such

_a locality for the study of geography and especially from the
standpoint of river systems and the great work of erosion. Many
-of the tributaries of this stream may be traced to their beginnings
some distance away in the more open country. He also pointed
out the effect of the forest trees along the banks of the stream in
preventing the erosion of the soil. The various species of trees
found in this locality were also mentioned, attention being called
especially to the American Yew Tree (Taxus canadensis), this
being one of the few places about Ottawa where it is found.

= Mr. Nichols spoke for the leaders of the geological branch

-and stated that the rocks exposed in the banks of the brook

were of the Utica formation and were composed of black bitumin-
ous shale. One layer about three inches thick was much harder
than the rest and contained an abundance of graptolites ap-
parently of one species, and also beautifully preserved specimens
‘of a small brachiopod, Leptobolus insignis. There were also

Sn ans

wTyeted

Sake

ys as as

Pang eth PONY

.

Sidin p Mas

~

MME Ge Dab Wt

saiih

=” eee a ane ek oes ghee Sate agar”,

2 + ¥ ay “F Seah “bby
. ; ; : ' Sas oe abs,
62 THE OTTAWA pit sacri > ay Se

some specimens of obscure plant remains seen. Mr. Nichols —
pointed out a fault in the rock on the opposite side of the brook” —
in view of the audience. The strata on the western side of the
fault dips at a considerable angle and gradually becomes nearly —
horizontal at some distance away, while on the east side the

layers are almost undisturbed. Attention was also called to the

erosion of the clay beds and soft shale through which the smal] —

brook has cut a deep gully.
ft FOS

BOOK REVIEW.

Birps or New York, by Elon Howard Eaton; Part I, Intro-
ductory Chapters; Water Birds and Game Birds: New
York State Museum, Albany, N.Y., Memoir 12.

This sumptuous volume of 390 pages, beautifully printed
on the best of paper, has just recently appeared. It is in every
way fully up to the high standard of the other excellent Memoirs
of the New York State Museum, the authorities of which have”
done so much to stimulate research in natural history. The
economic importance of a study of birds is now widely recognized.
Much investigation into their feeding habits has proved. beyond
doubt that they are extremely important friends of the agri-
culturist, in fact, of the whole community at large.

At the present time it is stated that there are 411 species
of birds which have been recorded as occurring in New York
State. The species have been grouped into six classes, viz.: I.
Residents, II. Summer residents, III. Transients, IV. Winter
visitants, V. Summer visitants, VI. Accidental visitants. In
an interesting chapter near the beginning much useful informa-
tion is given on life zones, as well as charts to illustrate the dis-
tribution of the birds which breed in the three life zones of New
York. In a chapter on ‘“‘Increase and Decrease of Species,” it
is remarked that it is the general testimony of authors that there
has been a marked diminution in the bird life of New York State
during the past century. The reasons why this is so are clearly
set forth and are only too well known. Modern agriculture is
responsible for the death of many birds. Telephone and tele-
graph wires, electric lights, plate glass windows, cats and
thoughtless boys, in cities and towns, all add to the danger to
many species. ‘‘Perhaps the most destructive class are the
thoughtless boys who go birds’ egging and shooting indiscrimi-
nately; also foreigners, mostly Italians, who often kill all kinds
of birds for food, as they have been accustomed to do in their
native country; and the pot hunters and market gunners, who

tari hte ne Bee Pe amr ger os es. Vi

ee BR Ne on, = ees Gee! ~
~ - Ctra a

af care a < _ ‘ ~

Tue Ottawa NATURALIST. 63

- exterminate our game without mercy.”’ The author states that
on one occasion he picked up 18 swallows which had been
Nulled by a gunner who was returning home from a disappointed
duck hunt. Such acts are, of course, “‘largely the result of
_ thoughtlessness or ignorance, and it is hoped by spreading a
knowledge of our native birds, thereby arousing a pride and
interest in their welfare, we may overcome a large portion of
this wanton destructiveness.”’
- ‘The tables of “Spring Migration: Arrivals,’ and ‘“‘New
_ York Birds: Local Lists’’ will be of much interest to students
in Canada, as well as in the United States. 300 pages are de-
voted to the water birds and game birds. The species are treated
of under the sub-headings ‘‘Description,”’ ‘Distinctive marks,”
“Field marks,’ ‘‘Destribution,’ ‘Migrations,’ ‘Haunts and
- habits,” ‘“‘Food,’’ and ‘‘Nests and eggs.’”’ The Diving Birds are
given first attention. These are followed by an account of the
Long-winged Swimmers; then, in order, the Tube-nosed Swim-
- mers; the Totipalmate Birds; the Lamellirostral Swimmers; the
Herons, etc., the Marsh Birds, the Plover, Snipe, etc.; Gallina-
ceous Birds, and Pigeons. Altogether 179 species are treated of.
Throughout the text many beautiful illustrations from photo-
_ graphs have been incorporated. Those showing nests and eggs
are of special merit and interest. At the end of the volume there
_ are 42 full paged magnificent coloured plates, all of which have
- been drawn by Mr. Louis Agassiz Fuertes, the well known bird
artist. For the last ten years Mr. Fuertes has made careful
- colour notes immediately after the capture of the birds used for
illustrations. In this way he has been able to depict, wonder-
fully well, the different colours of the birds.
This work is a most important addition to the literature of
North American ornithology, and will be greatly welcomed by
students of birds everywhere. It will be of much interest to
_ Canadian ornithologists on account of so many of the species
_ oceurring in our territory. Much credit is due to the author for
_ the preparation of this immensely valuable Memoir, to the artist
_ for his beautiful illustrations, and to the New York State Educa-
_ tion Department for the publication of the whole work. Such
a Memoir will be a source of authoritative reference for many
years to come.
pan ES

| has

64) gid ee wp ah age

-

CATALOGUE oF NearctTic SpipErs, by Nathan Banks; Smith-
sonian Institution, United States National Museum, Bul-

- letin 72.

5 This publication takes the place of the Marx Catalogue,

_ prepared some twenty years ago. The author states that the

4

-ws

Shite jt
E Poe oe on
Sine. ae aes
64 Tue Ortawa NATURALIST.
catalogue includes a little over 1,300 species. ‘‘The ere

family is the Theridide with 298 species; the Attide is next
with 213; two other families, the Lycoside and Epeiride, have
over 100 species in each. Sixteen families have less than 10
species apiece.’’ This work will be a most useful one. Many of
the species occur in Canada but comparatively few definite
records are available. The publication of this catalogue will
undoubtedly lead to more systematic work, and it is to be hoped
that entomologists, or others, in Canada, who are interested in
spiders, will do their share in working up local species. In the
East a fair amount of work has been done in collecting these
creatures, but in the West practically - records of captures
would be of value.

a

AL:

NOTES.

ANOTHER Case oF NATURAL GraArFtTinc.—Mr. J. R. Ander-
son’s note in the April number of THe Orrawa NATURALIST,
about an interesting case of natural grafting, prompts me to call
attention to a somewhat different case which may be seen by
any Ottawa member, when walking down Bank Street to the
Glebe. On the west side of the street, between Roseberry and
Strathcona Avenues near Patterson’s Creek, there is a medium-
sized maple, from the base of which a sucker or twin sapling
was at one time growing. The ‘“‘twin’’ is still there, but no
longer as an independent stem. About a foot from the ground
it becomes lost in the larger tree, the bark of which has closed
completely over it. Several inches higher up, a branch three or
four inches in diameter emerges obliquely from the trunk, and
is evidently the re-appearance of the lost sapling; though now
looking more like a normal branch of the tree.” It is several times
the diameter of the part below. The latter though making little,
if any growth, is still alive; but any contribution which it may
make to the life of the branch must be very small in comparison
with that derived through the main trunk. Should one of our
future naturalists have the good fortune to be present when this
tree is cut down, he may be able to extend this note with some
interesting information gathered from a study in cross section.

H. Grou.

The Publications Committee beg to announce that the —
miscellaneous publications, of which mention has been made,
(p. 9, April number, 1910), will be available for free distribution
to members of the club on June 21st next at 4.30 p.m., in the
basement of the Normal School. L. H. Newman, Ch. of Com.

7

A MR FT Co PERRI

noche,

IARI ger 9 Hg
$. :

\

THE OTTAWA NATURALIST

VOL. XXIV. OTTAWA, JULY, 1910 No. 4

FERN HUNTING IN ONTARIO.

By Francis J. A. Morris,
(Trinity College School, Port Hope, Ont.)

A life-long lover of flowers and ferns, I had been ten years
in Canada, roaming the country side for flowering plants before
I ventured to tackle the ferns. The fact is I greatly over-
estimated the difficulties of identification in these most beautiful
of foliage plants. It was only because I had almost exhausted
the lists of ‘‘finds’”’ in Ontario flowers that I made up my mind
to add the pteridophytes to my amateur botanist’s list.

The beginning was made in Great Britain five years ago
during a botany trip in North Wales and the Lake District. I
was agreeably surprised to find identification comparatively easy.
The A B C of the art, as I remember, was close and frequent
scrutiny of the back of every fern I found. This in July meant
inspecting the sori or clusters of spore cases and noticing whether
they were covered by an indusium or not; and if so whether this
was circular or oblong. By that means I soon grew familiar with
the two kinds most rich in species in northern latitudes, the
Aspidia or Shield Ferns (with circular indusium), and the

_Asplenia or Spleenworts (with oblong indusium). Two of the

commonest of British are the Male Fern (Aspidium Filix-mas)
and the Lady Fern (Asplenium Filix-femina); the first of these
is not common in Ontario, indeed only doubtfully native to the
province, having been found at Roystone Park near Owen
Sound; but some other species of Aspidium are common to both
countries, e.g., A. spinulosum, A. cristatum, and A. Thelypteris.
Among the Spleenworts are many species of interest in Europe,
though perhaps not more in number or interest than those of
North America. The result of a most enjoyable 6 weeks’ fern-
hunting was familiarity with 13 species belonging to 7 genera.
This was in 1905, and on a second visit to England 3 years later,
after 2 seasons’ collecting in Ontario, I got twice as many in the
Same time and over the same ground. The fact is, experience to
a collector counts for more than anything else. The three genera
I found most useful to know, by way of nucleus about which to

66 THe Ottawa NATURALIST. ~ [JuLy

gather knowledge of our Ontario ferns, were Polypodium (includ-
ing Phegopteris), a genus in which the indusium is wanting,
Aspidium and Asplenium..

It was with no small curiosity that I set out next season to
search for ferns in Ontario. I began in May and by the end of
June had got 17 species. I found, however, that a beginner can
seldom be certain of identification until the frond is in fruit.
For instance, I got a young fern early in June whose frond
tapered in both directions, the pinnae longest in the middle and

shortening gradually above and below. I made sure it must be

the New York Fern and transplanted some to a pot in my
window stand. I was away all the summer, but my plants were
cared for and on my return I found my New York Fern (Aspidium
noveboracense) with the known contrariety of things taken for
granted had fruited out into a Silvery Spleenwort (Asplenium
thelypteroides). Mistakes like this are bound to occur in the case
of a beginner, and some species more than ordinarily variable
defy identification even by an expert until in fruit. In the case
of the Silvery Spleenwort, however, an experienced eye will have
no difficulty in determining; for it is covered on stipe and
rhachis with white somewhat bristly hairs, while the New York
Fern is perfectly smooth and the stipe itself is much more
slender. A

Altogether my first season yielded me 30 species, and more
hours, days and weeks of solid enjoyment than anyone can be
aware of who has never collected ferns. For not only are they
beautiful in themselves but their haunts and homes are among
the most charming in all nature. Ferns in their native sur-
roundings are far more than ferns in themselves, even though
the charm of surroundings, if not due to the ferns, is always
enhanced by them. Emerson’s ‘‘Each and All” will remind you
how subtle and how complex a thing is environment. But even
a fern in itself is a thing of beauty and a joy forever; and to the
collector who cares to press and mount specimens of our native
ferns, there is no plant that yields anything like as good results.
Flowering plants when pressed generally lose their natural
colours and always their distinctive outline and shape; ferns on
the other hand if carefully pressed retain their natural green
unchanged and are with few exceptions flat and growing in a
single plane—ready pressed, so to say, by Nature. A green fern
well mounted on a sheet of white paper or cardboard is a delight
to the eye and in the grey days of winter a pleasant reminder of
summer’s golden prime.

My first collecting ground was in the neighborhood of Port

Hope, a limestone district but with almost no rock, the limestone ©

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THe Ottawa NATURALIST. 67

‘

_ chiefly showing as blue clay or marl about the streams; the
_ woods are mostly hardwood, beech and maple; hardly any
_ spruce, a good deal of hemlock and some white pine; cedar and
tamarack abundant in swampy parts; the upper soil sandy or
peaty; the country rolling and rich in springs. The fern-flora
is in the main characteristic of limestone districts; in some of
the higher parts the land is abundantly strewn with granite
boulders of gracial origin.

“My favorite haunt was a stretch of country from west to
east, some 5 miles north of Lake Ontario; rolling country with
rich hardwoods and upland pastures, peaty swamps in the
— hollows and crested above with ridges of pine. The best ap-
proach from the town to the west end of this rolling country is
by the Midland Railway going north from Port Hope towards
Peterborough; just west of the railway quite close to the town
lies Monkey Mountain, a tract of sandy turf and grassy slopes,
pine trees on the upper leveis, and intersected by valleys full
of springs and swamps, with running streams of cold clear water
that harbour speckled trout. At the foot of the grassy slopes
near swamp level are some fine colonies of 2 of our Osmundas,
the Cinnamon and the Interrupted Ferns. These fruit early in
June and before July the fertile fronds have begun to wither
away; the more famous Royal Fern, Osmunda regalts, I did not
find nearer than a tamarack swamp 10 miles away, though last
summer I found to my delight a few plants of it just north of
my rolling country and quite close to the railway track. The
Royal Fern in maturity is a magnificent plant, but when young
it has a singular beauty of its own; the frond is coppery in hue,
lush and soft in texture, something like the young frond of the
Maidenhair with its half-furled drooping bannerets of yellowish
pink.

The Maidenhair (Adiantum pedatum) is quite common in
our maple and beech woods in somewhat shaded situations,
wherever the soil is peaty and rich; it requires less shade than
the Oak Fern which otherwise is found in similar (or the same)
haunts. It is hard to analyse beauty, nor is it advisable; in the
Maidenhair Fern symmetry has much to do with its charm; the
contrast of colour between the shining ebony stem with its hair-
like divisions above and the delicate green of the pinnae adds
not a little thereto; and the tree-like effects of the spreading
horse-shoe of branchlets set with wedge-shaped pinnae, trans-
lucent, membranous, like an oak of some fairy forest, of such
transcendent delicacy, this unites with the other qualities to
give the fern a dainty elegance and grace unrivalled among its
kind.

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68 THE Ottawa NATURALIST. [JuLty ~

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It belongs to a group whose sporangia are all secured by
being clamped in under the recurved edge of the frond. The
type and commonest representative of the group is the Bracken,
which when fully fruiting shows its pinnules strongly contracted.
There are two other genera in the group, the Cliff Brake (Pellaea)
and the Rock Brake (Crypiogramma).

Along with the Maidenhair, but in deeper shade where no
grass or herbage disputes its right to the peat and leaf-mould,
especially under cedars and hemlocks, the Oak Fern is abundant.
It also is a fern of peculiar charm and part of its pleasing appear-
ance is due to a quality it shares with the Maidenhair; its growth
is in two planes, the frond itself spreading more or less hori-
zontally out from the top of the erect stem, which is tall and
slender in proportion to the whole plant, dull-green above,
brownish near the base. The frond is triangular and in appear-
ance tripartite, the lowest pair of pinnae being far larger and
more compound than those further up the rhachis; the foliage
of the frond has sometimes the appearance of a bluish-grey
bloom on the under surface. It is not unlike a miniature
bracken to look at. ;

- The Beech Fern (2 species) is of the same genus and has
similar characteristics; its growth also is in more than one plane,
the very long upright stipe having a (proportionately) short
frond at the top, this frond not entirely in the same line of
growth as the stipe, and the lowest pair of pinnae (which are
usually far the largest) carried forward and deflected like a pair
of spurs at an angle to the rest of the frond. The Broad Beech
Fern I have never found, but it is abundant near Owen Sound;
the Narrow Beech Fern does not occur near Port Hope. but I
have found it near Perth, at Lanark and in North Burgess; in
the Algonquin Park it is exceedingly common, growing in great
patches in the damp shaded woods and found even, in stunted
form, far up the precipitous rock faces of railway cuttings and
natural cliffs. The chief generic mark is that the sori or clusters
of sporangia which are small and dark-brown are destitute of _
covering (indusium).

There is one other genus belonging to the same group, the
Polypody or Rock Fern; I had to wait till I visited the Rideau
before I saw this common fern, for it insists on rock; I have no
doubt it is abundant as near us as Rice Lake. It has very large
naked sori of a rich light gold colour.

The next two genera in the list of ferns have a distinct
indusium protecting the sporangia clusters, the Spleenwort and
the Shield Fern. Easily the most common of the former and
with the widest range of habitat is the Lady Fern. It is about

THe Ottawa NATURALIST. 69

the same size as the average Shield Fern (e.g., the Spinulose or
the Marginal), but the texture of its frond is far more delicate;
the sori are oblong, but being placed along the twisting veinlets
of the pinnules they usually curve bow-wise into a horse-shoe
shape. The indusium opens along one side as the spores ripen.

_ The stipe of the Lady Fern is often reddish in colour.

A wood of maple, beech and hemlock some 5 miles out from
Port Hope forms the west end of the rolling country I have
before referred to; through the midst of it between springy and
steep high banks flows a stream; the wood has many deep rich

~ hollows of peat and leaf-mould; it is luxuriant with plant life,

having an unusual range of violets and lilies and some uncommon
orchids, such as Hooker’s Rein-orchid and the Showy Orchid.
For a small wood whose greatest diameter is perhaps half a mile,
it is quite the richest in ferns that I know. And that not merely
in number of species but in actual quantity; with hardly an
exception, the ferns that occur there at all fairly run riot within
its shelter. Observing the order in which the ferns are treated,
besides the Oak Fern, the Maidenhair and the Bracken which
in congenial surroundings abound in the wood, there are all
three of the largest Spleenworts; the Lady Fern and the Silvery
Spleenwort are abundant, some plants and patches of wonderful
size; the oblong fruit-clusters of the latter with the indusium
silvery-white until the spores ripen make it easily recognized;
it fruits freely, the oblong clusters standing out obliquely from
the midvein of the pinnule, suggestive of a small fish’s backbone.
The third species I have found there is the Narrow-leaved Spleen-
wort, which fruits even more freely and in the same peculiar
way; the sori, however, are larger, cylindrical rather than flatly
oblong; the frond is of a delicate texture, the pinnae are simple
and entire, in the form of a long tapering acuminate pennant;
in the fertile fronds the pinnae are much contracted and so closely
do the sori stand together that the whole under surface forms
an unbroken series of contiguous cylinders of spore cases. The
fern is far from common and in all this wood there is only one
small colony about a square yard in extent. In August, 1909,
I was fortunate enough to find two other stations for the Narrow-
leaved Spleenwort, one near Lanark and the other near Otty
Lake between Perth and the Rideau. A peculiar feature of the
Narrow-leaved Spleenwort is its frequent companionship with
the Goldie’s Shield Fern. In Niagara Glen below the Whirlpool
Rapids, both plants are found together in the rich leaf-mould
and peat where the ground is swampy, and here in this little
wood near Port Hope within a few yards of the little patch of

Asplenitum angustijolium were plants of the Goldie’s Fern. The

70 Tue Ottawa NaTurRALIST. ‘ [JULY

late Dr. Fletcher when he heard of my finding the Narrow-
leaved Spleenwort asked whether the Goldie’s occurred in its
neighbourhood, his own experience and that of other botanists
having been to find the two together. This is not, however, a
universal rule, for the two colonies of this fern found by me
south of Ottawa had no Goldie’s Fern anywhere near them.

The Goldie’s Shield Fern is certainly a magnificent plant,
and when first unfolded at the end of May peculiar by its light
yellow-green colour and noble proportions. The frond is re-
markably wide and more solid in texture than any other Shield
Fern that approaches it in size, unless perhaps the Marginal
Shield Fern. The Goldie’s Fern is often 5 feet or more in height
and can hold its own for mere stature with the Osmundas and
the Ostrich Fern. Its width is always noticeable; I have gathered ~
in September fresh fronds put up evidently after the fruiting
season; the frond itself (on a long stout stipe) would vary from ~
8 to 10 inches in length and the width across from tip to tip of -
the lowest pair of pinnae was often an inch or more in excess of
the length. Large ferns, say 5 feet high, have an extreme length
of pinna of 8 inches; this would make a rhachis nearly a foot
and a half wide, if the pinnae stood at right angles to the main
stem; occasionally they are so placed but as a rule they incline
upwards at an angle; the shape of the pinna is peculiar, being
slightly curved like a scythe—as in the Holly Fern; the curving
is often more plainly seen in the pinnule which is a pinna in
miniature; the pinnules have a crenate or sinuous margin and
taper to a point. The sori which are not very large lie rather
nearer the midrib than the outer edge of the pinnule.

Another fern common in this wood is the Christmas Fern
(Polystichum or Aspidium acrostichoides), an evergreen like the
Prickly and the Marginal Shield Ferns. It has a somewhat
peculiar habit of fruiting; the sori form on the upper part of the
frond only, usually down from the apex to less than half way;
these fruiting pinnae are strongly contracted, so that the green
frond seems to pass from leafy below to a bare-looking narrowed
and rigid spike.

The only other species of Polystichum found in Ontario is
the Holly Fern (Polystichum Lonchitis); it is fairly common in
the limestone region about Owen Sound and the Bruce peninsula;
smaller than the Christmas Fern it has no bare stipe, the pinnae
starting from the very base; the pinnae and the frond asa whole
are falcate(scythe-shaped) and there is no contraction in fruiting.

All about the sloping meadows that surround the wood, as
well as in it, you find thickets of the Marsh Shield Fern (Aspidium
Thelypteris), and, somewhat sparsely growing in the middle of

19101 Tue Ortawa NaTuRALIST.- 71

the wood, especially about a woodman’s path, its next of kin,

the New York Fern (Aspidium noveboracense); the only two

species of Aspidium destitute of chaff about the stipe, with
peculiarly delicate and glabrous texture of frond. The Marsh
Fern has a very short rhachis and remarkably long stipe; the
lowest pair of pinnae are as long as those immediately above them,
and the pinnules become strongly contracted in fruit, the margins
being revolute over the sori. The New York Fern tapers both
ways, the longest pinnae being about the centre of the frond;
the pinnules are not contracted in fruit, the colour of the fern is
pale yellowish-green, whereas that of the Marsh Fern is often
bluish-green, certainly darker than the New York Fern.

Other Aspidiums found in this wood besides those already
mentioned are the Marginal, the Crested (with its variant the
Clinton’s) and the Prickly. Aspidium marginale is easily re-
cognized by its thick leathery frond, having the sori placed at the
extreme outer margin of the pinnules. It is not common, as its
~ preference is for rocky banks and woods, but under a group of
pines in an elevated corner of the wood a few plants subsist near
some glacial boulders. Aspidimm cristatum’s choice of home is
within the swamps and bogs; there is quite a striking difference
between the fruiting and the barren fronds; the latter are shorter,
lax and more or less prostrate, often growing outwards on all
sides of the rootstock, rosette-fashion; right in the centre of these
you will see 3 or 4 tall rigid fronds, the pinnae standing out
almost at right angles to the rhachis and twisted round on their
bases from a vertical to a horizontal position so that the under
side of the pinna, with its fruiting clusters, is facing the ground
and hidden from the light, while the upper sides appear to be
“taking the sun”’; the outline of the frond is more or less oblong,
the pinnae from the base almost tothe apex being practically of
one uniform length. Aspidium spinulosum is one of the most
variable of ferns, yet always easily recognized by its finely-cut
frond, the lobes ending in a prickle or acuminate tip. It is quite
common and one of our handsomest ferns; I saw a plant of it
to-day (June 15) in a wood I have been speaking of; a tree,
fallen or felled years ago, had left a stump some 3 feet high; the
top of this was rotted out to a depth of more than a foot; in the
centre of this natufal flowerpot was growing a magnificent plant
of the Prickly Shield Fern; I counted 25 fronds, most of them
well over 2 feet in height and fruiting profusely. Being evergreen
it is often kept by florists over the winter, in some cool damp
place, and used at Christmas for foliage with carnations and
other cut flowers of the hothouse.

Altogether, out of 24 species of fern that I have found in
the immediate neighbourhood of Port Hope, this little wood

72 Tue Ottawa NATURALIST. [Jury

and its surroundings harbour all but 2. These include 2 species
of Cystopteris (Bladder Fern), 2 species of Onoclea (the Sensitive
and the Ostrich), 2 species of Osmunda (the Royal and the
Cinnamon), the Adder’s Tongue, and 2 species of Botrychium
(the Virginia Rattle-snake and the Ternate Grape Fern).

The Bladder Bulblet Fern (Cystopteris bulbifera) forms a
tangled mass of intertwined fronds about the banks of the stream
and the swampy hollows of the wood. The stipe is reddish,
translucent and brittle; the frond takes one of two forms, either
short, triangular, rather longer than wide, or a very prolonged
narrow oblong; this latter form is usually procumbent and
straggling, especially where the fern grows over the talus of
loose limestone blocks at the foot of a shaded bank or cliff, it
seems to take a new lease of life. Antzus-like, at every point of
contact with mother earth, I have found the frond running along
like a creeper in a slightly upward plane from stone to stone with
a straggling growth of 4 feet or more. The species is unique
among our northern ferns in forming green bublets about the
rhachis and pinnae, whence a new fern-plant springs as soon as
the bublet drops to the ground.

The other species (Cystopteris fragilis) is usually found grow-
ing in tufts from seams and clefts of damp rock, but like many
plants it has another home, in which it grows to greater size and
sturdiness; this second home is in crumbly soil on mounds and
about the upraised mossy turf at the base of trees. I gathered
5 or 6 fronds to-day from such a place, they were fairly rigid and
erect for so delicate a fern, about 12 inches in height, 44 inches of
stipe, dark-brown, nearly black at the base, lighter above, green
on the rhachis from base to tip of frond. These erect ferns were
fruiting freely and growing up out of a tangled mat of smaller
more or less prostrate fronds hardly fruiting at all. The genus
develops very early in the season, but early as C. bulbijera is,
C. fragilis is more than a fortnight earlier; I saw this year a
mound of earth in my wood covered with expanded fronds 2 or
3 inches long by the 7th of April, and last year at the beginning
of May, when other ferns were in the young crosier stage, its
fronds were full-grown and the fruit dots appearing.

Something must now be said about the 2 species of Onoclea—
the Sensitive Fern (O. sensibilis) and the Ostrich Fern (O. Stru-
thiopteris). To the uninitiate eye there is little or no resemblance
between these ferns, but ‘“‘by their fruit ye shall know them,”
dissimilar as are the barren fronds of the two inter se, they are
yet more alike than the fertile fronds in either species are like
the sterile of their own plant; on the other hand the fertile fronds
in both species differ from the sterile in the same way and for

‘\

4
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THE OtTtrawa NATURALIST. 73

the same cause and are consequently very much alike. In both
species the fruiting spike is an ordinary frond modified to protect
the sporangia. In the Sensitive Fern the pinna of the fertile
spike appears as a midrib suf porting on each side a row of sessile

or berry bead-like capsules, each lobe of the original pinna

having apparently rolled in on itself; independently; in the
Ostrich Fern the pinna shows as a long narrow pod, or more
exactly a mid-rib flanked on each side from base to apex by a
narrow more or less cylindrical roll or coil; in this case the pin-
nules have not rolled in on themselves separately, but their
presence as distinct pinnules or lobes of the pinna is shown by
the coil being cut into segments at short intervals corresponding
to the pinnatifid notches of the unmodified pinna. The fruiting
fronds of both species develop in July and August; the genus, as
we have it, is decidedly moisture-loving, the plants being every-
where familiar objects about wet meadows, swamps and thickets.
I say everywhere, but in the Algonquin Park within say 12 miles
of headquarters, the Ostrich Fern does not grow; the last time
I returned from the Park to Ottawa I spied none of it from the
train west of Golden Lake. The Sensitive Fern is reputed a
frequent victim of late spring frosts, but I have not found it so
““sensitive’’ in this respect as the Oak Fern, the Marsh Shield
Fern or the Cinnamon Fern.

The Ostrich Fern is surely a fern pre-eminently handsome
and of tropical splendour; no doubt the Osmunda regalis attains
a greater height and is more massive, indeed it is often mistaken
for a shrub of some kind; but the Ostrich Fern can never be
taken for anything other than a fern, its pale green fronds are
unmistakable; so, indeed, are the fronds of the Cinnamon and
the Interrupted Ferns, which nearly surpass it in size, but what
all the Osmundas lack in the entire plant, the Ostrich Fern has
in matchless sort—symmetry. The plant grows in a hollow
crown, a circlet of symmetrical fronds, equidistant, uniform; the
fronds grow upwards and outwards for 3 or 4 feet and then curl
gracefully away from the centre, their tips curving back in a
beautiful arch, they look like giant shuttlecocks or green vases of
graceful outline and exquisite workmanship. From the centre
of this vase springs later a cluster of short stiff fruiting fronds.
I kept a plant of the Ostrich Fern in a large pot one spring; for
a week or more, at the time of their greatest activity, the fronds
grew nearly 2 inches every 24 hours; by the end of June the
fronds were between 5 and 6 feet long. Not only is the whole
plant symmetrical, but each frond is a study in proportion. It
tapers very gradually to the base from near the top, where it
suddenly contracts into a narrow apex of little pinnae or pinnules,

74 THe Orrawa NATURALIST. ~ fSGEP

Where the frond is widest, some way above the middle, in fact
where it arches over to form the wide lip of the “‘vase” it so
closely resembles, the pinnae are extremely long and narrow,
tapering gradually to a pointed extremity; they look like long
streamers or pennants;-these pinnae are pinnatifid into narrow
oblong pinnules, something like the ultimate divisions of the
Cinnamon Fern but narrower. The plant spreads freely by

slender underground stolons; as you walk along some shady path

through the woods, you will often see a great patch of wet ground
filled as with a shrubbery by these immense tufts of ostrich plumes
—a wealth of greenin riotous profusion. Looked at through the
undergrowth and brushwood of maples and other light-foliaged
trees, the scene is one of tropical luxuriance, you think of a New
Zealand forest of tree-ferns, or a jungle of dwarf palms in Brazil.

About the Osmundas I have already spoken; and I shall
defer mention of the Adder’s Tongue family with its two genera
of Ophioglossum and Botrychium to a sequel, in it I hope to extend
the list of species already mentioned from about 20 to 36. The
paper will deal with two seasons of fern-hunting, chiefly from
headquarters on the Rideau, though once or twice involving a
day’s journey by rail to points as far distant as Niagara, Muskoka
and the Algonquin Park.

TWO KINDS OF WAR—ONE IS CONSIDERED
NECESSARY AND THE OTHER IS NOT.

By Henry SKINNER, M.D., PHILADELPHIA, PA.

War is said to be hell and it may be interesting to find at
least a partial reason why this is so. One of the factors in
making this lurid fire and brimstone condition, where death
lurks, is what may be called armament, consisting of various
kinds of death-dealing devices. This, however, is not the most
important factor as man’s devices do not succeed nearly so well
as those created by nature. The great death-dealing combina-
tion in war times is made up of three animals and a plant. The
plant is exceedingly small and it takes the highest powers of the
microscope to elucidate it properly. It goes by the name of
Bacillus typhosus and causes typhoid fever. The smallest of the
three animals is a protozoan, and it is also very small, as it
destroys the red corpuscles of the blood, and they are less than
one three-thousandeth of an inch in diameter. This animal is
known as the Plasmodium malariae. The other two factors are
insects and they are very common ones, the mosquito and the

or

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1910] Tue Ortrawa NATURALIST 75

ubiquitous house-fly. The mosquito would have a good case in
court if it were tried by an impartial jury as it could put ina
plea of accidental or unintentional homicide. In its search for
food it uses its beak hypodermatically and introdues into its
biped victim the Plasmodium malariae and that disease that has
such a misnomer is set up. The house-fly is hardly responsible
for its hairy feet and nature did not restrict it as to the places
where it should walk, as it does equally well on the glass of the
baby’s bottle or on the soldier’s biscuit. It could also set up a

plea of innocence and show that all its crimes are due to ignorance.
Man must, howeyer, look at the matter from the standpoint of
self-preservation and put up a ‘‘no trespass’ sign and if the

- warning is not heeded the careless dung-bred dipteron must suffer

the consequences. When a young man goes to war he is full of
the martial spirit and he is willing to be a victim of the bullets
of the enemy for the glory and rightousness of his country; but
he is much more likely to be put under the sod by the Plas-
modium malariae or the Bacillus typhosus, and there is no doubt
but that a knowledge of bacteriology and entomology are of
more importance in war times than the question of armament.
During the British-Boer war there were said to be at least a
hundred thousand men invalided and a Canadian surgeon
testified that in many camps the meat hung up could not be
seen for house-flies. Think of this many men, all a loss as fight-
ing units, and the great expense to the government for medical
attendants, nurses, food and medicines. The United States
thought it had a war with Spain and that the States won the
victory, but it would be more accurate to state that the United
States had a war with the house-fly and suffered awful defeat
at the hands (feet) of its little enemy, as the Spaniards only
killed about two hundred Americans and the house-fly by its
utter carelessness in walking in the latrines and then flying into
the mess tents and stealing its meals from the soldiers, made it
possible for the Bacillus typhosus to make many very ill and kill
over four thousand of them. Thus the fly was victorious over a
great nation. Fifty thousand men are buried in the neighbor-
hood of the Panama Canal and the little mosquito beat the
French to a finish in their efforts to build a great transcontinental
water-way. There are about fifty thousand men there now in
an effort to accomplish the same object and they will probably
be successful as they know the enemy and her power and also
know how to prevent her careless ways of getting a meal of
blood. Some heedless people may not know the importance of
this subject and they are slow to learn, and it may be necessary
to remind them that war is hell and that in the Crimean War

76 THe Ottawa NATURALIST. [JuLy

17,580 died from disease; during the Civil War 186,236 died

from disease and in the French expedition to Madagascar in

1894, only 29 were killed and 7,000 died from disease. Most of |

these deaths were probably due to the irresponsibility and care-
lessness of insects, and man has therefore suffered. How long
will be continue to be the victim?

EXCURSIONS.

BLUEBERRY Point.—The excursion to Blueberry Point on
May 7th was attended by about forty members of the Club,
students of the Normal School and others. The weather being
of the-very best, and the locality one with many distinctive
features, much good work was accomplished. by the various
groups. The interest in the locality, especially for those who
have been visiting it through a long series of years, was some-
what heightened by the realization that its day as a wild natural
retreat, is doomed by the encroachments of the real estate agent
and the summer‘cottager. Already the picturesque name of the
past, derived from the profusion of Blueberries growing there,
has been supplanted by the more fantastic, though less sig-
nificant name of Wychwood, while ‘‘streets’’ already blazed and
labelled, extend with offending boldness into the very heart of
the grove.

The passing of Blueberry Point will be regretted by all who
have known it. It is one of the few accessible localities around
Ottawa for the pretty Trailing Arbutus; as also for some trees,
to be referred to below. The Arbutus was found to be still
abundant, although at that date almost past blooming. The
Aromatic Wintergreen with its shining leaves, and bright scarlet
fruit, both persisting from last year, was also much in evidence.

The principal observations of the afternoon were presented
by the Leaders, when all had gathered together again at five
o'clock. The President, Mr. Halkett, called for these reports,
and himself dealt with the zoological ‘‘finds’”’ of the day. Speci-

mens of two species of Salamanders were taken: Spelerpes ruber.

(a beautiful form), and Plethodon glutinosus. Much interest was
manifested in examining the forms of life in the pools, several
specimens of crustaceans, including Daphnia, being found, and
one of the isopods, Asellus aquaticus. Judging from the character
of the tubes of the larve of a certain Caddis-fly, probably this
was a third species observed during the excursions of this season.
These tubes were mostly made of bits of small coniferous leaves
which pointed outwards like the spines on the shell of a sea-
urchin.

THE Ottawa NATURALIST. and

: Speaking of the geological teatures of the district, Mr.

Wilson said that only a few outcrops of rock were to be seen.
These exposures were Chazy shale, and this formation is known
to underlie the banks of the Ottawa on both sides of the river
for a considerable distance. No fossils were found. He pointed
out the relation of the Chazy beds to the Trenton and Utica
formations as seen on the former excursions to Rockcliffe and
Billing’s Bridge.

Mr. J. W. Gibson, with specimens in hand, called attention
to the fact that three species of pine were growing together
naturally in the vicinity, as nowhere else around Ottawa. These
were the White, Red, and Jack or Banksian pines, the differences
between which he-pointed out. The latter occurs only here, and
the second in but one or two other places near Ottawa.

The writer showed specimens of three Amelanchiers or
Juneberries, all in blossom. The species canadensis, and its
variety Botryapium, which differs in being pubescent, were
advanced in bloom, while the other species, spicata, was more
recently open. He also spoke of a fine example of ‘‘witches’
broom” which had been found on a balsam nearby, and ex-
plained that it was due to a fungus of the Exoascus group, which
lives from year to year within the wood.

Some specimens of Antennarta canadensis, which had been
deformed into rosettes of leaves lying close upon the ground, by
the attacks of a Cecidomyid insect, were discovered by Miss
Matthews; and the larve causing the injury, have since been
identified by Dr. Felt, of Albany, N.Y., as probably those of
Rhopalomyia antennariea.

Others called upon were Mr. Brown, who briefly referred to
some of the plants collected, and Mr. Kingston, who gave a list
of the birds met with, and made some interesting observations
on the habits of some of the species. Owing to a rather strong
wind, not so many birds were seen as otherwise might have been,
but the following were observed: Phoebe, Bronze Grackle, Red-
winged Blackbird, Meadow Lark, White-throated Sparrow, Song
Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Purple Finch, Ruby-crowned King-
let (in full song), and Catbird.

TL* G:

McKay’s Lake.—The excurslon to McKay’s Lake was held
on Saturday, May 28th. The weather was delightful, and in
spite of the fact that very few were able to be present, the after-
noon proved to be an exceptionally profitable one. In the
absence of the President, Mr. Kingston was in charge of the
party, which assembled at the Bridge at 3 p.m. Two delightful

78 THE Ottawa NATURALIST. [JuLy

hours were spent in the woods and on the shores of the lake, and
at 5 o’clock all assembled at the appointed place, to compare

notes, and to hear the short addresses which were given by the

Leaders of the various branches.

’ Mr. Groh, as one of the botanical Leaders, showed several
species of sedges, and pointed out particularly that species known
as Carex plantaginea, drawing attention to its very broad leaves. _
He also referred to the great number of species to be found near
Ottawa, and to the very large number known in the world.
Several kinds of violets were also shown, particular reference
being made to the great abundance and luxuriant size of Viola
canadensis, which in some cases had grown to a height of over
12 inches. Viola pubescens was also shown as an example of a
tall leafy-stemmed violet, differing from the last in having the
flowers yellow, instead of white. Several interesting points were
mentioned in reference to the Indian Cucumber Root, a plant
which gets its popular name very appropriately from its crisp,
juicy, cucumber-flavoured rhizome. The curious long-branched
stigma of this plant was pointed out, also the fact that the
liliaceous rule of three is followed in the grouping of its whorls.
The Indian Turnip was also shown, and its rootstock or corm
contrasted with the Indian Cucumber as to flavour.

In the stagnant water of McKay’s Lake the botanists
found specimens of Myriophyllum (Water Milfoil) and several
points of interest in connection with this plant were touched
upon. Other plants were shown and handed around for in-
spection.

Mr. Wilson was then called upon to give an account of his
afternoon’s studies in geology. Those particularly interested
examined the marl deposits on the shores of the lake, finding
there many things of engrossing interest. These deposits are of
considerable thickness, varying from one to ten feet, as seen in
recent exposures. They are fifteen feet or more, above the
present water-level in the lake, and show that it formerly stood
at a higher level, and occupied a larger area than it now covers.
The marl is composed of fresh water shells, many of which are
in a perfect state of preservation. Eight species, belonging to
six genera were collected and identified, viz.:—Planorbis cam-
panulatus, P. bicarinatus, P. parvus, Physa heterostropha, Lim-
nea galbana, Valveta tricarinata, Amnicola porata, and Pisidium
abditum. These shells are all abundant except the last named.
Besides the species here enumerated there are a few rare ones
which have been collected at this place, but were not found on
Saturday. Below the marl beds there is in most places, a bed
of coarse gravel, and under this several feet of pure sand bedded

THE Ottawa NATURALIST. 79

in layers of varying thickness. Some of these layers illustrate
“false bedding; the layers being composed of a number of
laminae lying at a steep angle, while the main beds are horizontal.
It was pointed out that the tilted layers were probably laid
down on a sloping bank by a swift current, and that this was
followed by a period of still water, when the horizontal bed was
deposited on top. It is interesting to note that this sand con-
tains marine shells, indicating that an arm of the sea invaded
this area when it was deposited. Attention was directed to the
cut terraces surrounding the lake, and also to the gully cut by
the present outlet, which has reduced the water to its present
level.

After Mr. Wilson’s interesting and instructive talk, Mr.
Kingston gave a short account of his afternoon’s observations
in ornithology. The following is a list of the birds that had been
noted :— -

Nighthawk, Chimney Swift, Kingbird, Wood Pewee, Crested
Flycatcher, Least Flycatcher, Red-winged Blackbird, Cowbird
(female), Meadow Lark, Baltimore Oriole, Goldfinch, Song
Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Vesper
Sparrow, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Bank Swallow (nesting),
Yellow Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, American Red-
start, Maryland Yellow-throat, Oven Bird, Wilson Thrush.

Several interesting points were brought out concerning the
- different birds, particular mention being made of the Cowbird,
and her lazy habit of depositing her eggs in the nests of smaller
birds. A last year’s nest of a Red-winged Blackbird was found
by one of the party and handed around for inspection. Notices
having been given out about the excursion to Macdonald College,
etc., the party started for home, everyone feeling, I am sure,
that the afternoon had been spent to some purpose, and that a
great deal of knowledge had been acquired in a very delightful
way.

F. M. F.

NOTE.

How TO DEAL WITH THE FLy NUISANCE.

A circular giving concise directions as to the method of
ridding houses, public places, etc., of the dangerous house-fly
has recently been issued by the Division of Entomology, Central
Experimental Farm, Ottawa. This is most timely, and all who
read this note should apply to the Division for a copy.

<a i rin ~~ yt ee Rd) a eee Fe le “an .
a Pe IAG BRE SE: en ee Sv
. Ses Beare SAL ae nt ey 4
‘s a mm a nd, bt PTY
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hae

80 Tur Orrawa NATURALIST. [Jury

BOOK NOTICE.

Text Book or ELEMENTARY ZooLocy for Secondary
Educational Institutions, by Thomas Walton Galloway, Ph.D.,
Professor of Biology in the James Millikin University, Decatur,
Illinois, with 160 illustrations: Philadelphia, P. Blakiston’s Son
& Co., price $1.25 net. j

This new text book of x + 418 pages should have a wide
sale not only among teachers, for whom it will be of special value,
but other persons interested in elementary zoology. It is of a
very convenient size, 5} x 8 inches, the matter has been well
prepared, the illustrations and printing are excellent, and the
price brings it within the reach of all. The writer states that the —
“book is an effort to combine the older and the newer phases of
thought among us, and is offered as a partial, and yet a distinct,
step toward what the author believes to be a sound pedagogical
and humanistic movement. He believes that the secondary
school biology of the future will be primarily concerned about
our life interests; but he believes that the great evolutionary
conception, which can only be had by some study of the ecology,
morphology and physiology of the animal phyla, is quite as
really and profoundly a ‘human interest.’ as is stock-breeding,
agriculture or malaria. This conception has changed the whole
aspect of human thinking in the last half-century. No course in
zoology, which is more than commercial, can afford to neglect it.”

Two sizes of type are used. The matter in larger type can
be completed by a good class in a year. That in fine print is
intended as a background for reference and for extra work.
The book is divided into thirty chapters, each one of which is full
of information and suggestions for the teacher. ‘Zoology and
its Purpose’”’ is the title of Chapter 1. This is followed by chapters
on ‘“‘ Field Work,”’ ‘‘ Classification of Animals—General Survey,”
‘Laboratory Work—Forms of Matter,” ‘‘ Living and Non-living
Objects,” ‘‘ Plants and Animals,” etc., etc. Inthe thirty chapters
are 407 separate headings and topics. The last chapter
“Economic Zoology” gives briefly interesting facts regarding
‘Animals as a Food Supply,” ‘“‘ Animals in Science and Medicine,”
“Animals Directly Injurious to Man,” ‘Animals Hurtful to
Plants and Plant Products,” etc.

The brief keys throughout the book will be found of much
value to the pupil. The work on the whole is concise and the
subjects are well chosen, and as the writer is a well known biolo-
gist, and one who knows the requirements of the teacher and
pupil, this, his latest contribution, will undoubtedly be well
received. Dr. Galloway’s other book ‘‘Text Book of Zoology,”
xii + 481 pages, is now in its second edition. A. G.

ty

oe

}

THE OTTAWA NATURALIST. VOL. XXIV. PLATE 6.

ee oF
JAMES: FLETCH
PrStd ion eee

THE JAMES FLETCHER MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN.

a

THE OTTAWA NATURALIST

2 VOL. XXIV. OTTAWA, AUGUST, 1910 No. 5

UNVEILING OF THE JAMES FLETCHER
MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN.

The unveiling of the James Fletcher Memorial Fountain
took place at the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, on
Tuesday afternoon, the 19th July, 1910, at the hour of 4.30 p.m.
The ceremony was a complete success in every way. Several
hundreds of people came out from the City, and some distinguish-
ed visitors from a distance were also present. The Ottawa Field- .
Naturalists’ Club, under whose auspices the Fountain was
erected, was largely represented from its local membership.
Official representatives from the Royal Society of Canada and
the Entomological Society of Ontario were also present, and
took a prominent part in the proceedings.

Before introducing the speakers, Mr. E. R. Cameron, K.C.,
the Chairman of the Fletcher Memorial Committee, outlined
briefly the steps that led to the erection of the Fountain, instanc-
ing facts in regard to the work of the Committee, the soliciting
of subscriptions and the decision, after the most careful enquiry
and consideration, to place the work of the memorial in the
hands of Dr. R. Tait McKenzie, of the University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, U.S., an artist of wide repute who has won a high
place in the salons of London and Paris for his work in bronzes.

The Honourable Sydney A. Fisher, Minister of Agriculture,
who unveiled the Memorial Fountain, spoke in the very highest
of terms of the late Dr. Fletcher and his work for Canada. He
referred to his early associations with him, and in a charming
manner described how the personal friendship which began
many years ago continued up to the time of his death. He said
that Dr. Fletcher was one of the first, if not the very first, person
to welcome him to Ottawa on his election as a Member of
Parliament. He then went on to speak of his relations with
him as Minister of Agriculture. Dr. Fletcher, he said, represented
the ideal type of a public servant. The work which he did
- throughout the whole of Canada was of the greatest benefit to
the country at large. Entirely forgetting himself in every way
he gave up his whole time 1o the work in which he was placed in

82 Tue Ottawa NATURALIST.

charge, as Entomologist and Botanist of the Dominion Experi-
mental Farms. He was a very hard worker and one who never
spared himself. There was no doubt in his mind that if he
(Fletcher) had taken a much needed rest, some few years ago,
that he might have been with us and doing his work to-day. His
investigations and lecture ccurses took him to every part of
the Dominion and the experience he thus gained respecting
agricultural conditions, was of extreme value to him in his work.
His whole thought was to benefit Canadian agriculture, and the
wide reputation he made, not only in his own country, but
throughout practically the whole world where economic problems
in agriculture are studied, will last as long as time itself. Of a
genial and enthusiastic temperament he made friends wherever
he went and his name to-day 18 known in every part of Canada
where agriculture is practised. His delightful personality brought
him in close touch with farmers, horticulturists and others, and
his talks and lectures on insects and plants were always eagerly
listened to.

Dr. Bethune, Professor of Entomology at the Ontario
Agricultural College, Guelph, expressed his gratification at see-
ing so many young people present to do honour to the memory
of the late Dr. Fletcher, who was so deeply interested in children
of all ages and so ready at all times to help and instruct them.
He said that he came as a representative of the Ontario Agri-
cultural College where Dr. Fletcher was always a most welcome
visitor. Whenever it was announced that he was to give an
address at the College, the hall was sure to be thronged with
both young men and women who were eager to hear him. He
also represented the Entomological Society of Ontario, of which
Dr. Fletcher had been a very active member for a great:number
of years. On the appointment of Dr. Saunders to be Director of
the Experimental Farms he was obliged to give up his active
co-operation in the work of the Society, and happily his place
was very satisfactorily filled by our lamented friend. For nearly
thirty years he was a member of the Council of the Society and
did a very great deal to advance its interests in various directions.

The speaker then went on to describe his own intimate
friendship with Dr. Fletcher and his admiration for his ability
as an entomologist and in other respects as well. While we
could not regard him as a man prominent for discoveries in
science, while we did, not exalt him to the same position as a
Darwin, a Huxley or an Agassiz, still he had a very scientific
capacity for discerning minute distinctions in the objects of
his study, and with his wonderfully retentive memory was able
to do a great deal of most valuable work. We do not, therefore,
erect this memorial as a tribute to his scientific attainments, but

SE ————=——eEe See ee ee

—

eS oe ee ae ems ee

ee

we (1910) THE OTTAWA NATURALIST. 83
Bi.
“%y rather as a token of our love for the man himself and the devoted
affection in which we all held him. While he was widely known
. Z and respected all over the country, and was regretted as a true
friend of a great variety of people, there was another side to his
__._ character which was not so generally known: he had a very deep
sense of religion and was a man of unobtrusive piety which only
revealed itself to those who were on the most intimate terms
with him.
Dr. Bethune then read a letter from Dr. L. O. Howard,
Chief of the Bureau of Entomology, Washington, and therefore
considered to be at the head of the entomologists of North
America. He wrote as follows: ‘“‘I regret more than I can tell
that I am unable to come to Ottawa for the unveiling of the
memorial. Dr. Fletcher was one of my dearest friends and I
had the greatest admiration for him. ‘His services to Canada
were very great. He had a wonderful capacity in a very broad
field in entomology and was one of the best informed men of
_ his time on the intricate and manifold aspects of economic
' entomology. His reports were sound and practical, and as a
public speaker before assemblages of farmers and gardeners he
was unexcelled. He was known and admired, and loved also,
* throughout the United States. In fact I have never known a
man who had so many absolutely devoted friends as Dr. Fletcher.
His energy, his enthusiasm, his absorbing interest in everything
that lives and grows, his warm heart, his perfect lack of even a
suspicion of egotism attracted everyone who knew him and
bound them to him in friendship, and even love, forever.” ,
Dr. Wm. Saunders, C.M.G., Director of the Dominion
Experimental Farms, spoke very feelingly of his long association
with Dr. Fletcher, which commenced before his appointment on
4 the staff of the Experimental Farms. The value of his work as
s Entomwlogist and Botanist to the farmers of the Dominion was
very great and he has been much missed. At meetings of farmers
and fruitgrowers his clear statements. regarding subjects under
discussion made his presence a gteat benefit. He was blessed
with a child-like optimism and cheerfulness of spirit which made
his society always welcome, and instances of his wide and kind
sympathy can be recalled by all who had the privilege of his
acquaintance. Dr. Saunders said he had hoped to enjoy his
co-operation in the work of the Experimental Farms as long as
he held the office of Director. An all-wise Providence decreed
otherwise, however; but although deprived of his society and
help, he would always look back to the pleasant intercourse of
the years they spent together. Such a life as his was will be a
lasting influence for good. Having by this memorial striven to
show our appreciation of our late friend’s character and work,

!
84 THE OtTTaAwa NATURALIST. [Auc..

ve tray honour him still further Ly endeavouring to maintain
and advance those sciences to the promotion of which so much of
his life was so enthusiastically devoted.

Dr. W. D. LeSueur, Hon. Secretary of the Royal Society,
in paying his tribute to the late Dr. Fletcher said that the cere-
mony in which we are engaging to-day, the duty we are fulfilling
towards the memory of our departed and deeply-lamented friend,
is one in which the Royal Society of Canada may very fittingly
take a part. It was early in the history of the Sociesy—at its
third annual meeting in the year 1885-—that the name of James
Fletcher was enrolled in its list of members. His zeal and his
attainments as a practical botanist and entomologist had already
attracied ihe aitention of the leading men.of Section IV, the
Section devcted io the biological sciences; and they gave him
a warm welcome to their ranks. It is almost needless to
add ihat he did not regard his election in the light of an idle
decoration; -he saw in it rather a call to work and duty, and he
tcok at once an active part in the labours of his Section, of which
nine years later he was elected President. The address which
he delivered in that capacity dealt with the subject of praciical
entomology. The turn of his mind was at all times praciical.
He was one of those men who see things to do, and who do them.
He was not a man to undervalue or depreciate scientific theory,
but his talent lay rather in the region of the visible and tangible.
The living, breathing world was his domain. He-had the quick
eye, the retentive memory, and, above all, the responsive,
syfnpathetic heart.

In the year 1901 we find him reading a paper before the
Society on “‘The Value of Nature-Study in Education.” This
was a Subject after his own heart. He could not understand
education apart from nature-study.

His executive abilities were quickly recognized, and for
many years he filled most efficiently the office of Honorary
Treasurer. In the year 1906, he succeeded Dr. S. E. Dawson,
then elected vice-president, in the more difficult and laborious
office of Honorary Secretary. Here his talents of industry,
tact and management found abundant exercise. The office had
previously been held but by two individuals, Sir John Bourinot
for the first twenty years of the Society’s existence (1882-1902),
and Dr. Dawson for the four succeeding years. These were the
distinguished predecessors in whose steps he had to walk: and
it was agreed by all that, in his hands, the best traditions of
the office were fully maintained. He worked while it was day
faithfully and well. Feeling testimony is borne to his services
and character in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Canada
of last year; and in the galaxy of noble men whom that Society

THe Ottawa NATURALIST. 85

has lost, the name of James Fletcher shines, and will shine, with
a radiance all its own.

Mr. R. B. Whyte spoke on behalf of the Oitawa Field-
Naturalists’ Club. He told of the early days in the history of
the society and of the keen interest which Dr. Fletcher, who had
been worthily styled its ‘‘father,’’ always had in its welfare.
When the Club was organized in 1879, about 40 gentlemen join-
ed its ranks, largely through Dr. Fletcher’s influence. No one
at that time ever expected the Club to develop in the remark-
able way it has done and to do the great amount of work it has
since accomplished. From that year until his death, during
which period the membership has increased to over 300, he was
at all times the chief mainstay, so to speak, of its varied branches
of work. As a field-naturalist, there was probably no one in
America who was his equal. He had a deep love for boys and
girls, and many well-known naturalists in Canada to-day owe
their early interest in plants and animals to him. At the excur-
sions of the Club he was always the leading centre of attraction.
Everyone wanted to go with Dr. Fletcher through the woods
and into the meadows and get from him some of his enthusiasm
and knowledge about the forms of life which occurred every-
where.

Mr. Frank T. Shutt, Chief Chemist of the Dominion Experi-
mental Farms, said that to those who knew James Fletcher
personally no monument in stone or bronze is needed to keep his
memory green. The charm of the true, kindly, cultured gentle-
man, which we all felt when in his company, will not readily be
forgotten. But we have done well in the erection of this Fountain,
a tribute to his memory—a tribute, as has been happily expressed
upon the stene, of affection from his friends, that may speak to
those who come after of the love and the admiration we had for
him; to tell them that James Fletcher was a man who did much
good in his day and generation. His work was of incalculable
benefit to the farmer and fruit-grower of this country in com-
batting weed, fungus and injurious insect. Probably of even
more value, however, was his inspiring enthusiasm, that power
to awaken in others an interest in the study of animate nature.
And in this connection we of Ottawa were particularly fortunate.
Whether on the excursions of the Field-Naturalists’ Club or on
the lecture platform of the winter series of lectures, he was the
teacher that all listened to with pleasure. We do honour to-day
to the memory of a busy man called away in the prime of his
life, in the midst of his work. So far as we know he had made
no startling or brilliant discovery in the realm of pure science,
but that fact—if fact it be—does not in the least detract from
the honour that is rightly his. We are rather apt now-a-days to

86 Tue Ottawa NATURALIST. [Aue.

save our applause for those who legitimately or illegitimately
can startle us. But Dr. Fletcher was none such. He was a hard
worker—but one who looked upon his work as his pleasure—and
he was a phenomenal success in that special work to which he
devoted his life. He left us a splendid example; may we all try _
in some measure to follow in his footsteps.

We may all take great satisfaction in knowing that this
Fountain, now entrusted to the care of the Experimental Farm
and the public, has been erected as a free-wil' offering by his
admirers. In not a single instance was personal canvassing
resorted to. We shall rejoice to reflect in the days that are to
come that this memorial was the spontaneous tribute of those
who knew and loved James Fletcher.

The following letter from Dr. T. J. W. Burgess, Medical
Superintendent of the Protestant Hospital for the Insane,
Montreal, was read by Mr. Shutt:

‘“T cannot tell you how sorry I am to be obliged to say that
I shall not be able to be present to do honour to dear old James
Fletcher. No more lovable man ever breathed. It is one of
my proudest boasts that, for over thirty years, ] was counted by
him on his list of friends. Never had science a more ardent
votary than the late Dr. Fletcher. His whole thought was given
to it and not only his personal intimates, but Canada as a whole
should cherish the memory of one who offered up his entire
time and energy to her service, making for himself thereby a
fame that it will be dificult for anyone to eclipse. As Longfellow
says:

‘His heart was in his work and the heart
Giveth grace unto every Art.’

Peace to his ashes!
‘He rests from his labours, and his works do follow him.’”’

FERN HUNTING IN ONTARIO.

By F. J. A. Morris, Port Hope, Onr.

IJ—ABsoutT THE RIDEAU AND OTHER ROCK DISTRICTS.

When I went from Port Hope to the Rideau Ferry in my
first season’s fern-hunting, I was curious to see what new species,
if any, awaited me in a rocky district. I told myself not to ex-
pect more than 2 or 3 additions to my list of 20, and I kept
assuring myself (and others, too, when I could find a willing
ear) that I should be satisfied with 24 species in all. 1 was noth-

THe OtTtawa NATURALIST. 87

ing short of jubilant when I ended the season with 30 species;
this number rose in 1907 to 34 and in 1909 to 37.

“Ferns have a great liking for limestone, and almost my
first expedition was to a creek flowing from Bass Lake to the
Lower Rideau. Its course is little more than a mile long, first
_ through beaver-meadows and then through pastures, where the

stream is shaded with trees and flanked on one side by limestone
cliffs ranging from 2 or 3 to 20 feet in height. Refreshing myself
at a natural well in the rock on the near bank of the stream, I
stepped across, scrambled up the loose talus and examined the
shaded wall of limestone above. If you are not a fern lover you
cannot share my feelings when I tell you I was standing within
arm’s length of 3 new species.

On the upper side of the topmost ledge stood a dense mass
of Polypody, forming a natural coping-stone, as it were, to the
rock wall. Beneath some lower ledges and in the horizontal
seams were tufts of Black Spleenwort (Aspleniwm Trichomanes) ;
while further in the shade, beneath some cedars that grew above
the rock and behind two maples that grew up from below was a
mass of tangled leaves—what could they be? some sort of dock?
no! there were lines of spore-cases on the under side; it was the
Walking Leaf (Camptosorus rhizophyllus), and, as though to put
itself beyond suspicion or a doubt, it was actually walking; I got
a plant three of whose fronds had regained the moss on the face
of the cliff, rooted and given rise to plants of their own.

The Walking Leaf must have shade. It is fond of limestone,
but in deeply-shaded damp woods I have found it growing on
sandstone, and if you slash the woods and mutilate its sylvan
bowers, letting in the sunlight, it will soon disappear even from
its favorite limestone shelves. Its foliage has not the glossy
finish of its congener, the Hart’s Tongue, but its quaint growth
and a certain local rarity about it will always attract attention.

The tendency of the long tapering frond with its sensitive
tip to regain the mossy bed from which it sprang, seems like an
instinct closely analogous to the blind groping movements of
certain lower forms of marine life; true the tentacle thrust forth
by the plant to search for the wall of its sea-cave swims in a
more impalpable element, the ocean of air, but it serves the same
purpose. The act is doubtless not a conscious one in either case,
but in both alike sensation is involved. Not seldom when the
frond has reached outwards to a distance from the rock and takes
a long time to return, the auricles at the base of the frond are
found stretching out blind hands in the shape of similar sensitive
tentacles. The great blocks of limestone that fill the Niagara
gorge are often densely carpeted with the Walking Leaf, the

88 Tue Orrawa Naruratist. [Auc.

plants growing in interwoven masses, a tangle there is no un-
ravelling.

The little Black Spleenwort I had never seen growing in
its native wild before. But I recognized in it at first glance the
plant that I had seen as a boy of 10 years old in the pedlar’s pack
of a veteran fern-hunter in Perthshire; he had lifted it out with
pride to show me as part of the spoils at the end of his long day’s
tramp to Glen Almond. He called it the Scotch Maidenhair and
told me it was getting scarce in our neighbourhood of Crieff. It
has a close kinsman in the Green Spleenwort, which is found in
Ontario about the Bruce Peninsula. In size and shape of frond
the ferns are indistinguishable, but the stipe of the Black Spleen-
wort is a shining ebony at the base and dark brown above to
the apex of the rhachis; in the Green Spleenwort the stalk is
brownish at the base and green above. I have found both
species fairly abundant about mountain torrents and shaded
glens in Argyllshire and high up on the hills of North Wales.

Altogether, along about half a mile of this little stream I
have found 24 species of fern. The Christmas Fern is not nearly
as common about the Rideau as at Port Hope, and I have not
found the Narrow-leaved Spleenwort or the Goldie’s Shield Fern
at all, but on ithe other hand the Polypody is abundant; its
favorite home is on top of a shaded rock wall.

Later in July I was on a picnic excursion, to the Big Rideau,
that landed on the north shore nearly opposite Sand Island.
This shore at one’place rises to a high cliff of exposed rock; here
I found an abundant growth of the Rusty Woodsie (Woodsia
alvensis); it Seems to enjoy exposed situations and will fill up the
rock seams in tufts as dense as those of the British Parsley Fern
in the slate ledges of the Lake District. A peculiar feature about it
and two or three other species of Woodsta is | hat the stipe is joint-
ed; an inch or so above the base you wil see an obscure thick-
ening of the stalk; when the frond dies it breaks off at this joint.

Just behind the shore, a good deal higher than the level of the
lake, the country consists of rocky open woods, chiefly poplar and
oak. In these woods I found much to interest the naturalist : the
Fragrant or Canada Sumach, and on it, feeding on its leaves and
breeding there, large numbers of a Chrysomelian beetle,
Blepharida rhois; the Steeple Bush or red spiraea (S. tomentosa) ;
the Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana); also, on the sun-baked
surface of great weather-worn rocks, the Selaginella rupestris; in
the shaded recesses of the rocks, the Black Spleenwort and near
it the beautiful Ebony Spleenwort (Asplentum platyneuron) ;
this last usually not in the rock ledges, but in stony ground a
little way out from the Black Spleenwort’s favorite haunt. It
has much the appearance of the Christmas Fern, but the frond

THE Ottawa NATURALIST. 89

igs somewhat more slender; the pinnae, however, are strikingly

like those of Aspidium acrostichoides and often auricled at the

base; the dark brown or ebony stalk and the nature of the fruit-

ing make it easily identified; the barren fronds, as in many ferns,

are smaller and less rigid, with wider pinnae. It is not a common

fern in my experience, and this is the only station so far known

tome. A curious coincidence about finding it there was that one
of the fern authorities (I think Mrs. Dana) says she has found it
among red cedars; I had rarely, if ever, seen the red cedar grow-
ing, but it was noticeably abundant in the rocky open wood
where I was exploring that day.

Towards the end of July 1 had planned to stay for a few
days in Lanark, north of Perth, and just before going there
1 paid a visit to a tamarack swamp near Smith’s Falls. On my
way there I skirted a somewhat rocky pasture with straggling
groves of maple and hemlock; in one of the wooded alleys near
the roadway I saw some large masses of a light green fern which
struck me as peculiar in its habit of growth; the fronds appeared
to be very long and to droop outwards, the clumps as a whole
looking like gushing fountains or spreading geysers of green; the
pinnae, I noticed on drawing near, were very finely cut like filigree
work; it proved to be the Hay-scented Fern (Dicksonia punctt-
lobula) ; it is far from common about the Rideau, but its beautiful
spreading sheaves are a noteworthy feature of North Muskoka,
near Port Sydney. 1! found some more of it near Lanark in a

tich maple wood, which provided me also with a second station

for the Narrow-leaved Spleenwort. The Dicksonia does not like
to be heavily shaded; it was in an open glade that I had first
found it; it was growing in a clearing of the Lanark wood; in
Port Sydney it is abundant at the sides of the roads, and in the
Algonquin Park it usually occurs in disused lumber roads and on
the trails.

Just north of the Village of Lanark I found under some cedars

by the roadside my first colony of the Narrow Beech Fern

(Phegopteris polypodioides); some of the specimens I got were
at least as wide as long, but they were not the Broad Beech Fern
which I have never found; for some time, however, I thought
my find was Phegopteris hexagonoptera, but my first visit to the
Algonquin Park settled any doubts I had.

_During my few days at Lanark I drove to the head of Lake
Dalhousie, where the Mississippi rushes into the Lake from the
High Falls a little further up. The rock cliffs at the foot of the
gorge are some 200 feet high and pretty sheer. I scrambled up
the steep bank of talus to the foot of the cliff and made my way
along the side, facing up stream; after an hour’s slow survey of
niches and crannies, and rummaging about among caves and

as °
+e

90 THe Ottawa NATURALIST. - [Auc.

alcoves, I made a find that greatly pleased me; in some wet rock
fissures I found growing the Slender Cliff Brake(Pellaea gracilis
or Cryptogramma Stiellert). The books say it is rarely, if ever,
found away from limestone; these cliffs, however, are granite or
sandstone. There were two stations for the fern along the cliff,
about half a mile distant from one another; one station contained
2 or 3 colonies some yards apart, the other only a single colony.
The Slender Cliff Brake is the most delicate and frail fern I know.
The stalks are almost threadlike in their thinness and very brittle;
there is quite a marked difference between the sterile and the
fertile fronds; the frond in fruit has its divisions narrow and |
pointed, the margins being recurved over the sporangia; in the
sterile frond the pinnae have not recurved margins, and the 5 or 6
lobes into which they are divided instead of being a narrow
lanceolate are wide spreading, ovate to orbicular, with a crenate
margin. The fern grows in tufts out of rock seams with a habit
like that of the Brittle Bladder Fern; the fronds when pressed are
of so filmy a texture that the mere act of breathing over them
will waft them off the sheet on which they lie.

In order to make myself familiar with the genus, I paid a
special visit that autumn to Niagara Glen, where, on the sheer
limestone cliffs above the gorge, the Purple Cliff Brake is abund-
ant. It presents as remarkable a contrast to the Slender Cliff
Brake as can well be imagined. The stipe is stout and woody,
the foliage thick and leathery, bluish green in colour. Of course
the kinship of the two is close and obvious, the sporangia being
clamped beneath the reflexed margins of the pinnules; but in
the true Pellaeas the difference between fertile and sterile fronds
is slight, in the Cryptogrammes, such as Steller’s Cliff Brake and
the Parsley Fern it is quite marked.

My next trip of any consequence was a visit to the Algonquin
Park by way of Ottawa. Like all visitors to the Park, we first
called on Mr. Bartlett, the Superintendent. In addition to his
intimate knowledge of this fine tract of forest and lake, Mr.
Bartlett has a great love of natural history, and the flora and
jauna of the Park interest him quite independently of his official
position. Hearing that I was specially fond of ferns he handed
me over a small plant growing in a box and asked me what it
was. I looked carefully at it and decided it was a Shield Fern,
but the species was beyond me. I was then told to smell it;
there could be no mistaking that sweet spicy fragrance; when I
found that the Fragrant Shield Fern grew in the Park and was
obtainable not far from Headquarters, I could scarcely wait till
next day. The scent from the resinous glands on the under side
of the frond is indescribably delicious.

The fern was not abundant in the neighbourhood, but was

1910]

a
a

Tue Ottawa NATURALIST. OL

‘found at 3 or 4 stations on the dry brittle rock; generally shaded,
but not densely; its usual companions, the Polypody, the Beech
Fern and the Rusty Woodsia. It grows in large compact tufts,

a dozen or more green fronds projecting from a mass of brown

shrivelled fronds of the previous season. The frond is in outline
oblong lanceolate, its pinnae a narrow oblong, consisting of
narrow oblong pinnules, mostly opposite, and serrate at the tip
and along the margin more remote from the rhachis; the base
of the tuft is densely chaffy with large flakes of light-brown scales,
which extend up the stipe to about half-way up the rhachis.
The upper side of the frond is dark green, the under side is almost
covered with the large circular indusiums, silvery-grey in appear-
ance; the stipe and the frond, when the plant is fresh, are sticky
and clammuily moist with the resinous glands. The fern is so rich
on the under side with this fragrant resin that it adheres tightly
to the sheet of blotting paper in the press. The largest fronds on
a well-grown plant are about 11 inches from base to tip, 3 inches
of this being stipe; the extreme width is about 2 inches.

From the Algonquin Park I made a trip by rail to Port
Sydney on the north branch of the Muskoka River. The chief
object of this trip was to see the Virginia Chain Fern which had
been found growing in abundance along one margin of a mud lake.
Its companion was a fringed orchid I had never seen before,
Habenaria blephariglottts.

We had only two days’ stay in Port Sydney before my
companion had to go east on his return journey to Liverpool,
and the nicely calculated less or more of time for the trip proved
almost our undoing. We left the Park Station at 6 a.m. and were
met, as pre-arranged, shortly before noon by a wagon; this
conveyed us to a bush from which we were to proceed on foot
with our host and guide to where the Virginia Chain Fern grew.
On the next day we were to go in a different direction to a wood
where the Lance-leaved Grape-fern was to be seen.

Unfortunately our host and guide, a local naturalist with a
reputation for never having lost his way in the bush, lost his way
and his reputation both that first afternoon. The wagon-track
ended suddenly at the edge of a marsh shortly above a beaver
dam. Its sudden disappearance was due to the activity of some
beavers. The marsh was drained down its centre by a small
creek; round the edges of the marsh grew many poplars; covet-
ing these for food the beavers had dammed the creek at its exit
from the marsh, converting about half a mile of beaver-meadow

- intoa standing lake. At first we thought of crossing this obstacle

by the dam, but our guide’s son found this narrow pass jealously
guarded by a colony of ‘‘ Yellow-Jackets’’ and we decided to
keep to the wagon-track above; this led across the swamp by

aS STE Op Ri eee: ea
. : EN oe et
92 THE OTTAWA NaTURALIST.

a now submerged corduroy road and we had to Set our epee 8
along the track in water that in places reached the waist. The
track then led up into a wood and from it diverged on the right
a doubtful and tortuous trail in the direction of Twin Lake where
the Chain Fern grew.

In an evil moment our guide tried a short cut to avoid an

awkward slash inthe woods. He lost his way, and we floundered
along for more than an hour; during this time we crossed three
slashes (apparently) far worse than ihe one we had avoided; they
were really one slash and the same; as usually happens in the
bush to those who use no compass and disregard the sun, we were
walking in a series of eccentric circles. We drew up at last on
the edge of a creek which our guide failed to recognize as the
one we had first waded across; to make confusion worse con-
founded, we seemed to have got somehow onto the wrong side
of ihis creek, but how or where we had crossed 1t we could not
make out. Following down the creek a little way we came out
onalake. Our host had then io make the humiliating confession
of having gone in a circle; instead of reaching Twin Lake, iwo
miles above the teaver dam, we were nearly a mile below ihe
dam. It was then so late in the afternoon that we had to posi-
pone our expedition io next day.

This time we chose a longer but more certain route and
reached the colony of Woodwardia virginica without mishap.
The first sight of this fern was quite impressive; the fronds stood ~
rigid and erect, in long lines, all facing one way; the upper sur-
face of the frond faced the water, the backs were away from the
lake and most of them heavily fruiting; I do not mean to imply
that the water caused their direction of growth; 1t was probably
sunlight, as it was more open towards the water and shaded
behind by the edge of the woods.

-. The fern is about as large as a medium-sized apie
Fern and its pinnules are very similar in shape; the veins, how-
ever, are not free but areolate, forming a network; in the barren
fronds the pinnules are seen to be minutely serrulate, but in the
fruiting fronds the edge is apparently smooth and entire; this is
due to the serrulate edge being reflexed; if you look at the under
side of a fruiting pinnule, you will find the edge distinctiy rimmed.
The only other noticeable difference in shape between ‘the frond
of the Chain Fern and that of the Cinnamon Fern is that in the
former the frond is narrowed considerably towards the base and
above is lanceolate up to an acute tip; this character is repeated
and even emphasized (as so often) in the pinna, which is strongly
contracted in one or two pairs of pinnules at the more or less
sessile base. The peculiar fruiting is, of course, unmistakable:
the oblong sori running in parallel lines like the links of a chain —

a

a ee ee a ed
;

ee ae!) ee a

THE OTtTawa NATURALIST. 93

j along each side cf the pinna’s midrib and similarly up each pin-

nule. The fronds are thrown up at intervals from long under-

_ ground rooistocks which occasicnally aitain a length of 9 or 10

feet. These long loose lines of ferns, like regimenis in extended
order, looking all in one direction, focussed on some unseen point
of control, were standing thus to aitention deep in the sphagnum
moss of their subterranean root-stocks, running horizontally
and branching down below, still lay in the same everlasting bed
of sphagnum.

When I had first seen them, about the 5th of July, they were
just beginning to rear their forms to stately height, the tips of
the frond and the pinnae still partly furled, the whole fcliage of
a lush-coppery softness. Now, in the middle of August, they
were mature, standing stiffly on stout wocdy reddish-brown
stipes, the fronds thick and coriaceous. I said they were as large
aS an average Cinnamon Fern. With a view to the size of my
press and the usual botanical mount, I chose the smaller speci-
mens; they are from 20 to 30 inches long; but our guide insisted
on my taking one frond, the largest he could see: it measures 52
inches, 21 of stipe and 31 of rhachis; the length of the longest
pinnae is 64 inches, but as they point upward at an angle follow-
ing the line of growth of the stem. the greatest width of the stem
is 11 inches or thereabouts.

I have now brought my account of Ontario Ferns. so far as
they have come within my limited experience. down to the last
family, that of the Oplioglossaceae, with its two genera of the
Grape Fern (Botrychtum) and the Adder’s Tongue(Ophioglossum).

EXCURSIONS.

BEAVER Meapow, Hull, May 14, 1910. About thirty
members of the Club, including a representative number of
students from the Normal School, were in attendance, and
fairly good collections were made in the various branches.

The party met about 5 o’clock, and under the direction of
the President, Messrs. McNeill, Brown, Wilson, Kingston and

-Groh spoke briefly on what they had observed.

The geological branch visited the quarries on both sides of
Beaver Meadow—on the east several fossils were noted principal-
ly corals and brachiopods, and on the west several crinoid stems,
one over a foot long. Both these quarries are in the Trenton
limestone. The one on the west side is not far from the fault
which is the boundary of the adjacent wedge-shaped area of
Black River limestone. Numerous pot holes and other evidences
of the action of running water were seen. The relative position

we. ie ee Fe ee Oe ee cm fF
Pe pat ee ie eee

94 Tue Orrawa NATURALIST. Agere

of the Trenton rocks to the Chazy and Utica formations, as_
observed at Blueberry Point and Billing’s Bridge, was pointed
out by Mr. Wilson. ;

Mr. Groh, after calling attention to the abundance of
Rosaceous plants in the locality, illustrated the fact by means
of specimens collected, as follows: The two wild strawberries
(Fragaria virginiana and F. vesca), Barren Strawberry, Dwarf
Raspberry, Wild Red Raspberry, Purple Flowering Raspberry,
Bird Cherry, Choke-cherry, Wild Plum, Juneberries, two species
(Amelanchier canadensis and A. spicata), and Wild Rose (Rosa
blanda.) The Wild Plum and Dwarf Raspberry were particularly
noticeable.—T.A.B.

Hoc’s Bacx.—The excursion to Hog’s Back on the afternoon
of June 18th was favored with excellent weather, but was rather
poorly attended, owing to heavy rains which had fallen earlier in
the day and threatened to spoil the afternoon. The party as-
sembled at the Experimental Farm and proceeded across the
Arboretum and along the Rideau Canal to the interesting locality
named, the leaders being Messrs. Kingston, Wilson and Groh.
Messrs. J. W. and A .Eastham, of the Wellington Field-Natural-
ists’ Club, of Guelph, were welcome visitors with us.

The geological features of the place are very striking, and
particular notice was taken of the nature of the rock formations,
which are limestone and Chazy shale, and of the unusual amount
of. dipping and folding of the rock strata. Mr. Wilson stated that
the anticlinal fold, or ‘‘hog’s back,’’ which gives the locality its
name, and which occupies a prominent position in the middle
of the rapids, is one of the finest examples of its kind to be found
anywhere.

The botanists of the party found no lack of interesting
material for their attention. All along the canal and at the
Hog’s Back the hawthorn flora is comparatively rich, both in
numbers of individuals and in species, and the afternoon’s
collecting in this genus resulted in the securing of six species as
follows: “Crategus submollis, C. Jackit, C. Grayana, C. flabellata,
C. macracantha and C. pedicellata. Some curious fungous and
insect injuries of plants also attracted attention.

ja igo FS

NOTES.

Tue ImperiaL Motu, BASILONA IMPERIALIS DRury.—Cap-
tures of this large handsome insect in Canada are always interest-
ing. During June and July of the present year no less than

THe OttawA NATURALIST. ~ 95

eight specimens were collected in the Ottawa District and the
upper wing of another seen on the ground beneath an electric
light. The first of these specimens was shown to the writer, and
was collected around an electric light on the Experimental Farm,
on 24th June, by Mr. D. Gibson, an employee of the Farm. On
- the following day the undersigned saw the wing above referred
to..

- The six Ottawa specimens were all taken around electric
lights, five at the Experimental Farm, and one at Britannia,
(H. Groh, 19th July); the other two specimens collected in the
district were captured in Hull, Que., by Mr. W. H. G. Garrioch,
also at electric light, one on 22nd June, the other on 26th June,
and reported to the writer by the Rev. Dr. Thos. W. Fyles.

The Imperial Moth is rare in Canada. The only published
Canadian records, which I know of, are the following:

Belleville, Ont., 1880, June, (J. T. Bell).

Orillia, Ont., 1900, and June 24, 1901, (C. E. Grant).

Ross Mount, Ont., 1906, (T. W. Ramm).

Kingston, Ont., Aug. 12, 1907, (A. B. Klugh).

Simcoe County, Ont. Larva found feeding on red and white

pine, Sept. 15, 1907, (E. J. Zavitz).

Go-Home-Bay, Ont., July, 12, 1909, (J. B. Williams).

Trenton, Ont., June 27, 1909, (J. D. Evans).

Besides the above a specimen was collected at Port Hope,
Ont., on July 25, 1900, by Mr. W. Metcalfe. At the same place
the Rev. Dr. Bethune found the larva on pine.

In Packard’s Monograph of the Bombycine Moths of
North America, Part II, (1905), the geographical distribution of
Basilona imperialis is given as follows: ‘‘New Hampshire;
Claremont, N.H., (F. H. Foster); Cambridge, Mass., (Harris);
Providence, R.I., (H. L. Clark, J. Bridgham, Deardon); Platts-
burg, N.Y., (Hudson); Ithaca, N.Y., (Slingerland); New York
City, (Joutel); Pennsylvania, (Strecker); New Jersey, ‘usually
common throughout the State’; Newark, in July, (Smith);
Columbus, Ohio, (Tallant); Springfield, Alton, Ill., (Riley); St.
Louis, Mo., (Riley); Cordova, Mexico, (Packard); Jalapa,
(Druce); Race nobilis, Texas, (Neumoegen).”’

If any other collectors in Canada know of captures of the
Imperial Moth during the present season, I should be glad to
get notes on the same.

ARTHUR GIBSON.

An INTERESTING MILLEPEDE.—The large millepede Arcto-
bolus onondaga Cook, is not uncommon in the Ottawa district.
Specimens have been exhibited at several of the Spring excur-
sions of the Club under the name of the Canadian Julus, /ulus

96 THe Otrawa NATURALIST. [Auc.

canadensis Newp. The largest specimen I have seen was col-
lected by me at Chelsea, Que., on May 30th, a few years ago at
a general excursion of the Club. It was crawling up the trunk
of a large hardwood tree and when measured it was found to be

4 inches long when extended, and almost three-eighths of an
inch in width. The species is described by Cook in Vol. VIIL.,
p. 64, of the Harriman Alaska Expedition, the type having been
collected at Kirkville, Onondaga County, New York, in June,
1895. Inthe description it is stated that the “‘species is abundant
in favorable locations in central New York. It differs from the
more southern Arctobolus marginatus Say, in the smaller size,
more slender body, more uniform and darker colour and in the
more distinct punctations of the surface of the segments. The
basal joint of the gonapod is sinuate or emarginate laterad,
instead of evenly convex as in A. marginatus.” Julus cana-
densis is a much smaller species, being only about 20 to 25
millimeters long. The specimens of A. onondaga above men-
tioned were found in dampish locations in the rather thick

wood north of the grove at Chelsea.
ARTHUR GIBSON.

BOOK NOTICE.

A Text Book or Fre_p ZooLoGy—INSECTS AND THEIR
NEAR RELATIVES AND Birps, by Lottie E. Crary, assistant Profes-
sor of Biology and Geology, Kansas State Normal College,
Emporia, with 117 illustrations: Philadelphia, P. Blakiston’s
Son & Co., price $1.25.

This text book of xii + 364 pages makes a splendid com-
panion book to Dr. Galloway’s new book, a notice of which ap-
peared in the July number. It is much the same in general
make-up; the paper used is good and the type and printing all
that could be desired. The book is intended primarily for
students who have had little previous knowledge of insects, or
animals of any kind. Common animals have been chosen for
discussion. The illustrations used, with one or two exceptions,
are excellent. The book is divided into three parts: Part I,
Insects; Part II, Arthropoda, exclusive of Insects and Crusta-
ceans; Part III, Birds. Altogether there are thirty-eight
chapters. In Part I, the different orders of insects are character-
ized and suggestions given for field work. Part II discusses the
near relatives of insects—myriopoda, acarina, spiders, etc.
Chapter xix is a key to the families of spiders. Part III on Birds
gives directions for field work, and much information on their
physical features, habits, food, etc. Chapters xxvi to xxxvili_
treat briefly of the different orders of birds.—A. G.

| __THE OTTAWA NATURALIST

VOL. XXIV. OTTAWA, SEPTEMBER, 1910 No. 6

FERN HUNTING IN ONTARIO.

: z By F. J. A. Morris, Port Hope, Onr.

HS ~~ JIT —Txue AppeEr’s TONGUE FamIty.

The Virginia Rattlesnake, our commonest Grape Fern, is
so familiar a * sight in our woods that I suppose no fern-hunter
can well help being acquainted with it. It looks much like a
Bracken, the sterile frond being more or less tripartite with the
divisions compoundly pinnate and much dissected; but the base :
_ ofthe stipe is usually reddish and up from the centre of the sterile
_ frond projects the fruiting spike; this ripens in June or July and aa
soon after begins to wither away. There is another species,
~ stouter and much more fleshy, which fruits in September or
October, the Ternate Grape Fern (Boirychium obliqguum). It was =
early in August that I first found this plant. Its dark-green
fleshy sterile frond is not so finely dissected as that of B.
e virgintanum and is more or less prostrate or decumbent on the
b ground ; it grows on a long stalk from near the base of the main
stipe; the fruiting spike is also thicker and heavier than thai of
_ the Virginia Rattlesnake. Its favorite habitat is at the edge of a
' _ wood in short dry turf with a sandy or crumbly soil; often in or
f about cedar alleys, but not deeply shaded in the woods themselves
' as the Virginia Rattlesnake usually is. Probably many of my
- readers have never been lucky enough to find more species of
Botrychium than these two; but I have had the good fortune to
find (I believe) all the species known to boreal America, except
the famous Moonwort (B. Lunaria).
At the end of June in my first season’s fern-hunting (1906),
I took two of the schoolboys out to a tamarack swamp near
Newtonville, 10 miles west of Port Hope. Our intention was to
combine botany with entomology, my pupils being, like myself,
interested in coleoptera. In a corner of this swamp is a dense
damp cedar wood, forming part of the belt of woodlands enclos-
ing the swamp. Along its inner side, among sphagnum, cran-
berries and pitcher-plants, grow the Arethusa, the Pogonia, the
_ Calopogon and the Cypripedium spectabile; and right in the cedar
wood (which contains also a few spruces) I knew were some

X

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eas bits Ler “8 ge Se

P a 4 Sere Sah es Bee:

} * ~ 4 4 doa foe as

7 4 MS -. Se
‘ ‘ : - ne ee ee
98 Tue Ottawa NATURALIST. BERS n
i Cee it.

plants of the Yellow Lady’s Slipper; I was groping about in
this wood and had knelt down to examine some vines of the 4
beautiful little Twin-flower (Linnwa borealis) when I spied some _
small spikes of a strange fern; they were not more than 3 or 4 _
inches high and were evidently a Botrychium. I sent some —
specimens to the late Dr. Fletcher, of Ottawa, who thought they
were B. matricariae, but he said he had never found the Matricary
Grape Fern (now called B. ramosum), and my plant might prove
a variety of B. simplex. This was my own feeling at the time
and I was confirmed in it the following season when I found
B. matricariae (ramosum) growing plentifully in the Algonquin
Park.
I have visited the colony every season since and have ob-
served the plants closely. They show above the ground early in
June; probably soon after the floor of the wood ceases to be inun-
dated and the saturation of the vegetable mould is relieved by
evaporation. Weil-grown plants attain a height of from 7 to 9
inches (partly under ground) by the middle of July, at which ~
time the spores are shed; by the end of July, or early in August,
the plant becomes flaccid and wilts to the ground. Specimens
gathered in the middle of June are about 4 inches long, the sterile
frond longer than the fruiting, but in the mature plant these
relations are reversed, the fertile frond considerably exceeding
the barren; the appearance and shape of this latter are remark-
ably constant—it develops from about the middle of the main
stem, occasionally lower, sometimes a good deal higher; it is
always long-stalked and ends in a leaf blade of from 2 to 4 pairs
of obovate or cuneate, sometimes nearly lunate, sessile lobes;
these lobes are nearly opposite, and beyond them a single lobe, ~
boldly notched, forms the apex of the frond. The plant is very
fleshy and pale-green, more fleshy and pale than B. ramosum, —
which in turn is not so foliaceous or dark-green as B. lanceolatum.

In pressed specimens the bud at the base is rarely, if ever,
visible, owing to the stem above the root being wrapped in the ~
dry brown sheaths of previous years; in B. ramosum the next
year’s bud is almost always conspicuous as a dark-green projec-
tion in the pressed specimen. In the lobes of the leaf there occurs —
no mid-vein, just a fan-like spreading of the free, forking veins
from their wide indeterminate base in the rhachis; in B. ramosum
there does seem to be a mid-vein (doubtless lost in ramifying)
which governs the growth of the secondary veins through the
lobes and subdivisions of the leaf; these in B. ramosum con- ~
sequently tend to terminate in a point, blunter indeed than those
of B. lanceolatum, but distinct from B. simplex, which would seem
to be a miniature and close kinsman of the famous Moonwort

\

ar

wg th eS Pet Se
- THE Ortawa NarturAList. 99
(B. Lunaria). As exact figures are never out of place, I shall
describe a mature specimen as it lies before me at this moment.
_ _Height 9 inches; common stem 44 inches, covered for 1 inch with _
_ brown sheaths of previous year’s growth; fertile frond 43 inches
consisting of a stem (24 inches) and a bipinnate fruiting spike
__» (24 inches); sterile frond 3} inches long, consisting of a stem
___ (14 inches) and a leaf (2 inches) narrow-oblong in outline with
9 cuneate, simple, entire lobes; the first pair alternate at a little
___ distance from one another; nearly half an inch higher the second
pair contiguous-alternate, the third pair a quarter of an inch
_ higher overlapping-alternate, the fourth pair opposite, and at the
_ apex of the frond a single lobe strongly notched.
__ The normal form of B. simplex is said to grow on dry hill
sides and to be very rare. Is it not possible that botanists have
--— +been begging the question in deciding that the form found in
B dry exposed stations was the normal form and that the fern was
_ therefore very rare? In that little cedar wood of some 30 or 40
____ yards square there is hardly any vegetation apart from Botrychium
_- stmplex; 1 have counted half a hundred plants in the shade of
a Single cedar; it would be a modest estimate to say there were
1,000 plants in the colony. It is surely possible that rich veget-
able mould in cedar swamps is the natural habitat of B. simplex
_and that the dwarfed rigid form on dry hill sides is only a variety.
Of course, B. simplex is closely akin to B. Lunaria, which also is
tare and has its home in exposed situations, so that the form I
have may be a variety; it is of exactly the appearance and habit
you would expect in a plant subjected to somewhat abnormal
conditions: it is lank, flaccid and pale, like a plant grown ina
cellar; but on’ the other hand its abundant fruiting proves it
healthy.

For four years this damp cedar wood remained my only
station for B. simplex (if I have rightly determined the species) ;
but in September last at the close of my season’s botany I got a
great surprise while staying in North Burgess at a mica mine -
near Otty Lake (between Perth and the Rideau). The owner of
the mine, an old pupil, was taking me to see a ‘‘mud Jake” on
his property; on our way through cedar alleys growing on an
elevated rocky plateau a few feet above marsh level we found a
colony of B. ramosum, they had shed their spores, but were still
rect, living and green; all about the more open turfy parts of

_this plateau were plants of B. obliquum, some of them enormous,
others very small and delicate, but all fruiting freely; the Virginia
Rattlesnake was also, as usual, abundant. 3
ey, From there we dropped to swamp level and came out at
_ the upper end of the mud lake; it was unusually treacherous,

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100 Tue Ottawa NATURALIST. ‘
and after going almost to the waist more than once in a hole
among the bushes of bog-myrtle, Labrador Tea and other shrubs
we drew back a little from the lake and entered a narrow fringe
of cedars at whose outer edge cropped out the rock that forms

the foundation of the raised plateau mentioned before. I was =

just in the act of exclaiming about the similarity of this belt of
cedars to the Newtonville cedar wood, when my pupil shouted to
me to come and look at a strange plant he had found. Drooping,
faded and yellow, it was the same B. swmplex as I had found at

Newtonville! We agreed to go different ways in search of more

specimens along this fringe of cedars only a few yards wide; both
of us were successful in finding more plants over a distance of
200 yards or more. More than 100 miles east of the first station, -
in conditions otherwise almost identical, the appearance of the
plants differed not at all; the sterile part having a long-stalk,
3 or 4 pair of sessile, simple and entire cuneate lobes, and ending
in a-single similar but notched lobe.

Of course, these smaller Grape Ferns are a very variable
genus, and for a long time confusion existed between simplex,
ramosum and lavceolaium. Some botanists have yielded to the
temptation of multiplying species by the separation of varieties,
while others have nullified sound distinctions by confusing
young immature plants of ramosum (for instance) with full-
grown plants of semplex. From their habriat I have come to
the conclusion that these planis of mine are the same as ihose
described by A. A. Eaton as B. tenebrosum, and I was therefore
greatly interested to find, on looking at the new edition of Gray
fenebrosum treated as a variant form of simplex and not raim-
osum. Many qualities relied on for final identification, such as the
vernation or manner of folding in the bud,the venation or form >
in which the veins spread, are doubtless of secondary importance
but the long stalk of the sterile leaf and the shape of its lobes are ~
possibly more essential characters, and there is another point on
which I have assured ‘myself; the point relied on by the late
D. C. Eaton, author of Ferns of North America; I mean the size
of the spores.

I got by exchange a few plants of the normal B. simplex
(2-4 inches high), and I have looked microscopically at the
spores of B. simplex, B. ramosum and my strange plant; through
a lens of 1 inch objective, the spores of my plant and the spores ©
of B. simplex are both larger than the spores of B. ramosum;
through a lens of } inch objective there is no difference tu be
detected in the size of spores of the two former plants, but the
spores of both are (apparently) as large again as those of
B. ramosum. ‘

Tue Orrawa NATURALIST. 101

‘aan My acquaintance with this latter plant, the Matricary
2 _ Grape Fern, dates from 1907, when I first went from Ottawa to
fm" the Algonquin Park. I was out in a hardwood bush near Head-
: a quarters with the Park Superintendent, Mr. Wood, of the ‘‘Globe”
staff, and the late Dr. Brodie. My companions were busy watch-
- ing the movements of a pair of the Pileated Woodpecker (cock 0’
the woods); I walked down a slope of the forest floor towards a
hollow filled with New York Fern when I almost set my foot on
some plants of this (then) new species of Botrychtum. It was
early in August and the spores had been recently shed or in some
cases were just being discharged. The fern varies greatly in size
and in shape of frond, but it certainly deserves its title of
“ramose,’’ for it tends strongly to continued subdivision. The
- sterile frond is nearly sessile, never long-stalked; I have found
it always in the rich leaf mould of hardwoods, usually near the
foot of long gradual slopes, or in the shallow troughs and depres-
sions just above actual swamp level. I have taken the fern as
late as the first week of September; the plant was then sturdy
and almost erect, having fruited (say) a fortnight or three weeks
earlier.

It is the largest of the three species, simplex, ramosum and
lanceolatum; 1 have a few specimens 9 inches high (one of 10
inches), but the average height of the plant is from 6 to 7 inches.
I shall describe two plants (A and B) in some detail. A has a
common stalk 44 inches high; a fruiting spike of 31 inches set
on a stem of 14 inches; this fertile spike consists of 8 pair of
pinnae, the lowest each an inch long, gradually reduced till at
the apex of the fruiting division are 2 or 3 pairs of sessile clusters
of sporangia; the barren frond is 2 inches long on a stalk about
~ of an inch; it consists of 7 pairs of nearly opposite pinnae, the

basal pair each ? of an inch long and divided into 5 pairs of ovate
to narrow oblong lobes; the pinnae get gradually smaller till
they end at the apex of the rhachis in 2 or 3 small sessile lobes.
B has a common stalk of 5} inches; a fruiting spike of 2} inches
on a stalk of 14 inches; this spike contains 5 pair of pinnae, the
lowest pair each an inch or more in length, and ends at the apex
in several sessile clusters of sporangia; the barren frond is 2}
inches long and consists of 3 pair of ovate pinnae, the basal ones
irregularly cut into about 5 lobes, the upper pair into 3 lobes,
and at the apex a single 3 or 4 lobed pinna; this barren frond has
a stalk of 4 inch in length.
B. lanceolatum is a smaller plant than B. ramosum and usual-
ly ranges from 2 to 6 inches in height. The barren frond is not
at all fleshy, but foliaceous and dark-green, sessile at the very
apex of the common stem, or (if you prefer) at the base of the

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102 - Tue Ottawa NATURALIST. (Sept.

sessile or short-stalked fruiting spike. In general outline, the o

fertile part and the sterile both tend to spread into an ovate
form, not oblong as is usual in the other two species with the
sides nearly parallel. The barren part consists of from 2 to 4
pairs of narrow lanceolate pinnae, subdivided into narrow
lanceolate lobes or notched into sharp-pointed teeth; the fruit-
ing part is often not so much a spike as a fascicle of 3 or 4 slender
spikes, the central one often very little longer than 2 or 3 of the
others; these spread out, often not in the same plane, into an
ovate outline, and flanked with their clusters of sessile sporangia
suggest the lashes of a knout or cat-o’-nine-tails.

The Lance-leaved Grape Fern is not at all common, as far
as I know, in Ontario. I had found B. ramosum fairly abundant
in the Algonquin Park in 1907 when I first visited that district;
B. lanceolatum I saw no traces of, and learned only in the autumn
from Mr. Ivey, of Toronto, that it occurred in our province; he
had found it near Port Sydney in a rich hardwood, occurring

In 1909, as I was taking an English botanist to the Park and was
very anxious to see B. lanceolatum growing, Mr. Ivey very gener-
ously sent me a pencil sketch of the wood in which the fern had
been found.

Owing to the failure of our first attempt to reach the Chain
Fern I had only what time I could find before 11 a.m. in which
to identify the wood and reach the small space within it occupied
by the Lance-leaved Grape Fern. Not wishing to give my
friend a second wild goose chase after the previous day’s ad-
ventures, I got up alone between 3 and 4a.m., and with my boots
in my hand, crept stealthily down ihe boarding-house stairs in
stocking feet. Fortunately it was not Sunday; my movements
were not betrayed by my dropping a hob-nailed boot. The day
before had been thundery and the sky was dark with clouds, the
air heavy and close. It was daylight by my watch when I started
out, but even in the open road it was barely dawn, a kind of
tricky twilight, and to step into the woods was to shut and bolt
the door on day and enter a labyrinth of crepuscular gloom. For
nearly an hour I could not distinguish small objects on the ground
except by painful straining of the eyes.

After two or three false starts, I satisfied myself that at
least I had found the right wood, and a rich hardwood it proved
to be. My experience in finding the Matricary Grape Fern led
me by a half-conscious process of selection and rejection to a
shaded slope and hollow of dead leaves just below some rock
ledges; sure enough there was B. ramosum, several plants, and
fine large ones, and as I knelt to examine them I sl dant

v EF Alacnts #3 B. lanceolatum within arm’s feet I marked the
ae got back in time for breakfast and immediately after
_ guided my friend to the spot.
The relation of B. lanceolatum to B. ramosum is certainly
a ‘peculiar: the former being generally found sparingly in colonies
By: of the latter; but it only makes its appearance and ripens after
by _ the other has shed its spores; in North Muskoka and the Algon-
a g -quin Park it matures about the middle of August. I have more
than once found a plant of lanceolatum with its stem actually
- contiguous with a plant of ramosum and its roots intertwined.
2 Mr. Raynel Dodge, the author of ‘‘Ferns and Fern Allies
of New England,” in a paper published in the Fern Bulletin of
& April, 1910, suggests that ramosum is a polymorphic plant,
_ producing all the forms known as ramosum, tenebrosum and
_ (perhaps?) lanceolaium. It certainly looks as though, by some

_ mysterious hybridism or through some quality of dimorphism,
spores of B. ramosum could give rise to B. lanceolatum.

yg On my return to the Park after seeing my friend off for

_ England I spent a week in assiduous search for “B. lanceolatum:

my labours were rewarded by the finding of 10 plants in 3 separate

places, both east and west of the Park Station. It seems to like
even more shade and richer mould than the Matricary Fern, and
- often grows under small seedlings of hazel (for instance) in damp
leafy troughs where no other vegetation, or very little, is to be
found.

The Adder’s Tongue is the last fern I have to speak about.
Probably not many readers of Taz Orrawa NatTuRAList have
ever seen this quaint little plant growing; they think it very
_- rare; I thought so, too, till less than a year ago, but since then
I have been “forced to the conclusion that it is fairly abundant
wherever suitable conditions obtain, but so inconspicuous at to
__ be entirely overlooked.

a On the ist of July last I shook the dust of town celebrations
. from-my feet and spent the day in the country ten miles north of

- Port Hope near Garden Hill. I was lunching in the corner of an

_ old meadow, or rather, upland pasture of sandy soil, when I saw
3 or 4 plants of Liparis Loeseli in the grass just where the pasture
sloped off into a beaver meadow skirting a cold little trout
stream. I had hitherto found this orchid in marshes only, often
in the wet grassy padway of winter roads, and I got up on the
mound of a half buried old log to survey my surroundings;
suddenly among the thin sparse seedstalks of grass I spied some
20 spikes of (surely it couldn’t be?) Ophioglossum vulgatum.
I searched carefully—exhaustively, as I thought—, but only
found 3 more spikes nearer the edge of the beaver meadow

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104 Tue Ottawa NATURALIST. ‘[Sepr. aes:

I was expecting a brother botanist from England to spend the ~
summer with me, and you may imagine my elation at being able
to show him the Adder’s Tongue Fern in its native haunt.

The colony was so small that I kept close watch over it and
when hay-fields began to be cut I strode sternly out to defend
my proprietary rights. Fortunately my corner was arid and
sandy, the grass so short and thin that no mowers had been to
molest the Adder’s Tongue; no mowers, but the devil disguised
as a horse had come and cropped the few spikes I had added to
the first find. Domestication seems to distort good wholesome
animal instincts into unnatural appetites; the horse is bad
enough, but for depraved tastes commend me of all things to.
that clumsy ruminant, the common cow; a creature so prosaic,
too, that aesthetic considerations seem lost to it; among “its
favorite food plants I may mention the Plantain-leaved Ladies’
Tresses, the Narrow-leaved Spleenwort (especially when rare in
the neighbourhood), and the Adder’s Tongue Fern.

About the middle of July the two of us went out to see the
colony and inspected the bank of the stream a little further down;
we found hundreds of planis, usually near the foot of steep slopes;
we then tried the far bank, my friend unsuccessfully, but I
detected several colonies, and at one spot some plants newly
trodden down; the footprint was my friend’s. I called him to
me and made merry at his expense, showing where he had walked
and trampled under foot fronds 7 or 8 inches long of the fern he
was looking for; he rather took the wind out of my sails by point-.
ing out some still larger plants on which I was kneeling. It isa
most inconspicuous fern, but far from rare. However, we still
clung desperately to the cherished belief that it was rare; true,
it was plentiful along this stream, but that was only one station
and probably (we concluded) a lucky find.

A week later we had flitted with our botany cans 100 miles
or more east to the village of Lanark, north of Perth. We were
returning across country to the village from a bluff on the upper
part of the Clyde River where the Rusty Woodsia (Woodsia
alvensis) grew; our way led across undulating pastures and grain
fields an elevated and rocky stretch; here and there a small
wood now lying in a hollow, now hanging on a hill-side or perched
on a knoll. In some of these upland pastures near the edges of
marshy ground we found great patches of Selaginella apus, that
pretty little cousin of the club-mosses, with its bright yellow-
green prostrate branches forming thick mats in the spongy turf.

We went along a sloping pasture towards a wooded ridge in
the distance; and as we surmounted a fence that ran from a
little wood tilted half way up the slope to a willow swamp below

Tue Ottawa NATURALIST.

o) we pea a fine feat of one of the Osmundas; so fine that we
swerved from the path to view it at nearer quarters: Osmunda
claytoniana, truly a royal group, and hedged about with a body-
_ guard of Sensitive Fern. As I stooped over to enjoy the sight I
_ discovered some spikes thrusting up among the barren fronds of
_ Onoclea sensibilis ; the body-guard was fairly bristling with spears:
- dt was the Adder’s Tongue Fern. Walking carefully about we
discovered an extensive colony, reaching back to the fence we
had climbed, down the slope to the swamp’s edge, and forward a

Tittle way round the margin of the swamp.

Three days later we were at the Rideau Ferry, and as we
were examining some plants of Botrychium obliquum near the
Bass Lake Creek, my friend spied the Adder’s Tongue near some
pines at a fence-corner. We were delighted to find it in a
neighbourhood I knew so well and showed the colony to our host,
my old pupil. After asking incredulously whether it was really
a fern, he said he was sure he had seen it growing at the mine!
Of course, if a friend asked me in strict confidence where he was
likely to find Ophioglossum vulgatum, I should not recommend him
to gotoamica-mine. But I knew my pupil was observant and
we had meant to go to the mine anyway, so off we went.

In the first swamp edge—just above and outside a narrow
swamp filled with sedge-grasses and the Marsh Fern—we found
the Adder’s Tongue; we found it 7m the swamp too, but only on
and about peaty hummocks covered with crumbly turf, old ant-
hills or something of the sort. We tried a second swamp that
looked likely and found it once more. The illusion of its rarity
was vanishing; what we had three times stumbled on accident-
ally, we were now deliberately hunting for in likely places
(guided by experience).

A day or two later we went to the Algonquin Park where
there are no clearings, and for a month we dismissed all thought
of the Adder’s Tongue. But at the beginning of September I
returned to the Rideau and went to see the Bass Lake colony of
Ophtoglossum.. 1 found that while nearly all other foliage was
green, this fern had faded yellow and was easily detected. The
leaves fairly dotted the marsh margins and drier parts of beaver
meadows up and down both banks of the creek. I went to the
mica-mine and discovered several new stations for the fern there;
even a colony in a most unusual habitat, a deeply shaded cedar
alley.

In the middle of September I returned to Port Hope and
began investigations there. In four weeks I had found more
than 20 stations for the Adder’s Tongue, many of these stations
comprising a large number of colonies and hundreds (if not

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106 THe OTtAwa NATURALIST. , {SErr bog

thousands) of plants. In many places the ferns were young and
still developing their sporangia, but about the middle of October fae
a light touch of frost checked further activity.

This spring I found plants sprouting early in May; by the
20th of June I had found plenty of Adder’s Tongue in every
station discovered last autumn and had added several new
colonies and stations to the list. The plant is, I believe, quite
common and almost ubiquitous in country clear of forest where
old pastures abound. A fortnight ago I was driven some 10 miles
to a trout stream rather beyond the pedestrian’s range. As lI
sauntered up stream I noticed an open hill-side through a clearing
in the woods; it looked a likely place and was only a few rods
distant; in 10 minutes I had found 30 or 40 plants, about turf-
mounds on its slopes.

I almost think myself competent now to find the Adder’s
Tongue, for anybody who wishes, in any locality whatever,
provided it has the right conditions, with as much certainty at
least as your water-finder will discover hidden springs with his
forked hazel wand; perhaps with the same overweening self-
confidence, and (it may be) the same inability to communicate
my gift.

NOTES ON EUXOA DETERSA WLK. AND
E. PERSONATA MORR.

By Joun B. Smitu, Sc.D.

In 1856, Walker described as detersa an American species
which he referred with a query to Chareas. It came from Nova
Scotia and was not identified in our collections until, after an
examination of the type, I referred it, in my catalogue of 1893,
to the Agrotis pitychrous Grote, described in 1873, in the Bull.
Buff. Soc. Nat. Sci. 1, 82. This reference has been questioned
by Mr. Schaus, I believe; but not very definitely, and it has been
followed’ since then by Hampson in his monographic work. My
note was that Walker’s type was like an average pitychrous, such
as was also represented in the Grote collection under the latter
name; but Hampson’s figure does not represent such a specimen;
it is really more like a personata.

In 1876, Mr. Morrison described Agrotis personata from a
‘single example, in the Proc. Bost. Soc. N. H. XVIII, 238,
recognizing its resemblance to pitychrous and really differentiat-
ing it rather by locality than by any very decided characters. In

TaE Orrawa Naruratist.

pet
He: 1880, Mr. Grote, Can. Ent. XII, 187, definitely referred the name
as identical with pitychrous, and so it has stood without definite
question since.
= | In 1890;'in my Revision of the Agrotids, I pointed out the
a _ difference between the pitychrous and personata forms without
_ questioning their distinctness, and in my catalogue of 1893, I
_ specified the collections where the types were to be found. Tn
Pre Lintner Collection was that of pityhrous, and in the Tepper
collection that of personata.
Recently, Mr. Arthur Gibson, of the Experimental Farm,
_ Ottawa, Ontario, wrote me concerning detersa, now referred to
; Euxoa, questioning whether there were not actually two very
_ distinct species involved. At my request he sent me his material
for study and with my own this gives me 49 examples, readily
enough divisible into two series, representing two good species.
— ——_—« Evxoa Detersa Wrx. Of this species I have 17 males
_ _ and 16 females, in good condition. It is a common species along
| the shore in New York and New Jersey, found throughout
- September on the fiowers of golden rod, in open sunlight. I
_ have taken dozens of specimens in a single afternoon and scarcely
__two ofthem alike. The ground color of primaries is a very pale
__ Juteous, almost whitish in some specimens, and the variation isto
~areddish gray, more or less suffused with smoky, until the entire
on wing becomes smoky. The females are darker throughout than
zz the males, and tend to become splotchy or mottled.

" Taking a good series as a whole, the general resemblance of
' the guadri- ~deniata type of maculation is obvious. There is a
_ pale longitudinal shade in the sub-median interspace beyond
"the claviform; the median vein is pale or white-marked; the
- __ s.t. space is paler and outwardly indented on veins 3 and 4, and
these veins are usually a little emphasized by pale shadings or
_ rayed. The median lines tend to obsolescence, the t.p. usually
Bs rigid, and there is rarely even a trace of a median shade. The
ordinary spots are paler than the surrounding space, sometimes
contrastingly-so; the orbicular varies much in size and form, the
Teniform is rather narrow kidney-shaped, and tends to a little
constriction from the outer side.
There is scarcely a feature in this maculation that does not
Zz vary to some extent and there are few specimens in which all
the features are as described; but that is the general impression
> _ given by a series, and which can be traced in the vast majority of
- all examples that come under inspection. The range of expanse
is from 28 to 35 mm. in the series before me, and exceptional
_ examples will reach 14 inches or 37 mm. The average example
is about 31-32 mm. in expanse.

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108 Tue Orrawa NaTuRALIST. [Sepr,

Evxoa Personata Morr. is, on the whole, a somewhat

smaller species. The largest example in my series of 10 males
and 6 females is 32 mm., in expanse, while the average does not ~
exceed 29-30 mm. The ground color usually contains a distinct
tinge of reddish and the surface is coarsely powdered, yet lacks
that blotchy appearance seen in the darker examples of detersa.
Taken as a whole, the series does not suggest quadri-dentata, but
does contain an approach to the messoria type. There is no pale
streak in the sub-median interspace beyond the claviform,
although there may be a slightly paler area to the t.p. line. The
median vein is not white or pale marked, veins 4 and 5 are not
rayed, although the s.t. line may be slightly indented at those
points. The ordinary spots are less contrasting than in detersa
and the reniform is distinctly broader, more regularly kidney-
shaped, the outer margin never bent inward to form a constric-
tion. Perhaps the most characteristic feature of this form is the
completeness and distinctness of the median lines, the t.p. being
usually crenulate and broadly outcurved, while in almost all
examples there is a traceable median shade line, which becomes
obvious in many specimens.

In the series before me the detersa come from St. John, New
Brunswick, VIII, 18-30; Ottawa, Ontario, VIII 24, IX 8;
Webster, New Hampshire TX 8; Cohasset, Mass., IX 3, X 15:
Albany, New York, IX; Anglesea and Bayside, New Jersey,
late August and throughout September. Personata is from
Canada, VII 27, 1X 14; Denver, Colorado, VI 10; Rounthwaite,
Manitoba, no date; Aweme, Manitoba, VII 13, VIII 25.

It is certain, of course, that the distribution of both species
is wider; but material of the latter is short because the species
is acommon one. Personata was described from Galena, Ills.

NOTES.

Stitt ANOTHER Case oF NatTurRAL GrartTinc.—Mr. H.
Groh’s note in the June number of THe Ottawa NATURALIST
recalls to my mind that at a field meeting of the Natural History
Society, at Chatham Island near Victoria, on the 7th May last,
an instance of a natural graft of an oak tree was found at the
spot where the excursionists landed. The tree is but a small
one and at a point about four feet from the ground a branch has
apparently been bent over and become incorporated with the
trunk, leaving an oval opening about 18 inches in diameter.
One of the ladies of the party, realizing its suitability as a frame,

SS

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oe

cs Bilosragt taken init. The tree Mr. Groh writes about
certainly a curiosity well worth preserving. .

2s J. R. ANDERSON.

, vs ae EES ee

pees article entitled “Tnsects and fae Their ©
Relations to the Community at Large.’’ In the second part of

the paper, which makes mention of some of the men, now all
_ dead, v. ho devoted their lives <o a study of insecis, the following
5 aes will be read with interest by readers of Tur OrTawa
_ NATURALIST :—

“Last of all in this list of those who have been influential in

tke development of the fight against insect pests, because his

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loss is one of ihe more recent, is Dr. James Fletcher, of Ottawa,
Ontario. Who of the entomologists attending the annual meet-

ing cf the American Association does not remember his hearty ~

_and cheering presence? Who does not remember his cordial
“greeting, his constant good nature and the directness and con-
‘Vincing qualities of his contributions to our discussions and
debates? As for the work that he did in Canada—none could
have dene it as he did. He was widely informed, not a narrow
‘specialist, he was a student of men as much as of insects, and
he commanded the confidence of his constituency. It will take
two men or more to carry on the work that this one did alone.”

The Treasurc> of the Club has had handed to him one
dollar which came addressed in typewriting to “The Secretary,

‘Tue Ortawa Natura .ist, Experimental Farm, Ottawa.” No

letter or name accompanied the above remittance. The Treasurer
would therefore be much obliged if the sender would at once

correspond with him.

ot So

Epitor, OTTAWA Narinadtsr: —
The following from the Colonist, of ist July, is a very

nd faithful account of an occurrence which I believe to be most

unusual, and which may be of interest to the readers of THE
-Orrawa NaturRAList. I may state that the sparrows, cock and
hen, flew down, from the top of a building, at Laddie, the
hen leading the attack.

“Homeward bound pedestrians.on Yates Street, between

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110 THE Ottawa Naturalist. —s[SEPT.

Broad and Douglas, at 6 o’clock last evening witnessed the un- = Es,
usual spectacle of a pair of courageous little sparrows (evidently __
filled with parental anxiety for their fledglings) attacking an
Aberdeen terrier, of whose inquisitive explorations they were
apparently in fear. The dog belonged to Mr. J. R. Anderson. ~
late Deputy Minister of Agriculture, and was not once
but repeatedly assailed by the cheeky little feathered arabs,
which in turn would flutter above it, occasionally darting down
to peck at the surprised terrier. When the dog would swiftly
pursue one of the pair its mate would attack from the rear, thus
diverting the enemy. It was the dog which tired first of the
game, in which (the dog being no aerialist) the birds had all the
better of the argument.”’

J. R. ANDERSON.

BOOK NOTICES.

Tue House Fry, Musca pomestica, Linnzus—a Study
of its Structure, Development, Bionomics and Economy, by
C. Gordon Hewitt, D.Sc., Dominion Entomologist, Ottawa,
Canada, and iate Lecturer in Economic Zoology in the University
of Manchester: Manchester, at the University Press, 1910.

This volume of 195 pages which has recently appeared is a
most valuable publication. In 1907, 1908 and 1909, Dr. Hewitt
published in different volumes of the Quarterly Journal of
Microscopical Science, three parts of his paper on the House
Fly. These parts have been bound together in the present
volume, with many additional facts. Part I. treats of the
Anatomy of the Fly; Part II., the Breeding Habits, Develop-
ment, and the Anatomy of the Larva; Part III., the Bionomics,
Allies, Parasites, and the Relations of M. domestica to Human
Disease. In addition to the fairly complete account given in
Part III. the appendices at the end of the volume will be found.
of particular interest at this time when so much warfare is being
waged against this extremely dangerous insect. Such subjects
are discussed as ‘“‘The Relation of Flies to Summer Diarrhoea
of Infants; ‘‘Flies and Milk,” ete.

Asie

CATALOGUE OF THE OponaTta of NortH AMERICA, by
Richard A. Muttkowski. Bulletin of the Public Museum of the
City of Milwaukee, Vol. I., article 1, pp. 207.

This well-prepared catalogue, which was issued on June
27th, is a publication which will be widely welcomed by students
of the Odonata. Such a catalogue has been much wanted. It ~

- Tue Ortawa NaTuRALIST.

Be "presents in convenient form what purports to be a complete

a list of these insects from the North American region. The

pe _ author has had the co-operation of the leading students in this
Derder i in the preparation of the catalogue; the classification and

- nomenclature employed, therefore, represents the more approved
and advanced ideas of odonatologists. The publication is an
important one, and will undoubtedly be much sought after. It
should be in the hands of all Canadian students of these
neuropteroid insects.

AS Ge

The Fortieth Annual Report of the Entomological Society
; of Ontario has recently appeared, and as usual contains much
_ __ valuable information about the insect pests of Canada, especially
y those injurious to the crops of the Province of Ontario. As most
of the insects, however, are found throughout the Dominion,
all can profit by reading the excellent assortment of papers
presented.

The report, as formerly, contains a summary of the pro-
ceedings of the Annual Meeting, the election of officers, address
of the President, reports of different branches, directors, etc.,
etc., together with the papers read at the meetings.

Among the more important addresses and papers, mention
may be made of the following, which appear in the order given:
Gibson, Arthur, “‘Report of Insects of the Year, Division No.
I; Ceasar, L., ‘“Observations on a few Insects of the Season;’’
Gibson, Arthur, ‘‘Nests of the Brown-Tail Moth in Importations
of French Nursery Stock, 1909; Treherne, R. C., ‘‘Nursery
Work in Ontario; Morris, F. J. A., “Some Guests at the
Banquet of Blossoms; Hewitt, Dr. C. G., “House Flies and
their Allies;’ Lyman, H. H., “The Origin and Diffusion of
Entomological Errors; Sanders, G. E., “Conflicts between
Ants;’’ Gibson, Arthur, “The Spruce Bud Worm, Tortrix
jumijerana, Clem.;”’ Winn, A. F., “The Snow White Linden
Moth;” Swaine, J. M., “Notes on Fruit Tree Scolytids;’’
Bethune, Prof. C. J. S., ““Observations on Ontario Insects in
1909;”’ Lochhead, Prof. W., ‘‘Injurious Insects in Quebec, 1909:”’
Fyles; Rev. Dr. T. W., ‘“Adaptation in the Structure of Insects;”

Jarvis, T. D., ‘“The Acarina, with a host index to the Species
found in Ontario; and ‘“‘The Entomological Record for 1909,”
by Arthur Gibson, which fully maintains its high reputation.

The report concludes with a portrait of the late Dr. Brodie,
of Toronto, and five other full page plates.

N. C.

= “W

112 Tue Ottawa NATURALIST. : [Sepr. es

The sixth annual issue of the Ontario Natural Science }

Bulletin, published by our sister society, the Wellington Field-

Naturalists’ Club, of Guelph, Ont., has come to hand, and is a
neat seventy-page volume which worthily maintains the fine
character of the publication. This year, perhaps even more
than usual, a large proportion of its space is devoted to articles
and notes which represent the work of Ontario naturalists on
Ontario subjects. Many of these contributions are local lists
which put on record the results of years of patient collecting
and observation, and are real additions to the biological knowl-
edge of the province. Among the groups thus treated are the
Orchids, Composite, Amelanchiers and Crucifere, among plants,
and the Butterflies and Cynipide among insects. A number
of new records and range extensions of birds and plants also
appear. Several articles written in a less technical vein are
scarcely less welcome in their way, than the foregoing. The
volume closes with a report of the winter meetings of the Club,
which were evidently of a high order as indicated by the subjects

- presented. H. G.

In a recent number of the Proceedings of the Portland
Society of Natural History, Vol. II, Part 8, Mr. W.C. Kendall con-
tributes an article on ‘‘The Fishes of Labrador.’’ The paper is
based mainly upon a collection of fishes made during the ex-
pedition of the Bowdoin College party to Labrador in 1891.
Seven of the species recorded, it is stated, have hitherto never
been reported from Labrador. Notes are also given on some
species collected in other places on the trip. A list of all the
species definitely recorded from Labrador follows, with authority
and date of each record. This authority and date refer to a
chronological bibliography and list of collections, in connection
with each of which is given a table showing the nominal species
recorded from Labrador, the locality and present indentification
of those contained in each work or collection.

This paper should prove of much interest to Canadian
ichthyologists. The author states that the aquatic fauna of the
region is in many respects similar to that of Greenland and
more northern waters, and that.it may be reasonably expected
that Greenland marine fishes at least, not yet recorded from
Labrador, may yet be found there. ; f

The article is the fifth one on the scientific results of the
expedition. The third paper of the series, ‘Some Recent Addi-
tions to the Labrador Flora’ by Fernald and Sornborger, was
published in Toe Ortawa Natura.ist, Vol. XIII, pp. 89, 107.

A. G.

Gay ee

THE OTTAWA NATURALIST

VOL. XXIV. OTTAWA, OCTOBER, 1910 | No. 7-

PLANT PHYSIOLOGY VERSUS PSYCHOLOGY.

By H. T. Gussow, Dominion BorTanistT. OTTAWA.

When an infant of tender years performs spontaneously
some purely instinctive feat, proud parents wonder at his early

_ manifestation of intellect. When he succeeds in calculating, in

reasoning, we take it as a matter of course as the awakening of
intellect. Intellect is said to be the power of the human soul

by which it comprehends, as distinguished from will power and

senses of touch, hearing, etc. Homo sapiens is the only animal
possessing a-soul; a soul by which we distinguish between good
and evil, for this knowledge is absent in other animals.
Animals have a similar faculty, namely instinct. Now, this
term is used to describe actions which are spontaneous, which
are a natural desire arising in the mind. The difference
between intellect and instinct I understand indicates a certain
faculty of forethought present in intellectual beings, in human
beings, which when only spontaneously or involuntarily dictated
becomes instinct. It has been shown that no amount of training
is capable of developing this power of discrimination—acting
properly in the proper place—in even the most intelligent of
animals. It is a long recognized fact that man and all other
animals possess certain gifts which make them totally different
from any other organic being.

In these more highly developed forms of creation we can
locate the motive power in the nerve centres, which regulate
physical and psychical functions or impulses. Although plants are
all more or less capable of certain striking reactionary movements,
which testify that they possess the sense of feeling (Dionea, Mim-
osa, etc.), yet in the absence of nerve centres acting upon
a well organized nervous and muscular system we are inclined
to regard these functions as merely responding to local irritation.
But when regarding really sensible movements of which some

plants are capable—so capable that they become perceptible

to the observer—then we do not for a moment consider the

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114 Tue Otrawa NATURALIST. [Ocr., 3

possibility of some kind of system in plants analogous to the —
nervous system in animals, but simply regard them as in- —
voluntary, spontaneous, natural responses. In animals we term
such actions instinctive for the reason that we can observe the
working of a brain power, and knowing the function we are
satisfied that they are instinctive. People who are familiar with
the growth of plants in rooms have had occasion to observe
their desire to turn to the light. Thus they are enabled to make ~

the best of the unnatural condiiions; they must indeed succeed
in obtaining as much light as possible, or they will die. What —

compels the plant to this action? Grain that has been laid flat
on the ground after a storm, or heavy rain, will begin to grow

erect after a few hours, and, under normal circumstances, it will -
“get up’’ sufficiently to produce its seeds. The sole object of
grain is to produce seeds, and the plants endeavor to perform
this purpose at all costs. When examining grain that is rising
up again we notice that the stem bends in the nodes until it is
quite erect. The nodes here act similarly to the joints in animals.
Physiologically this is simply an expansion and contraction of
certain cells in the nodes. Nature, I presume, is responsible
for this function? Climbing plants (Wister1a, Hedera, etc.), send
out their flower-bearing shoots far beyond the shade of their
leaves, and if prevented in this movement by a repeated tucking
of these shoots underneath others, the plant will postpone the
opening of the flowers for a considerable time until it succeeds
in getting towards the light; if, however, continued, the flowers
will eventually open, the plant doing then its utmost to become
fertilized. These movements in plants which are often strongly
perceptible, make the observer realize that they serve some
purpose, and this action to fulfill a set atm is simply natural.
Is it? The plant growing towards the light, the grain “‘getting
up” after a storm, both to escape destruction, the climbing
plants anxiously endeavouring to become fertilized, are these
merely physiological functions, or are they instinctive? Is this

really wonderful or is it simply nature? But why then are

similar functions in man and animals, intellect or instinct, not

simply nature? Nature then is the motive in plants which

performs wonderfully intelligent feats—as they are not capable

of reasoning? We have often seen recorded most surprising feats

performed by domesticated and wild animals in their search after
food. Now consider for a moment the germinating Cuscuta.
The coil contained in the seed pushes to the surface when germi-
nating and the top revolves slowly, snake like, erect, until it
spies a suitable host plant to which it may attach itself and find
food ready and available upon which to maintain itself. This

arasitic plant finds no food in the soil and must succeed in~

lta aa

THE OTTAWA NATURALIST. 115 =:

_ reaching a living plant and is hence endowed specially with the
_ power of motion. But what will this little plant do if we remove
a large number of plants in its immediate neighborhood and

provide it with props of all kinds of inorganic matter (glass rods,
pins, matches, etc.)? It grows towards these obstacles but
turns away scornfully after realizing its error, and continues its
life crawling about until it has succeeded, as it generally does,
in discovering the living plant, or planis. Is this also nature,
this intellectual power of discrimination? Then, dear reader,
if you answer in the affirmative, give your reasons and explain
nature; instinct, intellect! An infant beginning to walk eagerly
catches hold of anything to support itself, but when having
mastered a few steps it indignantly refuses support—this not
being needed becomes dispensable. Plants like Ampelopsis or
Clematis attach themselves by means of haustoria or tendrils
for support. This function becomes immediately arrested if we
provide them with supports by tying them up. The plants
having achieved their purpose consider it unnecessary to support
themselves and haustoria and tendrils remain inactive. Several
genera of Amaryllidacee have the power, under given conditions,
of moving their anthers towards the style, but they only so
exert themselves when no insect fertilization is likely to take
place.

I have chosen here examples which strikingly illustrate
these points, they exist in hundreds of others, and probably in all
plants; only far less readily perceptable. We strangely hesitate
to regard plants as being possessed of anything more than
spontaneous, responsive, actions. We disregard the fact that
plants, being confined to their place of growth, cannot display
their intellectual powers like animals capable of moving about.
The movements which I have referred to certainly are intelligent,
we cannot deny this. Within comparatively recent years
botanists have begun to pay attention to such phenomena.
And, if the physiologist has an explanation for many phenomena,
yet not all are satisfactorily explained, and whether we have
psychological functions besides, is a question the study of which
will make botany one of the most interesting of the sciences.
Charles Darwin, the great natural philosopher, the distinguished
geographer, geologist, mineralogist, goologist and botanist, also
advanced our knowledge of psychology more than is generally
acknowledged. His observations directed our thoughts into
these channels. Those who are unfamiliar with his works—
“Climbing Plants,’ ‘“Movements in Plants,’ “‘Insectivorous
Plants’’—should read them and they will get a glimpse of this
marvellous man’s mind. He has left, in his son Francis, a
powerful observer who goes further than his father, who refers

116 Tue Orrawa NarTuRALIST.

to the Drosera, a plant much beloved by him, as like a highly
sensitive animal. Francis Darwin, in his address before the
British Association, actually refers to the instinctive power of
memory in plants! In Europe many investigators have in-
terested themselves in this study, and, in 1908, at one of the
meetings of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Vienna, Dr. —
Haberlandt, one of our foremost botanists, declared that the
intellectual physiological functions in plants find their perfect
analogy in the intellectual psychological functions of mankind.
So after all, Aristotle, the celebrated Greek philosopher, fore-
stalled modern ideas by speaking of the soul of plants! ~

My remarks on this subject I trust will not be misunderstood,
though many will ridicule the idea of a plant psychology. But
the ardent observer, the true lover of the study of plants, may
find in these observations some hints to make the science of
botany still dearer to him, when realizing that he deals not only
with an inanimate soulless vegetation. .

~

BIRD MIGRATION IN NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA,

By Rev. J. H. Keen.

The following notes may be of interest as helping to show
the movements of the migratory birds in this region. They are
scrupulously correct as far as they go, but they were made
during the brief intervals of leisure in a busy clergyman’s life,
and are by no means as complete as they might be. In 1906 no
observations were made, as the writer was away from home.

The regularity with which some migrants appear is truly
wonderful. The humming-bird and white-bellied swallow, for
instance, have varied scarcely more than a fortnight during the
ten years covered by these records, and the robin !ess than three
weeks during the same time.

The failure of the osprey to appear during recent years is
strange. He is too large to be overlooked, especially as a sharp
look-out has been kept for him.

Most of the resident species of birds here are partial migrants,
as appears by the obvious increase in their numbers in spring,
and a corresponding decrease towards winter.

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118 Tue Ottawa NATURALIST. [Oct.

EXCURSION TO GREEN’S CREEK.

The first fall excursion of the season was held to Green’s
Creek on Saturday afternoon, September 24th. The outing was
most enjoyable in every way. The party, although only seven-
teen in number, left the Post Office in a large van at 1.45, and
arrived at the destination an hour later. The coolness of the
afternoon undoubtedly kept many from attending. It is many
years since the Club used buses for an excursion, and although
the result was not a financial success in the present instance, the
experiment is well worth a repetition another year. In the old
days of the Club many an enjoyable outing was held in such
conveyances, and given warmer weather there is no reason why
similar excursions in the future could not be held successfully to
nearby places not reached by any of the railways.

Green’s Creek is about six miles from the Post Office, out
on the Montreal road. In the spring of the year when the water
is higher and when there are more flowers, birds and insects
about, the Club should, in the opinion of the writer, arrange to
hold another outing to the same locality.

Mr. Alex. McNeill, Chief of the Fruit Division of the Depart-
ment of Agriculture, piloted the party to the satisfaction of
everyone. On leaving the bus we first of all went along the
Canadian Northern Railroad track a short distance and examined
an interesting cutting where our Leader told us much of geological
interest.

Although nothing uncommon in the way of botanical
specimens was collected, still many plants of interest were
observed. Large beds, so to speak, of beautiful autumn asters
were abundant; Aster puniceus was particularly admired. Mr.
McNeill found a fine example of giant puff ball (Lycoperdon
giganteum). The specimen was 41 inches in circumference; it
was still in a growing condition and possibly might have ex-
ceeded even that size if it had been left longer. It was found
growing at the base of a very rotten pine stump. The roots of
the stump were examined and found to be permeated in every
direction with the mycelium. This is a comparatively rare find,
although Mr. McNeill reported that he had found a similar puff
ball a few weeks previously about 200 yards from the spot where
the above specimen occurred. When taken home and cut it was
found to be in perfect condition, and when cooked proved
excellent eating to those who tasted this delicacy. Practically
all of the family of puff balls are edible. Many are fairly
abundant, and, for want of information, large numbers are
allowed to go to waste. Those who have tried puff balls, either

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Tue Ottawa NaTUuRALIST. 119

tie teria! or fried, or, in fact, cooked in any way suitable for mush-

rooms, will bear witness to their delicious flavor.

The day was too dull for insects to be moving about, but
close search revealed many specimens. Large numbers of the
bug Lygeus iurcicus were seen clustered on several kinds of
plants. A single specimen of the Monarch butterfly was found
by one of the ladies. Although late in the season some larve
were still found to be feeding. The false caterpillars of one of the
Sawflies were seen in numbers feeding on willow, and a singie
specimen of the larva of the noctuid moth, Apatela umpressa,
was collected. A specimen of the moth, Noctua clandestina,
was found beneath a flat slab of stone, and one of Xylina grolet,
which was resting on a flower. Some colonies of ants were
examined, the species being the common ones, Lasius niger var.
and Myrmica scabrinodes var. Mr. G. E. Sanders found a speci-
men of Cremasiogaster lineolata attached by its jaws to the
antenna of a specimen of M. scabrinodes. Several lately dealeated
queens of a Lastus species were found hibernating under stones.
The case-bearer, Coleophora tilie foliella, was collected from bass-
wood by Mr. G. O. McMillan. This species is rare in the Ottawa
district. 5

Beneath a flat stone a young milk snake was found. It had
evidently but recently gone into hibernation. Scurrying across
a pasture field was an old ground hog, and down at the creek
many specimens of the interesting clay nodules were seen and
examples taken by members of the party.

Birds were scarce with the exception ‘of robins, quite a
number of which were seen.

At 5 o'clock the party left the creek, all feeling that they
had had a most delightful afternoon.

Aa hoe

REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL BRANCH, 1909.

The Leaders of the Entomological Branch present herewith
a brief report for the year 1909. The members of the Branch
have been active during the year, not only in the Ottawa district,
but elsewhere throughout Canada. The season on the whole,
comparatively speaking, was a poor one for collecting purposes,
but where any systematic work was done, many desirable species
were captured or found. In the Ottawa district a number of
interesting specimens were taken, chiefly of the orders Lepidop-
tera, Hymenoptera, Coleoptera and Neuroptera. All of these
captures have not as yet been worked up. A beginning has been
made of a list of neuropteroid insects, exclusive of Odonata.

120 Tus Orrawa NaturRAList. — 2 SCR

Much work, however, is yet to be done, before such a list could
be presented. The Caddis-flies, Stone-flies and May-flies are not
by any means well known and an interesting field is here more
investigation.
During the year setevat meetings of the Bite were held
at the houses of some of the members. These were most enjoy-
able, many specimens being brought for examination and short
papers on various subjects presented. 4s

The Branch- was glad to welcome to Ottawa Dr. C. Gordon
Hewitt, who succeeded our late co-worker, Dr. Fletcher, es
Dominion Entomologist. 4

Among the many insects collected in the district during the
year, the species mentioned below are of special interest.. As
stated above. considerable work is yet to be done in getting
-much of the material taken during the year accurately de-
termined. As the species are worked out, mention of the more
interesting will be made in the annual Entomological Record,
prepared by Mr. Gibson, and published in the Raiser of
the’ Entomological Society of. eee

~ LEPIDOPTERA :—

Ampelophaga versicolor Harris. This rare species was col-
lected near Britannia on July 26th (Baldwin).
Sphinx luscitiosa Clemens. This hawk-moth is also of un-
common occurrence in the district. Two specimens were taken
near Britannia, one on July 9th and another on July 22nd
(Baldwin)... . ni

Harrisimemna ie isignata Walk. Mr. H. Groh found a full-
grown larva of this species on ash, at Hull, on August 28th.

Tapinostola variana Morr. - Britannia, July 28th (Baldwin).

Ennomos subsignarius Hbn. Another visitation of these
moths appeared at Ottawa on August 5th and 6th Large
numbers of the moths were seen throughout the city, but the
swarms did not seem so large as they. were in 1908.

Tortrix fumiferana Clemens. Thousands of the moths flying
around trees and shrubs in the district, July 20th.
_ , Sparganothis flavibasana Fern. Mature. larve collected
from Lonicera, June 15th (Gibson). |

Psilocorsis fiztcherella Gtbson. Larve found on Populus
tremuloides, June 10th (Gibson).

Scythris impositella Zell. Mer Bleue (Young).

HEMIPTERA :-—

The following species, all collected by Mr. W. Metcalfe, are
new records for the district.

Livia maculipennis Fitch. On pine, April 30th.

Livia vernalts Fitch. On pine, April 30th.

THE Orrawa NATURALIST. 121

_Aphalara calthe Linn. - May 10th. -
Aphalara marginata Harris. June 7th.
Psylla carpina Fitch. On ironwood, August 25th.

The Leaders of the Entomological Branch would gladly

_ welcome to the meetings of the Branch any of the members of

the Club who are interested in any way in insect life. The subject

~ is extremely fascinating and anyone who cares to take up the

study of insects will find a very wide field for investigation. As

there is so much yet to be learned about almost every kind of

‘insect, any careful observ ation on the habits of these creatures
is of value.

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ARTHUR GIBSON, | ,

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NOTES ON THE FLORA OF THE NEREPIS MARSH,
| NEW BRUNSWICK.

wok. B. KLUGH, QUEEN’S ig ee KINGSTON.

At Westfield, New Brunswick, where the -Nerepis River
-. empties into the St. John River, there is an extensive marsh the
flora of which is rich enough to be worth recording. —-

On August 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th, 1910; I explored this
marsh in a canoe, and found that most of the upstanding vegeta-
tion in the centre consisted of Scirpus fluviatilis, Scirpus validus,
and Zizania palustris. I finally selected-a portion of the west
shore as a favourable place to make an ecological survey.

There is not a sufficient depth of water, except in the narrow
channei, to preclude the development of Helophytes (marsh-
plants) and consequently the Hydrophytes (aquatics) are found
between and among the Helophytes, and no clear line of demarca-
tion exists between these two ecological groups. But a zoned

distribution is observable depending upon the depth of the
water, and it will be noticed that the outer zone, where the
“water is from 8 inches to 3 feet in depth, is composed mostly of
_- the Limnza formation of Hydrophy tes. The following plants
occur in this zone:-— ~~ (vami>
- “Potamogeton heterophyllus. Abundant,
Potamogeton perfoliatus. Common.
Potamogeton pectinatus. Common.
~Myriophyllum alterniflorum. Common.
~Vallisneria spiralis. Common.
_ - “Nymphea advena. Abundant.
- ' Castalia odorata. Frequent.

122 THE Ottawa NATURALIST.

Utricularia vulgaris, Frequent.
Ranunculus aquatilus capillaceus. Frequent
» Lizania palustris. Abundant.
Scirpus validus. Abundant.
-Scirpus fluviatilis. Scarce at this point, but very abundant
further up the marsh.
The next zone is apparent where the water is 8 inches and
less in depth and contains the following plants :—
Potamogeton dimorphus. Frequent.
Hippuris vulgaris. Frequent.
Isoetes echinospora braunu. Common.
Zizania palustris. Abundant.
Lobelia Dortmanna. Frequent.
Scirpus americanus. Common. |
Alisma Plantago. Frequent. |
Sagittaria latifolia hastata. Common. . :
Najas flexilis. Frequent. :
The inner zone is found in the wet soil from the margin of
the water inwards and is composed of the following :—
Spartina Michauxiana. Abundant.
Scirpus americanus. Common.
Sium cicutaefolium. Common.
Glyceria canadensis. Common.
vCalamagrostis canadensis. Common.
_Scirpus atrovirens. Common. |
yDulichium arundinaceum. Common.
Polygonum Muhlenbergit. Common.
Campanula uliginosa. Frequent. 7
Juncus filiformis. Common. |
» Potentilla palustris. Scarce.
Menyanthes trifoltata. Frequent.
Onoclea sensibilis. Common.

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A RECORD CATCH.

By L. H. SitweELt, Captain.

The salmon fisherman from the Gaspé, the sea trout artist :
from Nova Scotia, the specialist on the Rainbow trout from
British Columbia, the tarpon enthusiast from Florida escaping
the glorious Canadian winter, the Mahsur crank from India
who knows no better game fish than that which his heathen
climate affords, have their yarns about their respective
countries, districts and game fish. The story I am here record-
ing refers to a fish-eating bird commonly called a loon, but

THe Ottawa NATURALIST. 123

more properly known as the Great Northern Diver, Gavia imber.
The cry of this bird is well known to the lover of the rod in
the solitudes of Lakeland; it is a weird uncanny sound to the
tenderfoot, a plaintive mournful] cry, especially before wet
weather. :

I am not writing this story with a view of puffing up the
Grand Trunk Railway and the Algonquin National Park as a
holiday resort, for that fact is amply expounded in the various
folders issued by that illustrious corporation.

The trout season had just been heralded in by a burst of
fine weather and the old longing to get busy with ‘‘the spots”
came over me before the plague of flies prevented pleasure.
The date was 7th May, 1903, the day warm, trout hungry,
speckled beauiies up to three pounds waiting to be caught.
Black bass were also abundant but out of season and biting
freely. I managed to get some lovely silver minnows at the
rear of the Superintendent’s cottage and armed with a light
greenheart rod,a reel with not too much line on—that somewhat
old and roiten—a double length casting line of fine gut and a
pellet of buckshot for a sinker, I started off to fish on the long
trestle to the east of Algonquin Park Railway Station. I was
out for sport and I certainly got it. My first strike was a bass

which fought gamely and was returned to the water somewhat
tired. I put on a fresh minnow and cast in again into about
fifteen feet of clear cold water; hardly had the bait gone down
five feet when it was siezed and carried away at a rapid rate,
and thinking I had hooked a large trout I paid out line to enable
the fish to swallow the hook well before striking. I struck and
the pace increased and my little rod bent almost double, without
a sign of checking the rush, and when my line was more than
half run out up comes my fish in the shape of an old cock loon
hooked apparently firmly by the beak. I had to lower the tip
of my rod as his weight was too great for it and simply held on,
trusting to luck that the line would hold. I was near the end of
the trestle and managed to edge on to firm ground. Then began
a battle royal. The tird, dived, twisted, turned, flapped his
wings and tried to fly but he got dragged down by a straight pull.
Finally, the line got twisted under his right wing and the hook
was torn from his mouth and became fast in the big sinew of the
right wing. Now, he had more power as his head was free and I
had great difficulty in holding him down. To make matters
worse my reel dragged out and fell on to the ground at my feet
and I dared not stoop to pick it up as all my attention was needed
to mind the bird. Before long he began to show signs of fatigue
and I managed to drag him shorewards by degrees, the line
getting tangled at my feet. I had till now been fighting for an

124 Tue Otrawa Narturatist. [Ocr. oe

hour, when to my joy. I saw the work train pull into the siding
across the trestle with engine No. 667 in front. Her engineer I
knew well as a sportsman and I yelled like a wild Indian for
Cameron. Off -he dropped and came over to me, and to his
eternal credit he went into the ice cold water up to his. waist
and stood there until I could get Mr. Loon near enough for him
to grab. There was enough life left in the bird to make several
strikes at Cameron’s hands, but finally he was caught by the
neck and brought ashore. I got. his wings in between my
trembling knees while Cameron, with chattering teeth, held his
neck until I cut the hook out of his back. I got him under my
arm with his neck in my hand and marched him across the
trestle where Mr.Bartleit, the Superintendent of the Algonquin
Park resides, and who had been w atching the latter part of the
performance, having been disturbed by my shouts for Cameron.

_My captive was duly handed over and put into_a large wire
netting enclosure on the lake shore where he remained for two
days,.and on my return to Cache Lake a few days later, Mr.

Bartlett told me that as the bird would not live in captivity he
-had let it go free.. He was a good fighter and deserved his life
in the end, but I fancy he would confine his diet to weeds fora
while’ and leave minnows alone until he had forgotten his
experience with them.

ANIMAL INSTINCT.

By R. C. TREHERNE, GRIMSBY, ONT.

A rather interesting example of animal instinct occurred
within the last year, and in recalling the circumstances I thought
it might be of interest in the pages of THE Orrawa NATURALIST.

At a certain boarding house in Guelph, Ontario, there was a
canary, caged and hanging before a window. During a meal,
while we were all seated around the table, this canary suddenly
became greatly excited. It twittered and flew wildly against
the bars of the cage evidently attempting to escape. It con-
tinued this procedure for possibly a minute, but finally subsided
to a corner of the cage, as far away from the window as possible.
While we were all watching the agitation on the part of the
canary, we became aware of the reason. A hawk, presumably
a sparrow hawk, was perched on the fence railing not 10 yards
from the window, and, even while we were watching, it flew to
the window and then back to the fence. It remained on the
fence rail for 3 or 4 minutes and then presumably finding its

Tue Ortawa NATURALIST. 125

“ae “attempts to catch and kill the small canary futile, finally fox
Se away.
arr) i Pwo Sapuehes occurred to me at the time. First, it was
g _ interesting to observe how the canary, born and bred in a cage,
could recognize danger on the instant; and, secondly, I found
myself wondering: would a wild bird on the approach of a hawk
show as much agitation as did this little canary? Possibly a
wild bird would, if it was caged under similar conditions, but
I feel morally certain that if it was allowed the free life of the
woods, its first motive would be self-preservation and it would
not attempt to make itself conspicuous by any form of agitation
or flight. I remember at the time thinking that the canary—
by domestication and lack of experience—had not developed
the sense of self-preservation while it could realize danger.
However, the realization of danger was the most important
observation, and being so it helps. to recall other instances of a
similar nature.
To one who has raised chickens, for instance, how usual it
is to notice a hen call her chickens to her when any danger ap-
proaches. She can spy a hawk aloft far quicker than can a
--human being and can realize that it is a hawk and that
her chickens are in danger even if she had never seen
~ one before. Is not this case quite similar to the canary?
They are two cases of pure instinct—instinct being defined
as a term including ail original impulses and that apparent
knowledge and skill which animals have without experience.

‘I was reading only the other day about a case, told by

Ernest Thompson Seton, of a ‘‘young mink, still blind, which

“sucked at a mother cat till fed and then tried to kill her.”

. Surely, if such a case was true, and | have no reason to doubt

that it was not, coming from such an authority, it 1s interesting

to notice the hereditary instinct of legitimate prey present in
- the mind ofthis young mink. I believe itisa generally recognized
~ rule that among wild animals it is very uncommon to find them
destroying one of their own kind. T his young mink would not
have attacked its own mother and yet it realized, even in that
young state of its career, that the cat was lawful prey.

Such cases as these demonstrate very forcibly that natural
untaught wisdom of the animal world—and we designate it as
‘ instinct. Classify it as we will, however, we could not say it
~ was the product of mental activity, or in other words reason
similar to the human reason.

Nevertheless, with but a moment’s thought we find that a
great deal of the conduct in the human life is the result of this
same unconsciousness, unreasoning obedience to natural forces.
How.common it is for us to utter exclamations of surprise or

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126 Tue Ottawa NaTurRALIsT. — _ iter =

fear, to give vent to emotions for which we cannot account. We

have no reason why we do these things—things perhaps we often
regret after the occasion has passed—we can only classify them
as instinct. It is undoubted that a child is entirely governed
by stimuli up to a certain stage in its life—until the dawn of

reason gradually breaks and we get development from the animal

to the human plane.

In closing I would just like to draw attention to similar
conditions in the plant world. Compare an animal, a child just.
born, for instance, in a darkened room with but one window,
with a plant growing in a darkened place with but one loop-
hole of light. Both turn instinctively to the hight. In the former
the reason implies a nervous system, but in the latter we are
taught it is a purely mechanical process. And yet there is a
similarity. Again, Huxley informs us that a frog, from which the
brain has been removed, will retain its centre of gravity even
when revolved. Compare this frog with a plant placed in an
inverted position, with the root upwards and the stem down-
wards. If growth continues this plant will right itself and will
grow normally. This cannot be explained, yet the fact remains
that there is a similarity between the frog and the plant. And
so on, we could find similar instances of comparison which only
serve to show the great complexity of nature, and the uniformity
of all things.

In such a short article, such instances as I have recorded
open up a great field of conjecture; and, I for one, would be
greatly interested to read accounts in this magazine of recorded
observations which tend to illustrate the difference between
animal instinct and reason.

- PRELIMINARY LIST OF THE CRATAGI OF THE
OTTAWA DISTRICT.

By HERBERT GROH.

Encouraged by the results which have attended the closer
study of the Hawthorns in other parts of Eastern North
America, and knowing that no such study had been made, as
yet, at Ottawa, I was led, in the spring of 1909, to undertake
systematically the collecting of material for this purpose.

For my first attention I chose the section of country reach-
ing southward from the city to the Rideau River, and lying,
roughly, between Bank Street on the east, and the Experimental
Farm and the Hog’s Back locks on the west. While not con-
fining my work to these limits, I endeavoured to cover this area
with some degree of thoroughness.

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THe Ottawa NATURALIST. 127

Specimens in flower were taken from the treesin June; and
others, from the same trees, were taken for the fruit, when it

- matured. Notes were taken at the time of collecting, on such

points of importance which might be lost in the drying, as the

number of styles, the number of stamens, and the color of the

anthers; and numbered tags were fastened to the trees when

_ they were first visited to preclude the possibility of mistakes

when returning to them later. Flowering and fruiting specimens

were secured from about fifty trees, most of which showed some

variation, which was the reason for their being selected.
Material of all the specimens was then submitted to Mr.

- W. W.Eggleston, of the New York Botanical Garden, an

acknowledged authority on the genus and the contributor of the
revision of Crategus in Gray’s New Manual, Seventh Edition.
Mr. Eggleston has distinguished in this material fourteen species
and varieties, and has regarded ten other specimens as hybrids.

In view of the incompleteness of the survey of the Ottawa
district, so far accomplished, and also owing to the fact that
further specimens have been collected this summer, which,
together with a considerable amount of material collected
earlier by Professor John Macoun, have still to be named, no
treatment of the subject of Ottawa Crategi can yet be attempted.
A list is here given, however, which it is hoped may serve as a
basis for the work which still remains to be done. The following
species were collected by the writer in the localities indicated
after each name.

CRATZGUS.
ROTUNDIFOLIA Moench. E. of Dow’s Swamp; Hog’s Back;

_ Victoria Hospital; E. and W. of Beaver Meadow.

ROTUNDIFOLIA Moench. var. Faxon (Sarg.) Eggleston.
Bank of Rideau River, W. of Billing’s Bridge.

Jacki Sarg. Hog’s Back locks.

MACROSPERMA Ashe. Glebe; Bank Street, Stewarton;
Montreal Road, beyond Eastview.

ALNORUM Sarg. WoodsinC. E. Farm Arboretum; Ottawa
South.

GraYANA Eggleston. S. of Dow’s Swamp; Hog’s Back;
bank of Rideau River, W. of Billing’s Bridge.

FLABELLATA (Bosc) Koch. Glebe; Harbord locks.

PEDICELLATA Sarg.? W. of Dow’s Swamp.

POLITA Sarg. E. of Dow’s Swamp.

SUBMOLLIS Sarg. W. of Dow’s Lake; N., E. andS. of Dow’s
Swamp; near Hog’s Back; Ottawa South.

BRAINERDI Sarg. var. EGGLEsToN1 (Sarg.) Robinson.
Ottawa South; bank of Rideau River, near Hog’s Back.

BRAINERDI Sarg. var. ASPERIFOLIA (Sarg.) Eggleston. E.

128 Tur Orrawa NaruRAList.

of Beaver Meadow. ;
MACRACANTHA Lodd. Glebe; Ottawa South; S. of Dow’s
Swamp.
PRAECOX Sarg. S. of Dow’s Swamp. .
MACROSPERMA Ashe. X ROTUNDIFOLIA Moench. Billing’s
Bridge.
MACRACANTHA Lodd. x MACROSPERMA Ashe. §S. of Dow’s
Swamp.
MACRACANTHA Lodd. x cRusS-GALLIL. 5S. of Dow’s Swamp.
MACRACANTHA Lodd. x pPuNcTaTa Jacq. Ottawa South;
E. of Dow’s Swamp.
MACRACANTHA Lodd. x. W. of Dow’s Swamp; Hog’s
Back; Billings’ Bridge; W. of Beaver Meadow.

NOTE.

Piants INjURED By CREOSOTE.—For some time past con-
siderable speculation has been indulged in regarding the curious
and somewhat mysterious malady which has affected many
varieties of plants in this city, the leaves turning black and
falling before maturity. Roses, delphiniums, iaurels, maples,
ferns and some other plants, were the principal sufferers. The
gardens in the vicinity, to the northward and eastward of the
city creosoting plant, were amongst the first to suffer, last
season being bad and the present season worse.~ Then last
season the leaves of the eastern maples in front of the Union
Club and the Presbyterian Church turned black and fell, and on
examination I thought the infection to be of a fungous nature;
this season they are only slightly affected, the streets in the
_ vicinity having been paved last year with creosoted blocks.

A few days ago I was asked to look at the planis on the
southern boundary of the Empress Hotel grounds. These I
found to be in a very bad state and the suspicions I had enter-
tained as to the cause seemed to be amply confirmed, viz.,-the
exhalations from the creosoted blocks in Belleville Street. The
plants on the northern boundary next to Humboldt Street,
which street was also paved with creosote blocks, are not affected
whilst those on the other or northern side, being the southern side
of the Macdonald property, are badly affected. Our prevailing
winds during the summer are from the south and southwest,
and this fact seems to indicate that the creosote exhalations are
directly responsible for all the injury. How plants can be pro-
tected adjoining newly paved streets I cannot say, but it is
certain that much injury to gardens seems likely to result in ae
future from the cause mentioned.

, Victoria, B.C., 29th July, 1910. q. R. ANDERSON.

THE OTTAWA NATURALIST. : VOL. XXIV. PLATE Il.

NEW TRILOBITES FROM THE CHAZY NEAR OTTAWA.

‘THE OTTAWA NATURALIST

VOL. XXIV. OTTAWA, NOVEMBER, 1910 No. 8

ON TWO NEW TRILOBITES FROM THE CHAZY NEAR
OTTAWA.*

By Percy E. RaymMonp.

BaTHYURUS SUPERBUS Sp. Nov. Puate Il, Fics. i—3.

Entire test broadly oval in outline, the breadth varying
from .6 to .8 of the length. Dorsal furrows deep on thorax and
pygidium, but shallow on the cephalon. Axial lobe narrow and
rather low, not being raised much above the general level of the
- surface.

Cephalon short and wide, surrounded by a very narrow
concave border. Glabella nearly smooth, expanding shghtly in
front of the eyes; marked by two pairs of faint furrows. Eyes
very large, low, extending back to the neck furrow and forward
to the middle of the glabella. Free cheeks wide, convex, the
genal angles drawn out into spines which extend back to the
fifth or sixth segment of the thorax. Surface of the test smooth
except for fine strie which are rather prominent on the inner
margin of the free cheek.

Thorax of nine segments. Axial lobe narrow. Pleura with
deep furrows.

Pygidium nearly semicircular in outhne, with a broad con-
eave border and a low, smooth axial lobe. The pleural lobes are
marked by four pairs of wide, unfurrowed mbs which ean be
__ traced across the concave border. The axial lobe is crossed by
one prominent ring, and two fainter ones. Behind the rings are
a series of pairs of hardly visibie pits. Test covered with faint
irregular striz.

The hypostoma is about as broad as long, almost straight
in front, sem:_ircular behind; muscular attachments in front of
the middle; side wings narrow. It is very similar to the hypo-
stoma of Bathyurus extans, but broader in front.

Length of the largest specimen 74 mm., width 58 mm. A
smaller specimen is 40 mm. long and 25 mm. wide. One pygi-

* Published by permission of the Director of the Geological Survey of Canada.

130 Tue Ottawa NaturRALIst. [Nov.

dium is 18 mm. long and 30 mm. wide, while another is 12 mm.
long and 21 mm. wide. A very large cephalon is 27 mm. long
and 58 mm. wide.

This species is closely related to Bathyurus extans (Hall),
but. differs from that species in being wider, in having a much
less convex axial lobe, a depressed and rounded, instead of a very
convex and subtriangular pygidium, and a much wider concave
border on the pygidium. The surface of the glabella of B. extans
is quite granulose, while the test in this species is smooth. The
species also attains a much larger size than B. exians or any other
species of the genus.

Loca.Lity.—-This species seems to be rather common in a
layer of dark gray dolomitic limestone southwest of the outcrop
of the Black River and Lowville at La Petite Chaudiére,
Mechanicsville, Ontario, and has not yet been observed in any E
other stratum. This layer is supposed to belong to the Chazy.

The entire specimen, which is probably the largest Bathyurus |
known, was collected by Mr. J. E. Narraway, and is in his col-
lection. The other specimens figured were collected by the
writer and are in the collection of the Geological Survey. Mr. .
Narraway has a pygidium of this species which he collected some
years ago from a loose fragment of rock in Ottawa South.

The only other Bathyurus known from the Chazy is B. — ~
angelint Billings, a species which is peculiar in that the axial .
lobe of the pygidium extends across the border to the posterior
margin.

ISOTELUS ARENICOLA Sp. Nov.

~ For a number of years fragments of a large Jsotelus have
been found in the sandstone of the Chazy about Ottawa, but
as the cephalon was unknown, it was not possible to determine
what species was represented. It has usually been listed as
Asaphus or Isotelus canalis. (See Sowter, T. W. E., Orrawa
Natura ist, Vol. II., pp. 11-15, 1888; Ami, H. M., Appendix to
Dr. Ells’ ‘‘Geology of Ottawa and Vicinity,” 1901). A free
cheek recently found by the writer at Britannia supplies the
missing information, and this, with the large headless specimen
collected by Richardson at Deschenes, furnishes the material for 4
the description which follows.

DescripTIoN.—Cephalon, judging from the free cheek,
nearly three-fourths as long as broad, surrounded by a wide
concave border. Eyes large, situated less than their own length
from the posterior margin of the cephalon. Free cheek broad,
with the genal angle drawn out into a short, broad, flat spine. .
Thorax of eight segments, the axial lobe narrow for the genus—
one-third the total width. Pygidium roughly triangular in out-

Tue Ottawa NATURALIST. . 131.

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Sa a)
Ts aD

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a

Fig. 1. Jsotelus arenicola. Out-
line of free cheek and portion of cran-
idium from Britannia. One-third
natural size. p
Fig. 2. Isotelus arenicola. Outline of the
specimen collected by Richardson at Deschenes.
One-third natural size.
line, three-fourths as long as wide; border concave. On the
specimen described, which is a cast of the interior, there are two
rather distinct ribs on each of the pleural lobes. The axial lobe
is hardly distinguishable.

Width of thorax at back of fourth segment, 135 mm., width
of axial lobe at same point, 45 mm.; length of pygidium, 98 mm.,
width, 130 mm. The specimen is only very slightly flattened.
The total length of this specimen appears to have been about ten
inches. Another specimen, described below, seems to have been
at least four inches longer.

This species is more closely allied to Jsotelus gigas than to
any other species, the pygidia of the two forms being almost
alike. The axial lobe of the thorax of the species here described
is, however, much narrower than in either J. gigas or IT. maximus.
I. gigas has no genal spines at maturity, and 7. maximus has a
shorter and more nearly semicircular pygidium. J. harrist has
a wider and shorter cephalon, and /. platymarginatus has a much
wider concave border around the pygidium.

A rather remarkable specimen of this same species was
found by W. C. King, Esq., on the shore of Lake Deschenes at
Britannia. This specimen is an impression of the lower surface
of the trilobite, and shows a longitudinal ridge corresponding to
the central furrow along the axis of the ventral side of the animal,
10 pairs of transverse furrows, and the impression of the hypo-
stoma—first noticed by my friend, Mr. Narraway. The doublure
of the pygidium has also left a wide smooth impression, but in
the cephalic region the hypostoma is the only portion of which
there are any traces remaining. The specimen was found by Mr.

132 Tue Ottawa NATURALIST. [Nov.

King on a waterworn surface of the beach, partially covered by
the shingle, and many details of the structure have doubtless
been removed since it was first exposed to the action of the
elements. The outline of the hypostoma is rather faint on the
specimen, but the excellent photograph made by Miss Bentley :
brings it out clearly. The forks are rather short and far apart,
and the anterior portion is narrow, so that the general form of _ :
;
.

the hypostoma is more like that of Jsotelus harrist than I. gigas.
The total length is 75 mm., the greatest width, 65 mm.; length
of the body portion, 53 mm., width, 50 mm.

The transverse furrows are the impressions left by the
gnathobases of the basal joints of the legs. These gnathobases
were evidently long and very heavy, but the specimen has been
so abraded that all details are obscured. The first six pairs of
impressions are longer and deeper than the four behind. The
first eight pairs seem to belong to the thoracic appendages, while
the last two belong to the pygidium. From the posterior tips
of the hypostoma to the first gnathobases of which traces are 3
present there is a distance of about 22 mm. without impressions.
In Isotelus gigas the hypostoma normally extends back to the :
posterior margin of the cephalon, so that it seems that in this
specimen the impressions of the first two pairs of gnathobases v4
under the thorax may not have been preserved. In that case, .
the six pairs of strong impressions may represent the last six
pairs of thoracic segments, and the pygidium might begin with
the first of the fainter ones.

Two specimens of Jsotelus, somewhat similarly preserved,
have been figured. One is Billings’ specimen from the Trenton
at Ottawa, and the other was describéd by Mickleborough and
by Walcott from a specimen found near Cincinnati. Both of
these specimens, however, show the trilobite itself, as well as :
the impression. Both show the long heavy gnathobases of the q
coxopodites, and it becomes evident that, as the coxopodites
are attached directly under the dorsal furrows, the increase in
the width of the thoracic lobe, which is so marked a feature in
Tsotelus, is due to the great development of these gnathobases.
The writer believes that this impression on the ripple-marked
sand of the Chazy gives a clue to the development of the gnatho-
bases. Apparently Jsotelus was a bottom crawler, and the
gnathobases may have served as ambulatory appendages. In
both the specimens of Jsotelus mentioned above as retaining the
appendages, the gnathobase of a thoracic appendage is nearly
as long as the remainder of the appendage, and being a single
rod, and not jointed, is much more useful as a lever. On all the
specimens known, the gnathobases are strongly developed on
the thorax, and only feebly so on the pygidium. Beecher found -

7 s
A ae ere a

THE Ortawa NATURALIST. 133

that the appendages under the pygidium of Triarthus were

flattened and adapted for swimming, while those under the
thorax could be used either in swimming or crawling. It would
‘seem that this sort of specialization had gone still further in
Tsotelus than in Triarthus. WHere there is a large pygidium,
probably provided with swimming organs (Walcott found traces
of them under the pygidium of the specimen he described), and
under the thorax the inner portions of the appendages were
strengthened to function as ambulatory appendages. In TJ7t-
arthus, a form adapted primarily for swimming and secondarily
for crawling, the appendages are very long, and extend far -
bevond the outer margins of the test, while in Jsotelus the
appendages are hardly long enough to reach the outer margins.
The swimming power had to some extent been sacrified in the
adaptation to crawling. Tyrzarthus depended on its swiftness in
Swimming to escape from its enemies, and lacked the power of
enrolment. Jsotelus, a slower moving, but heavier-shelled
animal. protected itself by complete enrolment.

S27
a 7
2
Nw
SZ
XA
= 0
x 0 is
IN = a Fig. 3. Diagram of the trails on a slab of
\ we DB sandstone found at Deschenes. 1 is the trail shown
woos Zo in the photograph on the plate, and 1 and 3
Q\ S Zs 2 are supposed to have been made by-an IJsotelus.
S ~~.
Sa
3
ad
ZZ
Sf

Certain trails found by the writer on the surface of slabs
of sandstone from the Chazy at Deschenes tend to confirm the
suspicion that the gnathobases were used as ambulatory organs.
A diagram and photograph of one of these trails is here repro-
duced, and it will be seen that it is exactly the sort of marking
that would theoretically be produced by a trilobite which was
crawling with the aid of the gnathobases only. The trail num-
bered I in the diagram can be traced for about 100 mm. on the
slab, and consists of a series of pairs of approximately parallel .
ridges, arranged on opposite sides of a narrow furrow. The
ridges are inclined at angles of from 30 to 60 degrees to the
direction of the furrow. Each ridge is about 10 mm. long, and
the furrow is from 3 to 5 mm. wide. The slab is a mould of the

134 THE Ottawa NATURALIST. — [Nov.

impression made in the sand, and the ridges correspond to the
depressions made by the gnathobases. The trail numbered 3
is similar to the one described, but the one numbered 2 is of a
different sort.

The increase in width of the axial lobe, caused by the de-
velopment of the gnathobases in the adaptation to the crawling
mode of life, explains the parallelism which exists between certain
genera of the Asaphide, and the parallelism between Nzdleus
and some of the Jilaenide. A number of forms, arising from
different stocks, were becoming adapted to near-shore life, and
all found that enlarged gnathobases assisted them in their.new
mode of life. Thus the narrow-axised Asaphus produced Oncho-
metopus, Isoteloides produced Jsotelus, and Symphysurus de-
veloped into Nileus, just as some as yet unknown form developed
into the Jllenurus of the sands of the Potsdam.

_ Locatity.—This species is represented in the collections
at the Museum of the Geological Survey by a thorax and
pygidium from Deschenes, and a free cheek from Britannia, which
are holotype and paratype respectively. There is also a partial
thorax and pygidium collected by James Richardson in 1853
from the sandstone of the Chazy at West Hawkesbury. The
pygidium of this specimen is 72 mm. long and about 110 mm.
wide, and shows a single rib on each pleural lobe. The axial lobe
of the thorax is very narrow, being only 33 mm. in width. The
total width appears to have been somewhat over 100 mm. The
fourth specimen was found loose at Point Claire, but was un-
doubtedly from the Chazy, which outcrops there. This speci-
men shows the posterior portion of the hypostoma and portions
of six thoracic segments. The forks of the hypostoma are very
short, and the body portion is convex. The axial lobe of the
thorax is 53 mm. wide, and the total width of the thorax is
160 mm.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE II.

1. Bathyurus superbus Raymond. A _ small cranidium.
About natural size.

2. The same species. An imperfect thorax and pygidium.
Slightly smaller Uhan natural size.

3. The’same species. A nearly complete specimen. About
natural size.

4. Trail, supposed to be that of an /sotelus.

5. Impression of the ventral surface of a trilobite, presum-
ably Jsotelus arentcola. About one-fifth natural size.

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THE OtrawaA NATURALIST. 3 13 5

_-—-—«*NOTES ON THE WHITE-THROATED SPARROW.

By L. MclI. Territt, WEstTMounNT, QUE.

Even after fifteen years’ acquaintanceship, I still look

forward to the arrival of the White-throated Sparrow as a chief

event in the spring migration.
Birds confine themselves chiefly to the open country at this

- time; in fact few wood-dwellers have begun to arrive. Hard-
wood groves carpeted with Hepaticas and other blossoms hold

some attraction for bird life, but in the gloom of the evergreen
swamp few notes are heard. Here, the hardy Skunk-cabbage
is alone strong enough to force its way through snow and ice-
water; a Winter Wren occasionally bubbles forth its overflow
of spirits, and possibly at twilight you may hear the Hermit
Thrush; yet it requires the frequency of the White-throat’s

___ cheery whistle to make one feel entirely at home.

Immediately on their arrival ‘on the average about the
27th of April) one may find these sparrows paired and settled
in their breeding haunts. After the first of May it is usual to
hear individuals in city gardens (in one instance a lumber vard
in the heart of the city was chosen by a bird which sang nearly
every morning from the 14th to the 20th of May), but these birds
are more likely northern than local residents. During the three
or four weeks following their arrival the White-throats sing a

great deal; even at night one will often hear a sudden burst of

song. Usually the same number of notes are uttered, though
the variation in pitch and inflection is considerable. Later, when
the breeding season is far advanced, notes are frequently
omitted; often the first two alone are uttered, the second being
much shortened and abruptly terminated. One feels, on hearing

_ this late summer song, that the bird has not finished what it

started to say; as if the impulsive singer were denied the right
to sing yet could hardly repress the song. The abrupt full-stop
suggests sadness,—oblivious for the moment, the White-throat
is suddenly reminded of the dying summer. Still later, in late
August and September, though individuals will sometimes sing
the spring song in its entirety, it is more usual to hear the first
note only and that much shortened, an utterance that would
readily escape detection.

Comparatively few birds commence nesting in. May, though
I have found several complete sets in that month. On May 15th,
1910, my earliest record, I located two partially completed nests;
a week later found these nests abandoned, and two others with
one and four eggs respectively. This habit of abandoning nests
when disturbed, in common with such birds as the Ovenbird,

136 Tue Ottawa NATURALIST. [Nov.

Chestnut-sided and Canadian Warblers, is almost universal with

the White-throat in this district. -Having examined a great
many nests I can only record two or three instances in which
the bird has returned to lay, after being flushed from an empty
nest or from a nest containing one or two eggs.

On the other hand, if the bird has .ommenced incubating
she will rarely desert. I have never identified an egg as having
been removed from an abandoned nest to a new one, yet I am
quite satisfied that this is a common occurrence; at least, any
eggs in a nest at the time of abandonment will have disappeared
on a return visit. More than this, the birds will often remove a
quantity of lining, nc Joubt to serve in a new venture.

The nest is a + .vstantia! structure, usually built on the
ground, and the bi:d is fastidious in regard to certain materials
apparently necessary to give satisfaction. Various substances
compose the body of the nest; generally plant stalks, withered
grasses and bark shreds, on a foundation of skeleton leaves, with
a lining similar to that employed by the Swamp Sparrow,
usually of bleached grasses. The main distinction from other
sparrows’ nests lies in the outer rim of green mosses which is
never, to my knowledge, absent; often suggesting in this respect
nests of the Phoebe Flycatcher. Sometimes, in very wet woods,
there will be ‘an additional understructure of particles of decayed
wood, raising the nest slightly and permitting of drainage.
Moisture is apparently essential to the White-throat’s welfare
at this season; possibly they would have no objection to nesting
in a dry bare place (the Ovenbird safely combats the disad-
vantages of ground nesting in the barest of woods) were it not
that the swamps contain their chosen food. Occasionally, in
hilly country with a predominant growth of conifers, the White-
throat will cohabitate with Juncos on the dry slopes of hill
pastures, when the nest is usually built in the thick of some
shrubby evergreen bush. In the same locality, down in the
tamarack-girt sphagnum bogs, it is also usual to find the nest
above ground; the respective lack and density of undergrowth
being chiefly responsible for this departure. Above all other
spots, an opening, either path or glade, in damp evergreen
woods is chosen, while adjoining Black Ash swamps usually
accommodate a few pairs. The opening in thick woods is essen-
tial as little shade suffices; secondly, this opening should be

carpeted with ferns and grasses, and especially with the run- |

ning vines of Swamp Raspberry and Bedstraw. Occasionally
the nest is built on top of a mossy mound or stump (especially
in the wetter woods) hidden beneath a canopy of ferns; but
more often it is hidden in a tangle of Bedstraw.

Descriptions of eggs are usually inadequate except by com-

a
=

:
wee aT eee eee ee

Ture Orrawa NATURALIST. 137

‘parison; only thus can one appreciate the difference between
eggs of Song, White-throated and Swamp Sparrows. All of these
_ might be roughly described as spotted with brown on a light
greenish ground; but on comparison, taking eggs of the Song
% Sparrow as a type of reddish brown, the others become respec-
_ tively, distinctly brick-red and umber-brown. Of course, eggs
- ~_ of the White-throat are generally, though not invariably, larger
than the other two species. Four eggs are usually deposited;
___ less commonly three and five. The foregoing remarks apply for
the most part to first layings, as the White-throat rears at least
__ two broods in a season, usually the first in the early part of
_ June and the second in mid-July, though some birds delay until
_ August.

_ As the rank growth in the damp woods advances with the
summer, the birds seek more open woods and second growths,
where they nest in brush heaps and evergreen bushes as well as
on the ground. In so doing they simply avoid the uncongenial
depth and density of undergrowth similarly as in the sphagnum
bogs earlier in the season. The White-throat gives little indica-
- tion as to the location of its nest; likely you will hear the male

sing, but not a note of alarm until you flush the female, when
both birds immediately join in an angry outcry. If, however,
the nest contains young and the parent is not on the nest, you
-wiil likely be notified when some distance away. As far as I
know the female sparrow alone incubates her eggs; though once
on a hot day at noon I flushed two birds from a rather exposed
nest. This nest contained newly hatched young and no doubt
the parents were endeavoring to protect them from the sun’s rays.
Leaving the locality and returning several minutes later, I had
a good view of both birds covering the nest with outspread
wings.

-There is considerable individuality in the mode of leaving
the nest; a bird building in bushes will usually slip quietly to
_ the ground and steal away on the far side, eventually flying to a
perch overhead, when the alarm note is sounded. Jn the case of
ground-nesting, the bird usually flushes directly from the nest
and immediately seeks a perch. Occasionally, however, she will
slip away as quietly as a mouse and get some distance from the
nest before taking flight. This method of evacuation is more
common when the nest contains young, in which case you are
fortunate in seeing the bird before hearing her. In whatever
manner the bird may be flushed she will usually seek a perch
above ground before giving vent to alarm, this alarm being
expressed in a ‘“‘chip” repeated at intervals, a note much more
_ metallic than that of other resident sparrows.
- In late July and early August, whilst many birds are still

138 THE OTTAWA NATURALIST. [Nov.

with fledglings, one may hear the migratory “‘tsip”’ of earlier
broods preparing to leave the woods. This is done gradually;
by the middle of August smail flocks are to be found in thickets
and hedges of the more open country. From then on the deeper
~ woods become very quiet, though there are always a few birds
detained wséth late broods, even after the Wood Peewee’s note
is no longer heard. I have heard a White-throat in full song, in
its breeding haunts, as late as September 27th (1908), but this
is unusual. During September and October they are to be
found chiefly flocking with other sparrows in the hedges of the
open country, in the outskirts of woods, along river banks and
in city gardens. In these situations they often utter their alarm
notes, but I have yet to hear a White-throat singing in the open
country.

By the middle of October the bulk have departed, and
toward the end of the month practically all have gone; though
I have one exceptional record, November 22nd, 1908, when I
secured an immature bird and saw another.

My observations on the White-throated Sparrow were made
in the counties of Laval, Jacques Cartier, Laprairie, Terrebonne
and Compton, Province of Quebec.

FIELD NOTES OF CANADIAN BOTANY.—ILI.

By Epwarp L. GREENE.

A year has passed, and somewhat more, since the first in-
stalment of these notes was published. That paper, as may be
seen by reference to it in the issue of THe Narura.ist for
September of last year, consisted of notes on the vegetation of a
tamarack marsh at Strathroy, western Ontario; and since I had
not completed my account of the region as a whole, I may as well
resume at the point where I left off.

I had descended to the marsh by a well-beaten path, evidently
the trail of children and others of the Strathroy villagers who
naturally resort to the place to gather its choice floral treasures
in spring and summer. I left the spot from another side where
there was no path; and on ascending to the slightly higher
ground of the low hills that shut in the marsh on two sides, I

encountered a low sumach thicket which, although it was the |

middle of June, was not yet in foliage. The sumachs are all late
in coming into leaf, and this colony was at that stage when the
new shoots are a few inches long, and the leaves barely beginning
to unfold. There was that in the first near view of these shrubs,

just emerging from their winter condition, their branches still

i. - usm

i et i

Tue Orrawa NarturRALIST. 139
almost naked, which impelled me to halt and inspect them more
closely. There were plenty of clusters of fruit remaining in fair
condition from the autumn before. The drupelets were those of
the group of Rhus glabra; and this was a surprise, because the

-first glance at the branches had convinced me beyond possibility

of doubt that the colony was of the R. typhina group; not that
they manifested that dense velvety, or rather plushy indument
like that of the horns of stags when the horns are newly grown.
There are Rhus typhina allies, unquestionably such to all who
know them, that have no trace of the velvet or plush on their
branches at any time. These are conditions of which the
botanists who write the descriptive manuals know nothing. The
book does not yet exist in which the most fundamental distinc-
tions between these exceedingly common shrubs, those of the
glabra type and those of the typhina type have been given. What

‘the most essential characters of the two groups are, I proceed to

state; and first, those marking the typhina group. The young
branches are cylindrical, or terete, to use the good botanical term,
which means that the cross section is in outline a circle; also the
bark of such young branches is of a deep or dark green, without
trace of bloom or pallor. In every form or phase or distinct
species of the glabra alliance such young branches are not only
pale or whitish with bloom, they are never cylindric or terete,
but always plainly angled, their cross sections never circular,
always angular, more or less definitely and acutely so. By such
clear and definite notes as these may the botanist out of doors
distinguish between these two types of sumach even in mid-
winter; and both types are common over an area that embraces
almost all of North America east of the Rocky Mountains. And
the points of difference here emphasized have not been known
to the writers of our manuals sitting in the herbarium, although
herbarium specimens exhibit them.

I shall have more to say concerning the sumachs of West-
ern Ontario by and by.

This perhaps more distinctively southwestern part of the
great province, as I traversed it from Sarnia near the southern
point of Lake Huron to Hamilton on Lake Ontario, and as I
have walked some scores of miles of it in pursuit of botanical
knowledge, has to me the appearance of what may have been
from the first a gently undulating prairie country broken into
sections of small extent by many woodland-belted rivers and
their numerous lesser tributaries.

Across the prairie looking eastward from Strathroy I noted
as at the probable distance of a mile and more a stretch of timber,
where I supposed I should find a water-course of some kind, and
on the wooded hills above one special desideratum, Thalictrum

140 THe Ottawa NATURALIST. - — [Nov.

dioicum. On reaching the woods, I found there no river or
stream or streamlet, nor any spot at all where one would expect
that species of Thalictrum; but I was slow in reaching the wood-
land destination because of the interesting objects—botanical—
which I met with along the railway. The botanist in a prairie
country always makes the railroads his highway as a pedestrian,
because along such line only can he hope to find strips of prairie
land that were never overturned by the plow, and where remnants
of the original native plants of the region have stood chances of
survival. j

The first half-mile or so eastward from Strathroy by the
railway is low prairie land, at least now, though almost doubtless
it may have been wet timber land originally, the Sydenham
River near which Strathroy was built being well timbered, like
other streams of the region, all along its course. To the plant
associations of this half-mile of low moist prairie I shall return
later; but the boundary of this low land, at the eastward, is a
low but broad ridge of dry and light sandy soil, perhaps a glacial
deposit, or else an ancient bank of the river now a half-mile
distant. The railway has been cut through this sandy ridge, and
the land on the sides of the track is prairie never yet broken by
the plow. On the northwestward slope of this slight elevation,
under that protection from cattle which the railway fences
secure to many an easily extinguished native flower, I recognized,
even before I had come very near the spot, a fine colony of an
old favorite not seen by me before for many a year, Erythrocoma
triflora, the Three-flowered Avens, or Three-flowered Geum. This
is one of several beautiful early spring flowers which botanists
and lovers of wild flowers in Wisconsin, and in Michigan a genera-
tion ago, knew as the earliest things of spring, and they sought it
as they did the Pasque Flower, Pulsatilla Nuttalliana and
Ranunculus rhomboideus on the bleakest and coldest exposures
of the knolls of glacial drift, where alone either one of the three
was ever to be seen. Of course in the middle of June in western
Ontario the Erythrocoma was past its flowering, but the tufts of
soft feathery coma, that as an appendage to the head of seeds is
almost as red as the flower itself—these remain until the begin-
ning of summer and render a colony of the plants a thing of
beauty as long as they last.

On this same slope I observed a single plant of a violet that
I had not met with before, nor have I seen it since in any later
travels. As to foliage alone it might have been V. fimbriatula,
but it had three good marks to preclude its being referred to that
common and rather widely dispersed species. Its stout root-
stock was widely and multifariously branched, so that the plant
as a whole formed quite a broad tuft. Entirely past the period

ee a

Tue Orrawa NATURALIST. 141

of its showy flowering, the apetalous summer flowers were as far

as possible from standing upright as they do in that species;
they lay close along the ground and on slender peduncles clothed

__ with long soft hairs. Here, then, were three abundantly sufficient
- eharacters by which to have distinguished this violet asnew. At

a later date, only a quarter-mile away, growing as its habit is on
sandy but damp ground, | saw plenty of V. fmbriatula, and here
as always with its simple short rootstock, upright apetalous

- flowers and pods borne among the leaves, and the peduncles

stout without hairiness. I am careful to describe both the locali-
ties, and the peculiar marks of these plants, in the hope that

_ botanists resident in western Ontario may have an eye to their

further investigation, especially in perhaps early May, when they
should be in petaliferous flower.

A little beyond this sandy ridge the railway embankment,
only a little elevated above the level of the plain, was thickly
beset with a dwarf wild rose, now in the middle of June, well in
flower. I supposed it to be a colony of my Rosa pratincola, an
almost herbaceous rose abundant all over the whole prairie
region of the Upper Mississippi and its tributaries but this
identification will perchance not hold good. It was too early
for the fruits, and the plants after all seemed rather too com-
pactly colonized for R. pratincola.

At this good point of my route to the woodland I took
observation of a grain field as occupying acres on one side along
the railway, and on the opposite an equal stretch of pasture land,
the pasture being more or less elevated and sandy, this ridge of

‘drift, if such it be, sloping away and becoming evanescent at a

distance of not many rods from where I stood within the railway
enclosure. In this elevated and sandy part of the pasture close
at hand there were blackberry bushes and a scattered colony of
sumach, the members of this low of stature, much smaller than
those on the hills around the tamarack swamp, and they seemed
laden with last year’s panicles of different shape as well as heavier
than those of the other. As seen from a short distance, I was
hoping this might turn out to be a member of the Rhus glabra
alliance; possibly my R. arbuscula of the glacial drift in northern
Indiana not so very far away; but an inspection of the shrub,
with its branches just budding out into leaf, resulted in the cer-
tainty that this also was of the R. typhina alliance, possibly the
same, specifically, as the other; possibly distinct.

The nearer approach to the woods that I had set forth to
reach disclosed evidence that on this side of the prairie also, as
on the opposite side of the town, the original limits of it had been
somewhat extended, and that of the woodland correspondingly
restricted since the first settlement of the country; for now, what

142 THe Ottawa NATURALIST. 7 [Nov.

any one nct a botanist and close observer would not have doubted
about as a part of the pristine prairie, began to show fine patches
of Smilacina racemosa, at this time in fresh full blocm, while
along the fences there was a continuous row of bloodroot, this of
course long past flowering. These and a few other plants which
by nature are strictly woodland plants, will maintain a foothold
and even flourish in the open, long after their forest shelter has
been removed, so long as neither the plow nor the ruminants
disturb them.

The wooded belt when reached did not prove to be the wild
woodland I had hoped to see; nor was there river or even any
streamlet coursing through or near it. What I had come to was
but a series of well kept groves of young trees, such as the farmers
had with excellent economy not only permitted to remain, but had
kept clear of woody undergrowths, permitting not much except
the native herbaceous plants and a scattered growth of currant
and gooseberry bushes, natives of the soil, to remain. The most
- common tree was beech, but also there was no dearth of red oak,
some white oak and bur oak, an occasional ash, more than an
occasional linden and black maple, besides such things of smaller
stature as Carpinus and the hop hornbeam, besides a Crataegus
species or two. In less elevated and rather damp places I noted
the presence of Dirca palustris and Enonymus obovatus. Where
the shade was deepest, chiefly under the beeches and maples,
there was abundance of Arisaema and of bloodroot, besides
yellow violets, and clustered between and upon the superficial
root-arms of the beeches was a great abundance of Unifolium
canadense. In places less shady, and where they were partly
open to the sun, there were beautiful patches of Geranium
Roberttanum in full flower at the time; also here and there a tuft
of scarlet columbine. I have observed scarlet columbines all the
way across the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
and have long known them in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado,
and in both the Coast Range and the Sierra Nevada. Botanists
in Europe and in America have distinguished several species,
and I doubt not most of them are valid. This one of western
Ontario at once presented one mark that was new to me among
this group. The basal leaves were more elegantly and narrowly
cut than any I had observed either east or west, and also they
were of an almost whitish glaucous hue, though all of a sudden
the stem leaves all, even the lower, were of the usual green of
columbine leaves. And this plant is certainly not Aguzlegia
canadensis, for the sure mark of that is that its follicles when
grown and mature spread away from one another at the top, and
are even almost recurved. In the plant of western Ontario the

follicles closely cohere to the very tips, and are even then con-

———_~r ee

EE SS ee es ee

Ce Oe” eee aes

THE OTTAWA NATURALIST. 143

-nivent rather than otherwise. The plant may not be new or
3 _ undescribed ; for careful people who have studied these plants
in their native haunts in various places, and have cultivated
_ them together have been obliged to distinguish several. Beyond
_ doubt those listed and defined by Dr. Small in his excellent
“Flora of the Southern States” are good. This plant of Ontario

may perchance be one of those, but quite as probably it is neither;

and assuredly it is not A. canadensis whatever it be.

>

Traversing this delightful succession of groves, I came at
last to a dry open space, where the soil was sandy and the ground
more elevated. By the presence of two or three other plants not
seen before that day, I recognized the elevation as a continuation

_ of the glacial drift I had passed an hour before. The best of these

were Ranunculus jascicularis and R. rhomboideus. Both were
past flowering and in good fruit; but they recalled again very
vividly the gravelly knolls that in Wisconsin so long ago I used to
visit early each spring to see and gather, among others before
named, these two rare buttercups. I am informed by my friend
Professor John Macoun that Goldie, who was the discoverer of

‘R. rhomboideus and who published the species, almost a hundred

years ago, was a Settler in western Ontario, and botanized about
Strathroy; so that here, without knowing it at the time, I was
on classic ground for Canadian botany.

A COLONY OF CLIFF SWALLOWS AND OTHERS.

By NorRMAN CRIDDLE, TREESBANK, MAN.

_ While collecting along the banks of the Souris River near
Treesbank on July 26th of this year, I came across several
colonies of Cliff Swallows with nests built on the almost perpen-
dicular banks of the stream. The first of these were well out of
reach, but eventually I discovered two on quite a low cliff
situated close to some convenient mud, which probably accounted
for the unusually low site chosen. The two colonies contained
about 130 nests, which were some 200 yards apart, the lowest
being only five feet from the more even ground beneath and but
a foot from the top. These were much bunched together and
gave quite a strange effect to the cliff owing to their dark, pear-
shaped forms and somewhat elongated necks against the lighter
back-ground. Many of the young birds had already left their
nests and could be seen flying with their parents, while others
were only partly fledged, and several nests still contained eggs,
though in an advanced stage of incubation. .

As is well known, most swallows are attacked in their homes

144 Tue Orrawa NATURALIST. — [Nov.

by a very disagreable parasite closely allied to the obnoxious
bed bug, in fact many persons still believe that these insects are
identical, and, as a result, condemn the swallows for spreading
the true bed bug throughout the country. Needless to say, how-
ever, this is not the case, for though the unsavoury odour is
identical a casual examination will convince any observant
person of the difference between the two insects.

The colonies referred to above proved no exception to the
general rule, in fact the nests inside and outside were simply
swarming with this bug (4¢ciacus hirundinis), as were also the
cliffs below the nests and for several feet on either side of them,
while every crack and cranny was full of the disgusting insects
in all stages of growth; many were so inflated with blood as to
appear quite red. There was, also, an almost incessant shower
of the bugs falling upon the earth beneath, and during the short
time I spent in examining and collecting a few of the creatures,
fully a dozen dropped upon my hat and clothes, so that I was
glad to discard them and have a dip in the river. Afterwards I
tried to entice a couple to bite me, but in vain, showing that they
evidently preferred to confine themselves to the feathered tribe.

To me it seems remarkable that the young birds managed to
survive at all. While the substance sucked from the parents
during the brooding period must be very great, yet, with the
exception of three partly fledged young found dead some twelve
feet away, which may have been victims, no evil effects were
observed.

The colonies were undoubtedly old ones, as was indicated
by the broken nests partly built upon, and also by the great

quantity of refuse beneath. This is doubtless why the bugs were

present in such abundance.

It has not been my good fortune to run across more than
about a dozen colonies of Cliff Swallows, but all these have
invariably been situated on cliffs or barns either facing the north
or east, so that they were sheltered from the sun during the
hottest part of the day. My experience with Bank Swallows is
that they always choose the north or eastern cliffs facing the sun.
Perhaps this is merely a coincidence, but be that as it may,
either the difference in habit or situation of nests seems to be
responsible for a lack of bugs among the Bank Swallows, as I
could not discover any in their vicinity, while the insects were
quite active on and about the sheltered nests of the Cliff
Swallows during a greater portion of the afternoon.

A species of Atciacus, probably identical with the Swallow
Bug, is sometimes found in poultry houses, and I have also
discovered them in a stump containing a pair of nesting Tree
Swallows. Barn Swallows, as is well known, are also much

THe Ortawa NatTurRALIst. 145

“infested with them at times, especially when there are several
? "together. The reason why swallows are so much attacked is
probably due to their habit of returning to the same breeding

lace for several years in succession, and thereby making much
ee. more profitable hosts for the bugs than birds that change their
__ nesting abode each season. It is also interesting to recollect that
_ the nesting period of swallows only covers, at most, three months,
ESO that the bugs are obliged to fast for nine months of the year.
_ Most of this time, however, is spent in hibernation.

NESTING OF THE AMERICAN OSPREY.

By W. J. Brown, WESTMOUNT, QUE.

~ The heavy dense woods of tamarack, black spruce and

balsam, with poplars and birches scattered here and there,
which skirt the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, are an excel-
lent breeding ground for the American Osprey. From May 28th
to June 15th of the present year twenty nests of this bird were
located in an area of timber extending some twelve miles along
the coast. The nearest nest from the shore was about one mile

inland; then they appear to extend horizontally half a mile

_ apart, placed on the very top of all sorts of trees, generally dead
ones. In one instance two or three nests were but two hundred
yards apart.

It is easy to find these huge nests of the Osprey, as they can
be seen some eight hundred yards away with the sitting bird
moving her head in all directions looking for possible enemies.
As soon as you are detected—and you can count on the fish hawk
seeing you half a mile away—the bird slowly rises off her nest
and comes up to meet you, ‘making all the time a whistling note
and performing certain revolutions characteristic of the species.
As you approach the nest it is more difficult for one to locate it,
as these evergreen woods are very heavy and the underbrush
equally so. However, the bird is overhead and practically leads
one tothe nest. Some of the nests are situated in small clearings
and are, therefore, more easily found. As stated, it is easy to
locate the nests, but it is quite another matter to procure the
eggs. The largest nest examined was between five and six feet
across and about two feet deep—built largely of sticks and lined
with seaweed and grasses. The others were not quite so bulky,
averaging about four to five feet. The only way to get into these
nests is to hug the tree with one arm and work an avenue or lane
over the side of the nest with the other hand. This is an extreme-

_
*

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ay - x +> a “1am pate’ Ob a2
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1 46 THE OTTAWA NATURALIST. — . [Nov.

ly hard and hazardous undertaking and occupies a full half hour >
at least.

On May 28th five nests were examined containing three
fresh eggs each. One was on top of a dead poplar 45 ft. up; two
in live pine, about 60 ft. up, and one each in dead tamarack and
balsam 50 ft. up. The following day two other nests were
examined and they contained two fresh eggs each. On June 14th
nine nests were located all containing three eggs each—which
were on the point of hatching. A number of other trees were
unclimbable. The birds apparently begin laying in this locality
about May 24th. All of the sets taken were nicely marked as is |
usual with this species, the ground color being almost covered
by the reddish coloration. |

FALL EXCURSION.

An excursion of the Club was held to the Experimental
Farm on Saturday afternoon, October 9th, when a fair number
of members and others were present to inspect the fine grounds
and Arboretum of this institution. Among the features especially
attracting attention were the extensive hedges, demonstrating the
value of various shrubs and trees for this purpose; the group of
cedars or Arbor Vitae showing what a range of horticultural
types may be obtained; the curious Maiden-hair tree Ginkgo
biloba; some Japanese Anemones, which were still in the height
of bloom, after most other flowers were out of season, etc.

An object lesson of considerable interest was the collection
of wild, unimproved apples. The Oid World Pyrus haccata, with
its tiny fruits scarcely larger than peas, and the native American
crab apple P-vrus corcnaria, with somewhat larger, but extremely
unpleasant fruits were stri kingly in contrast with the large, fleshy,
attractively colored and flavored apples which we know, fortuna-
tely, so much better.

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Following the copious rains of a few days previous, mush- ;
rooms of several kinds were much in evidence. The characteristic 7
circular colonies of the ‘‘Fairy ring’? mushroom, Marasmius
oreades, were especially noticeable in the thick sod of the F

Arboretum.

The majority of the trees had already lost the brilliance of
their autumn foliage, but those which were stili in this con-
spicuous garb, together with the scarlet fruits of the barberry.
the burning bush, “and others, were much appreciated. Remarks
were made by the leaders on the cause of autumnal coloration,
and on such other topics as were suggested ‘by the observations
of the afternoon. Hts

Tue Ottawa NATURALIST. | 147°

ee NOTES.

Citay Noputes. Inthe account of the September excursion

- to Green’s Creek, which appeared in the October issue, a mention

was made of the interesting clay nodules, which occur there in

BN pa i ta

ET Ne

*

32 Bo Rian SAR Get De att

such numbers, Since, the Editor has received from Dr. Percy E.
Raymond, of the Geological Survey, some notes on these nodules,
which will undoubtedly be of interest to our readers.

“Toward the end of the ‘Great Ice Age’ there was a lowering
of the northeastern portion of the North American Continent
with respect to the sea level, and, as a result, the great river

valleys became, for a time, arms of the sea. One of these arms

extended up the St. Lawrence as far as the upper end of Lake
Ontario, with a side bay which occupied the Ottawa Valley for
atleast 200 miles west of Montreal. Another covered the region
occupied by Lake Champlain, whence the name ‘Champlain
epoch,” often applied to this time. At that time, as now, the
Tivers, descending from the low highlands to the north and west,
brought down sand and fine mud which was deposited over the
sea bottom. With the mud came quantities of leaves from the
northern forests, and occasionally, insects, feathers of birds, and
bones or bodies of animals. In the sea itself lived such a fauna
as is found off our northeastern coasts; whales, seals, various
fish, barnacles and bivalves. As the anmials died, their bodies
or shells were buried in the constantly accumulating mud, and,
being protected from rapid decay by the exclusion of the air,
the harder portions have been preserved as fossils such as are
found in the nodules at Green’s Creek and Besserer’s Grove.

“The exact method of formation of these nodules. or any
nodules. is hardly known, but it seems probable that the acids
which are the product of the decay of the organic matter had
something to do with the formation of the cement which has
hardened the clay for from one-half an inch to one inch in all
directions from the fossil which forms the nucleus. It is, indeed,
remarkable how closely the outline of one of the nodules follows
the specimen within it.

“These nodules have furnished quite a fauna and flora,
thanks to the persistent collecting of Dr. Ami and the members
of the Field-Naturalists’ Club. Nearly all the forms belong to
species living at the present time, though a few, notably the
insects, are now extinct. The fauna and flora are interesting as
showing an instance in which organisms representing the life
of both sea and land are preserved in the same bed, and as show-
ing the great physical and climatic changes which may take
place ina (geologically) short time. Sir William Dawson said
of this flora that it ‘represented the greatest refrigeration of

148 THE Ottawa NATURALIST, {[Nov.
which we have any evidence,’ and the fauna, with its seals and
Saxicava, is certainly Arctic. The time which has elapsed since
the retreat of the sea from this area probably is approximately
the same as that required by Niagara for cutting its gorge, that
is, as variously estimated, from 7,000 to 50,000 years.”

A SrmpLe Metuop or Water PuriricaTion. By G. G.
Nasmith. Esq., Ph.D., and R. R. Graham, Esq., M.B. A level
teaspoonful of chloride of lime should be rubbed into a teacup
of water. This solution should be diluted with three cupfuls of
water, and a teaspoonful of the whole quantity should be added
to each two gallon pail of drinking water. This will give .4 or .5
parts of free chlorine to a million parts of water and will in ten
minutes destroy all typhoid and colon bacilli or other dysentry-
producing organisms in the water. Moreover, all traces of the
chlorine will rapidly disappear.

This method of purification has been tested with Toronto
Bay water inoculated with millions of bacteria. Every germ
has been destroyed and it has been unnecessary to boil the water.

This method should be very valuable for miners, prospectors,
campers, and those living in summer resorts where the condition
of the water might not be above suspicion.—Ontario Board of
Health, Circular No. 35.

Nest oF WILson’s Snipe.—The following note appeared in
Forest and Stream, of September 10th:—

“In Ashbridge Marsh, south of Gooderham’s byres, in front
of the Stanley Gun Club shooting house, a Wilson’s snipe’s nest
was found by R. Buchanan, May 12th, 1910. When found, it
contained the full clutch of four eggs. It was frequently visited
by Mr. Alberts and others, and the eggs were hatched out between
the ist and 2nd of June. The nest and eggs were taken by Mr.
Alberts and are now in the possession of James Munro. The
male bird was frequently seen and sometimes on top of the trap
house. The female was hard to flush, and lay close during all the
shooting, if not approached from the path of the trap house.”

A photograph is published in Forest and Stream which shows
a gun wad lying beside the eggs in the nest; and a diagram of
the position of the nest shows it to be nine feet from a much-used
path and twelve yards from a shooting platform.

W. E. SAUNDERS.

:
|
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THE OTTAWA NATURALIST VOL. XXIV. PLATE Ill.

PARIETAL CREST OF CENTROSAURUS APERTUS.

(One-Sixth Nat. size.)

THE OTTAWA NATURALIST

VOL. XXIV. OTTAWA, DECEMBER, 1910 No. 9

NOTE ON THE PARIETAL CREST OF CENTROSAURUS

APERTUS AND A PROPOSED NEW GENERIC
NAME FOR STEREOCEPHALUS TUTUS. *

By Lawrence M. Lamse, F.G.S., F.R.S.C.,
: Geological Survey, Canada.

The defensive frill or crest of Centrosaurus, so singular in

- its general form and contour, has lately been found to be even

more grotesque than it appeared to be at the time of its discovery.
' ‘This crest, made up almost exclusively of the coalesced
parietals, was originally (1902+) described as appertaining to
the species Monoclonius dawsont, Lambe, but was later (1904)
made the type of the genus Centrosaurus. When found by the
writer in 1901 in the Judith River (Belly River) formation, on

‘the west side of Red Deer river, Alberta, a short distance below

the mouth of Berry creek, a straight, laterally compressed bone,
tapering toward one end was with it immediately beneath its
lower surface. This bone was at the time supposed to be a horn-
core and was described as such in the original reference to the
crest and when the genus Centrosaurus was established, the
parietal crest and the so-called nasal horn-core constituting the
type material of the new genus. The discovery during the past
summer of the true nature of the ‘“‘horn-core”’ is of interest and
calls forth the following remarks.

In my description of the crest in the paper published in the
Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, vol. X, 1904, the
following references to the hinder portion of the specimen are to
be found: ‘‘The parietal expansion, for the purpose of descrip-

*Communicated by permission of the Director of the Geological
Survey.

7Geological Survey of Canada. Contributions to Canadian Pale-
ontology, vol. III. (quarto), part II., On Vertebrata of the Mid-Cre-
taceous of the North-west Territory, p. 58, 1902.

{THe Ottawa Nartura.ist, vol. XVIII., p. 81, On the squamoso-
ee! crest of two species of horned dinosaurs from the Cretaceous of

rta.

+
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47

*
:

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Pt

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:
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150 THe Ottawa NATURALIST.

tion, may be said to consist of a longitudinal or axial part, a
transverse portion forming the posterior border, and lateral or»
alar extensions that complete the sides and front margin. oie
The postericr bar near the median line presents a backwardly ;
directed vertical face, which becomes rounded and less robust
in the neighbourhood of the hooked processes; it is not, however,
quite bilaterally symmetrical, its transverse section near the left
hooked process being nearly circular, whilst in the corresponding
position on the other side it is decidedly thickened next to the
fontanelle. . . . A shallow groove, g, more clearly shewn
on the right side of the specimen, extends on the anterior side
of the posterior bar from the upper surface near the median line
downward and then upward in a regular curve, ending ata point
in advance of the base of the hooked process. Above this groove
the face of the bar presents a broken surface. On the left side
the corresponding groove is only faintly indicated, and the bone
above it is intact.’ It is this broken surface on the anterior
right margin of the posterior bar which is of special interest at
the present time. To this surface the lower broken base of the~
‘“‘horn-core’’ fits exactly in perfect contact. To Mr. Barnum Brown
of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, belongs
the credit of having made this discovery whilst on a visit to the
Geological Survey at Ottawa during the past summer.

What was at first considered to be a nasal horn-core is thus
proved to be a strong, forwardly directed outgrowth or spur
from the anterior surface of the right lateral half of the posterior
bar passing directly across and over the right fontanelle, the
front end of the spur being about one inch only above the surface
of the bone forming the anterior border of the opening. Thus —
the above-mentioned groove, g, passes beneath what is now
known to be the base of the robust outgrowth. What is sur-
prising is, that there was no corresponding outgrowth from the
posterior bar on the left, the surface of the bone there being quite
smooth, as already stated.

The figure of the parietal crest accompanying this notice
shews the newly discovered outgrowth in its proper position
somewhat marring the symmetry of the specimen, but certainly
providing food for speculation as to its true nature.

The hooked processes on the posterior margin of the crest
of Centrosaurus were probably of some use in a protective sense,
Projecting beyond the back of the frill, and with a horny cover-
ing, they would play an important part in the marginal armature
of the frill. The outgrowth over the fontanelle, however, as it
lay but little above the general plane of the lateral expansion of
the crest was probably enveloped by the covering of the frill
and did not shew to any extent above its surface; to be of use -

Tue Orrawa NATURALIST. ~ ; 151 =

; a fa 1 spine for defensive purposes it would have projected Frecly
ae - above the crest. Centrosaurus and Monoclonius are regarded as
: antecedent to forms in which the size of the fontanelles is much
_ reduced, culminating in Triceratops with an entire frill. We
could scarcely, however, consider the spur of bone crossing the
> fontanelle. a little above its general plane, as an attempt on the
‘oa part of Centrosaurus to reduce the size of the opening, although
_-if we accept a Monoclonius-Triceratops phyllum as one of the
a two lines of descent in the Ceratopsia,* we would expect a strong
_ tendency to close the parietal fontanelles in both Monoclonius
-and Centrosaurus. The presence of the outgrowth on one side
ES! “of the crest only, further inclines one to the belief that this spur
has no morphological significance, but has been induced rather
__ by an inherent tendency on the part of the species to add to the
defensive armature in this part of the skeleton.

eee The figure here given is from the drawing reproduced in
_ plate 1, Transactions Royal Society of Canada, vol. X, 1904,
- in the writer’s paper ‘‘On the squamoso-parietal crest of the
Be horned dinosaurs Centrosaurus apertus and Monoclonius cana-
_densis from the Cretaceous of Alberta,’ to which is added the
outgrowth from the posterior bar in its true position, the original
'. drawing for figure 3 of the above plate being used; one-sixth
_ natural size; a, squamosal suture; 6, post-frontal suture;
— groove passing beneath base of bony outgrowth.

THE GENERIC NAME EUOPLOCEPHALUS PROPOSED IN PLACE OF
- STEREOCEPHALUS (PREOCCUPIED).

_. In 1902 the writer described a new genus and species of
_ herbivorous dinosaur from the Judith River (Belly River) beds
of Red Deer river, Alberta, under the name Stereocephalus
' _ tutus (Contributions to Canadian Paleontology, vol. III. [quarto],
part II., p. 55). As the term Stereocephalus has been already
used for a genus of insects it is necessary to suggest another
generic name for the species from Red Deer river represented
"by the upper part of a heavily armoured cranium and a trans-
_ verse, semicircular series of five keeled scutes from the neck or
tail. Euoplocephalus (Gr., euoplos, well armed, and kephale,
head) is therefore now proposed as an appropriate name for the
» genus to take the place of Stereocephalus as applied to the
Cretaceous stegosaur S. tutus. :

. oa

*Monographs of the United States Geological Survey, vol. XLIX
The Ceratopsia by John B. Hatcher, based on preliminary studies by
_ ©. C. Marsh, edited and completed by R. S. Lull.

152 THE OtTTawa NATURALIST,

THE BIRDS OF OTTAWA.

By C. W. G. Errrie.

- The first list of the birds of Ottawa, published by members
of the Ottawa Field-Naturalists’ Club, appeared in the third
number of the Transactions of the Club, pages 29-34. It was
prepared by Messrs. G. R. White and W. L. Scott, and enu-
merates, as a result of their observations up to 1881, the sum
total of 169 species, four of which were later cancelled as erro-

neous. The second general list, which was to fix the ornitho- . |

logical knowledge of the district for some time, appeared ten
years later, 1891 (Ottawa Naturatist, Vol. V., April, 1891).
Additions, migrations “and seasonal lists have since been
published.

Then why this new list? A number of reasons make it desir-
able. 1. Quite a number of additional species have been added
since the list of 1891, which enumerates 224 species, the present
one 246. 2. The status of quite a number of species has since
then been found to be different than given, e.g., many are given
as migrants for the district which have since turned out to be
summer residents, 7.e., breeders.. 3. The surroundings of Ottawa,
and therewith the haunts of birds, are being changed so rapidly
by man, that it seems desirable to make another record of the
favorite localities for birds in the neighborhood as they existed
in the first decade of the twentieth century, before they are no
longer recognizable. 4. Many of the present members of the
Club do not possess those early volumes, and many have re-
peatedly requested the writer to prepare a new list. Besides,
it is a labor of love for the writer, who during six years spent all
available leisure time in the study of the birds of the region.
Never will those delightful hours and days be forgotten, when,
whether in the fields or swamps, or woods, or on the lakes of the
district, the birds furnished him with varied and interesting
experiences, and allowed him many a glimpse into the wonders
and mysteries of nature.

The members of the Club who reside at Ottawa, of course,
know the topography of the region around the city and even
casual visitors to the Capital are filled with pleasant recollections
when hearing names like Britannia, Aylmer, Rockcliffe, Experi-
mental Farm, etc., favorite resorts for Ottawans in the neighbor-
hood, where also many of the observations recorded in this
list were made. But, for the ever-increasing number of members
living far from Ottawa, I quote from the introduction of the
second list, pp. 31-32: ‘‘The district covered by this list is
embraced within a circle of thirty miles radius, with the city of

Tg ee a ae Ly ae

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THe Ottawa NATURALIST 153

POtiawa as its centre. It includes, roughly speaking, the Counties
of Carleton and Russell in Ontario, and the southern portion of
the County of Ottawa in Quebec, and lies between 45° and 46°
north latitude. The northern portion of this district is covered
by what may be termed the first range of the Laurentian Hills,
one of which, known as King’s Mountain, has an elevation of
1,125 feet above sea level, and rises about 900 feet above the

large alluvial plain lying between it and the Ottawa River.

These hills are covered with a great variety of deciduous and
evergreen trees, and among them are numerous mountain lakes,
varying in size from mere ponds to lakes of five miles and up-
wards in length (e.g., Meach Lake). Flowing from the north
through this range of hills the rapid river Gatineau empties,
opposite the city, into the Ottawa, which flows from the west
across the centre of the district, widening above the city with
a southward sweep into a broad and beautiful sheet of water
known as Lake Des Chenes, and again narrowing at the city
where, falling over a limestone ridge, it forms the well-known
Chaudiere Falls. Below these its course is straighter and
narrower, and about twenty miles down it receives from the
north the waters of another rapid stream, the Du Lievre. South
of the Ottawa is a somewhat undulating tract of country,
drained principally by the Rideau, which joins the Ottawa at
the city. It is rather a sluggish stream in its upper reaches,
through being dammed back at various points for canal purposes,
and thus affords several excellent resorts for marsh birds. Much
good farming land, with occasional hardwood ridges, is to be
found in this part of the district, as well as swamps overgrown
with tamarack, cedar, and other cone-bearing trees. The largest

- of these swamps is a peat-bog in Gloucester Township, known as

the Mer Bleue, which covers several thousand acres of land,
carpeted to a great depth with sphagnum moss, and producing
immense quantities of berries of many kinds, notably cran-
berries and blueberries.”’

Thus it will be seen that we have here all the conditions
conducive to making habitats for all kinds of birds. Only
Limicole, the shore-birds, find conditions here less and less

congenial, as the floods of the Ottawa in May and early June

cover all the available sand banks with water, and in August
and the following months they are given no rest by the hordes
of boys and men who make a practice of gging up and down the
river in boats armed with all kinds of shooting irons, blazing
away at every living thing. This is done all summer, especially
on Saturdays and Sundays, so that even breeding birds and
fledglings are wantonly slaughtered, so much so, that certain
localities that would otherwise teem with bird-life, as Kettle

ey: See THe OTTAWA NaTurALisr.

Island, have become almost devoid of it. The provincial or |
other authorities ought to put a stop to this practice. 3 er

Other localities - frequently mentioned in the list are: Beaver
Meadow, a delightful dell between wooded ridges, adjoining
Hull on the west, north of the first toll-gate on the Aylmer Road;
‘“water-front’’ which means the wooded shore of the Ottawa
between Hull and-Tetreauville, on either side of the Canadian
Pacific Railway bridge; the Rifle Range the character of which is
denoted by its name; the woods beyond it, on the south shore
of the Ottawa, which are rich in some of the rarer birds as well as
plants; Beechwood, a large tract of park-like hardwood near
the cemetery, and Chelsea, on the Gatineau River, five miles
north of the city, have yielded rich returns in the study of the
birds; Meach Lake, a charming lake about ten miles north of
the city, has furnished some records, as also Osgoode with its
adjacent swamps along the Rideau, and Cranberry Creek has
been visited by the writer and his co-workers. This locality, as
well as Shirley’s Bay, six miles west of Britannia, the Ottawa
River with Kettle and other islands near the Rifle Range, as
well as the extensive marshes and swamps near the mouth of -
the Lievre River, furnish favorite haunts for numerous marsh
birds like the rails, ducks and other water-birds.

On a map in possession of the writer, on which distances
from Ottawa are indicated by concentric circles, it is found that
High Falls, Labelle County, Quebec, is just on the thirty-mile
circle, and Inlet, in the same county, a trifle beyond. As the
writer made numerous visits to these localities. notes made there
are alsc included in the list.

Two conclusions have forced themselves on the writer as a
result of his study of the Ottawa. birds, which, however, can
only be mentioned here, namely: 1. That the Ottawa River is an
important boundary line in the breeding ranges of birds for thts
part of Canada; that is, certain species like the Canada Jay,
Rusty Grackie, Pine Grosbeak, Three-toed Woodpeckers and
probably several others, do not breed south of it, and for certain
southern species it forms the mnorthern limit of thetr occurrence,
as, for the Chewink, Wood Thrush, Yellow-throated Vireo,
Grasshopper Sparrow, and, to a certain extent, the Indigo bird
and others. 2. That the Ottawa River is a migration route for birds
of much greater importance than is generally known. Great
flocks of migrant land and water birds travel over it or along its.
banks, and even flocks of sea-birds use it as a highway, probably
to and from James Bay.

In compiling the following list the writer has been given
much assistance by several more or less ardent ornithologists,
most of whom belong to the Ottawa Field-Naturalists’ Club.

E55

me to it, co- -operation on the part of many Stains an
scientious observers is especially desirable, as indeed in all

not only the results of the writer’s work, extending over a period
of six years, but also many notes and data furnished by Messrs.
_ GR. and E. G. White, A. G. Kingston, H. U. Morris, and H.
_ Groh, who, together with the writer, frequently held meetings
- as the ornithological section of the Club. Mr. W. T. Macoun of
' the Central Experimental Farm and the late lamented Dr. J.
_ Fletcher also furnished a number of valuable items. Especially
ae _ valuable, however, has been the co- -operation of Mrs. R. D.
~ Brown and Miss Lees of ‘‘ The Pines,’ Ottawa East, whose charm-
_ ing home with its beautiful surroundings is a perfect ther-
- mometer, so to say, for bird-life, be it for the migrant or resident
~ species, their coming and going, greatest frequency, etc. The
P same can be said of Mr. E. Bedard, the keeper of the Rifle Range,
'~ and of his station of observation; he has indeed been of much
eee ence to me, and his many, often surprising records, were
- usually borne out by the specimen mounted. To these and
a several others who have occasionally furnished notes to the
"writer, also to Prof. J. Macoun, of the Geological Survey, who
has always kindly allowed him free access to the collection of
_ skins in the museum, the writer would once more express his
sincere thanks.

The order and arrangement of the list is that of the American
~ Ornithologists’ Union, which is the standard. The scientific
- names are also brought up to date, they being those of the third
_ check-list of the Union of 1910, with the exception that the
trinomials have been left as binomials for the species, and re-
=. tained for the subspecies only, for which they are really only
necessary. The numbers, however, are continuous, as any others
“are of no use in a list of this kind. The meaning of the designa-
- tions of frequency is as follows: rare, 1-5 individuals of that
Species seen during a whole season; moderately common, 1-2
a ~ in a day spent in their proper haunts; common, 5-10; abundant,
“more than 10. The name of the order is given first, that of the
family second.
d > OrDER PyGopopes—Di1vinG Birps.
PODICIPIDZ—GREBES. -
aa 4chmo phorus occidentalis, Western Grebe. Rare acci-
‘dental visitor. A specimen was caught alive on February 26th,
po in the grounds of the Ladies’ College and kept alive several
ays.
ere 2: Colymbus holbelli, Holbcell’s Grebe; Red-necked Grebe.

iological and other investigations. Therefore, this list embodies ©

156 THe Orrawa NATURALIST. © (Dec.

A none too rare migrant, probably commoner Citscs suspected. It

occurs on the river in April and May and again from September —

to November. A number are brought every autumn into the
market by rivermen. On November 25th, 1908, two were caught
in nets on the river and kept alive on the market for several days.

3. Colymbus auritus, Horned Grebe. A moderately com-
mon summer resident. Breeds on Kettle Island, in cat-tail
sloughs, and similar bays in the river and on lakes.~ Earliest
date of arrival April 10th; latest date, October 27th.

4. Podilymbus podiceps, Pied-billed Grebe; Dipper. A
common summer resident. Earliest date of arrival, April 6th
(1909); latest, November 7th. Breeds in similar places as the
preceding species. . By virtue of its diving ability it is able to
keep out of sight much longer than its abundance warrants.

GAVIIDZ—LOONS.

5. Gavia imber, Loon. A moderately common summer resi-
dent, which arrives as soon as the ice begins to open up in the
rivers, about April 20th, but sometimes before, as in 1908 one
was seen on March 25th. They are usually gone by the middle
of November, when their favorite resorts, the lakes to the north
of us, are freezing over, but.in 1905 one was seen as late as
December 18th. By May 24th.they usually have their set of
two eggs laid. This bird is a great ornament to our lakes and
its shooting for sport or pastime should in every way be
discouraged.

6: Gavia stellata, Red-throated Loon. A very rare acci-
dental visitor. The last and only date for Ottawa is November
12th, 1885, when a young female was shot by Mr. T. R.
Coursolles. ;

ALCIDZ—AUKS, MURRES AND PUFFINS.

7. Fratercula arctica, Puffin. This queer-looking marine
bird. is also a rare accidental visitor. The only one recorded
from here was shot in October, 1881. —

8. Uria lomvia, Brunnich’s Murre. The record of this bird,
a northern marine species, is a strange and interesting one. It
was first noticed in this vicinity November, 1887, near Papineau-
ville (G. White), but in December. 6-12, 1897, it came to Ottawa
in numbers for the first time. Since then the bird comes almost
every year, and about the same time. In 1907, they began to
arrive on November 25th, but in 1908 the first ones, 400-500,
were seen on December 19th. The bulk of these flights seems
to be heading towards the Great Lakes via the Rideau River.
and lakes; the remainder presumably towards James Bay.
Probably none of these birds ever get back to their native sea
coast; they are picked up dead and dying in the country
traversed by them. They die of starvation. Why they should

ws On

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“Ey rg S

1910] . : Tue Ottawa NATURALIST. 157

“thus migrate to their doom with such persistency is difficult to
explain. Many are, of course, also shot by gunners.

ORDER LONGIPENNES—LONG-WINGED SWIMMERS.

STERCORARIIDZ—SKUAS AND JAEGERS.

9. Stercorarius parasiticus, Parasitic Jaeger. Another ma-
rine species of the north which can only be a rare accidental
visitor here. A young bird was shot on September 4th, 1909, on
_the Ottawa, near the mouth of the Lievre River, and is now in
the writer’s collection.

LARID£Z—GULLS AND TERNS.

10. Larus hyperboreus, Glaucous Gull. This arctic species
has been but lately added to the Ottawa list. On December 2nd,
1905, Mr. E. Bedard of the Rifle Range shot the first specimen.
He claims that this species forms a part of the enormous flights
of gulls and terns moving regularly up and down the river.
They are easily distinguished from the Herring Gulls. Other
dates of Mr. Bedard are: March 26th, 1907, eleven seen; April
Sth, 10th, and 12th, 1908, and March 31st, 1909.

11. Larus marinus, Great Black-backed Gull. A casual
visitor. May 2nd, 1885, one was seen near Kettle Island
(G. White); also one at the same place April 9th, 1906, by the
v. riter. ;

12. Larus argentatus, Herring Gull. This fine bird is a
moderately common breeder here and a sometimes abundant
migzant. The bulk come at end of March and beginning of
April, the earliest date being March 26th, 1904. The species
breeds along the Ottawa in suitable localities and on the lakes
northward. The bird has been seen here as late as December
‘7th (1907).

13. Larus delawarensis, Ring-billed Gull. This common
species of the Great Lakes and the sea coast undoubtedly has
always been among the hosts of migrant birds passing up and
down the Ottawa, still the first definite record of it for Ottawa
was only made in December, 1908, when Mr. E. Bedard captured
onealive. He kept it with several ducks in a small enclosure,
where it deveioped an unsuspected amount of viciousness in
attacking, killing and then eating his fellow-captives.

14. Larus philadelphia, Bonaparte’s Gull. This is a not
uncommon migrant, which in early May is sometimes found in
numbers over the river. It probably nests on some of the lakes
not far north of here, as young birds are found here in August.
Earliest and latest dates are: May 2nd (1908), and October 7th
(1907)

15. Sterna hirundo, Common Tern; Wilson’s Tern. A
casual visitor and probably a more common regular migrant

158 Tue Orrawa NaturRAList. es _[DEc.
than known. For, after a few isolated records of its occurrence ©
here had been made up to 1909 it suddenly, on the 30th of May -
and ist of June of that year, appeared in great numbers over {

the river, flying westward. Many surprises like that and
probably a number of unrecorded species would undoubtedly
await one who could give his whole time to watching the river
during migration. f
16. Sterna paradisea, Arctic Tern. This delicate, beautiful
‘sea-swallow”’ has been seen and taken for the first time onthe |
same day, 30th of May, 1909, as the preceding species. They.
were probably heading for James Bay. The presence of these
ocean birds in numbers on certain days, shows that the Ottawa
is a migration route of greater importance than has hitherto
been supposed.
17. Hydrochelidon nigra surinamensis, Black Bert This
inhabitant of large inland marshes is a rare casual visitor here.
On May 28th, 1888, Mr. E. White saw six on the Ottawa, and
Mr. McCarthy took one at Britannia, August, 1908.

ORDER STEGANOPODES—TOTIPALMATE SWIMMERS.

SULIDEZ—GANNETS.

18. Sula bassana, Gannet. This is another marine species
that can now be taken into a list of Ottawa birds for the first
time, it having been first recorded and taken at Shirley’s Bay
on October 14th, 1909. It, otherwise, is found only in the Gulf
of St. Lawrence and along the northern coasts and islands both
in the Old and New World, and even here in certain circum-
scribed localities only.

PHALACROCORACIDA—CORMORANTS.

19. Phalacrocorax auritus, Double-crested Cormorant. A
casual visitor. One was taken about 1st October, 1890, at
Shirley’s Bay; a later date is October 17th, 1904, when one was
brought in to Mr. Henry, the taxidermist. Finally, on May 27th,
1906, Mr. Gemmill shot one on the Ottawa River. Probably
commoner than supposed.

PELECANID4—PELICANS.

20. Pelecanus erythrorhynchos, White Pelican. This fine
large white bird is entitled to a place on this list on the strength
of a specimen captured at Manotick, 12 miles from Ottawa, May
26th, 1904, and reported by the late Dr. Whiteaves in THE
Ottawa NATURALIST.

ORDER ANSERES—LAMELLIROSTRAL SWIMMERS.

ANATIDE—DUCKS, GEESE, SWANS.

21. Mergus americanus, American Merganser. A common
migrant and a not uncommon breeder. It may almost be said
to be a resident, as witness these dates: 12th November, 20th

.
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atta
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1910] : Tue Orrawa NATURALIST. — 159

“,

December, 1908 (17 seen), 12 January, 1909 (3 seen). The bulk
_ of the species, however, arrive from about April 6thto 18th. At

Arnprior Mr. H. U. Morris saw a female with eight young on

~ June 12th, 1909.

22. Mergus serrator, Red-breasted Merganser. A much rarer
migrant and breeder than the preceding. Breeds in the sloughs
and ponds near Templeton, where on June 20th, 1897, Mr. G.
White saw ten young able to follow their mother. Dates: April
ist, October 20th.

23. Lophodytes cucullatus, Hooded Merganser. A common

- summer resident and abundant migrant. In autumn many are

brought to the market by gunners. Like the American Mer-
ganser it breeds in cavities in hollow trees or stumps. Dates
from April 3rd (1906), to November 6th (1905).

24. Anas platyrhynchos, Mallard. A regular but rare spring
and fall visitor. Much less common than farther west or south.
On April 6th, 1909, Mr. E. Bedard saw one and on October 19th
and November 6th, 1905, Mr. E. White saw several in Lochaber
Bay, near Rockland.

25. Anas rubripes, Black Duck. The old well-known and
well-beloved Black Duck, Anas obscura, has of late been made
into two species, A. rubripes and A. tristis, the Red-legged and
the Black-legged Black Duck, by Mr. William Brewster, of
Cambridge, Massachusetts. He claims for the red-legged kind
larger size, more northerly breeding range and some differences
in coloration from the other, the black-legged species. Other
authorities, like Dr. Dwight, of New York, claim that these
differences are only due to difference in age, so that there would,
after all, be but one species. Without entering into a discussion

-of this matter here, we can say that, if there are two kinds, we

have both. However, most of the Black Ducks shot in this
vicinity are the large, red-legged kind, Anas rubripes. This isa
common migrant and breeder here, arriving from the 2nd of
April on, and some staying well into November (17th, 1909).
They breed in sloughs and similar localities.

26. Anas tristis, Black-legged Black Duck. In October,
1908, Mr. E. Bedard captured two from a small flock and kept
them alive for a long time. One had blackish feet and bill, the
other red legs and green bill; both, however, were of small size,
and both were taken from what seemed to be one family. This
would lend color to the contention that these differences are but
phases in the appearance of the one species.

Anas _ platyrhynchos, “Anas rubripes or tristis, Brewer’s
Duck. The hybrid form between Mallard and Black Duck is one
of not too infrequent occurrence here.

27. Chaulelasmus streperus, Gadwell. Rare accidental visitor.

o-Ps
<a a

160 THE Ottawa NATURALIST. [Dec. -

A female was shot on the Ottawa from a small flock October
29th, 1885, by Mr. W. F. Whitcher.
28. Mareca americana, Baldpate. A regular but rather

scarce spring and fall visitor; more common formerly.: Dates: -

April 20th, 1906, a pair at the Rifle Range; November 6th, 1905,
three seen in Lochaber Bay.

29. Nettion carolinense, Green-winged Teal. A rare migrant
or spring and fall visitor; apparently much rarer in spring than
fall, when a small number of young ones are to be seen in market.
On October 12th, 1908, three were taken at Shirley’s Bay and in
the same year three spent all August in a small pond near Hurd-.
man’s Bridge.

30. Querquedula discors, Blue-winged Teal. A moderately
common migrant and breeder. More common than the preceding
species. Arrives about May ist and leaves about middle of
October. On May 24th, 1908, one was seen dabbling in shallow
water along Beaver Meadow water-front. They breed also on
Kettle and Duck Islands and similar localities.

31. Spatula clypeata, Shoveller. A scarce fall visitor. The
following are all the available dates: fall of 1882; two seen

October, 1883; two shot in 1886 by Mr. W. P. Lett; on Sep- -

tember 16th, 1908, Mr. G. White shot two near Rockland and
on November 2nd of the same year, he saw four at the same
place, all birds of the year.

32. Dafila acuta, Pintail. A rare spring and fall visitor.
Arrives about middle of April and leaves in November. Mr. E.
White saw several at Bear Brook April 13th, 1905, and saw
many and shot several at Lochaber Bay, November 6th, 1905.

33. Aix sponsa, Wood Duck. This most beautiful of all
ducks still holds its own with us as common migrant and breeder.
Along wooded streams and on sylvan lakes and ponds, where it
can find cavities in trees and stumps for its nest, the Wood Duck
may be found over all the Ottawa district throughout summer.
In fall many are brought into the market by gunners, mosily
plainly plumed young birds, but also a number of the fine adult
drakes. These should not be shot, for it is a pity to destroy and
pluck so much beauty, besides the bird is on the vanishing list
over a large part of its territory. They arrive during the first
half of April (dates: April 6th, 12th, 15th, 16th), and leave in
October (October 19th, 1905, twenty seen in Lochaber Bay).
The latest date I have is November 6th, 1903.

34. Marila americana, Redhead. A rare fall visitor. On
October 17th, 1907, Mr. E. White saw a flock on Shirley’s Bay.

35. Marila vallisneria, Canvas-back. This desideratum of
all epicures is an even rarer fall visitor than the Redhead. On
October 28th, 1906, one was shot here.

\

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PAR Ae L'a ae

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~

if 19 10] THE Ottawa NATURALIST. 161

36. Marila marila, Scaup Duck; Greater Blue-bill; Black-
head. One of our most common migrants. In April large flights
can be seen travelling westward over the Ottawa and in October
eastward. This species, together with the Black Duck, Hooded
Merganser and Golden-eye, furnish the greater number of the
ducks brought into our market in fall, it being second in point of
numbers. Dates: April 6th, (1909); November 9th (1908).

37. Marila affinis, Lesser Scaup Duck, Lesser Blue-bill. A
much less common migrant than the preceding. On October
12th, 1908, Mr. N. Lachance took one on Shirley’s Bay; No-
vember 6th, 1905, Mr. E. White a fine adult male on Lochaber
Bay, and November 15th, 1903, one on the Rideau.

38. Marila collaris, Ring-necked Duck. Another far from
common spring and fall visitor. May probably sometimes be
overlooked and taken for the Greater Scaup, which it much
resembles. On October 27th, 1907, Mr. N. Lachance shot several
on Shirley’s Bay.

39. Clangula clangula americana, Golden-eye; Whistler.
An abundant migrant, and not a few remain With us all winter
on open places in the rivers, as along the Des Chenes Rapids.
The first migratory ones are seen along the Ottawa, March 24th
(1908), and the remaining days of March, but during the first
half of April large flights can be seen ascending the river, the
last date for the spring migration being May 3rd (1908). The
return movement is heaviest in October and early in November.

40. Charttonetta albeola, Buffle-head; Butter-ball. This
rotund little duck-is a moderately common migrant. In the
flocks of migrating ducks usually a few of this species are seen,
as on April 17th, 1908, when Mr. E. Bedard saw five among
hundreds of other ducks at the Rifle Range. On October 22nd,
1906, Mr. N. Lachance saw nine on Shirley’s Bay, among them
a fine adult male, one of the latter also being brought to the
market on the 26th of the same month.

41. Harelda hyemalis, Old Squaw; Long-tailed Duck. An
abundant migrant from and to Hudson Bay and the far north.
The vanguard arrives about April 2nd, but from the 16th to
May 16th large flocks pass westward via the Ottawa, returning
during the end of October, well into November, on the 9th of
which (1905) a male was shot on Brewery Creek and presented
to the writer.

42. Somateria dresser1, American Eider. A rare accidental
visitor, though it probably is sometimes overlooked. A young
male was shot by Mr. G. White on the Ottawa, November 9th,
1889. This is the only positive record so far.

43. Somateria spectabilis, King Eider. This is another
northern marine species which now makes its appearance on the

162 , Tue Ottawa NATURALIST.

Ottawa list for the first time. Up to November 2nd, 1908, there — _
were no records of it, when Mr. E. Bedard shot four young birds
at the Rifle Range, out of a flock of about 75, which went up the ’
river as far as Pembroke, where they were also seen. On ‘ae
December 2nd of the same year, another flock came along, out of '
which ten or more were shot near Ketchum’s boathouse. Next :
day more went up. Finally, May 8th, 1909, Mr. E. Bedard claims ;
~ to have seen 28 passing up the river. Either this species is now |

changing its habits and migration routes, or they have, until
1908, been overlooked. .

44. Oidemia americana, American Scoter. An ineeae and
rather rare spring and fall visitor, unless they also will deign to |
visit us more often in future. On May 4th, 1909, and May Sth,
1908, Mr. E. Bedard saw several flocks of Scoters passing up the :
river. On September ist, 1908, a fine adult male was in the
market here, shot nearby, and on October 7th of same year two ;
immature specimens. |

45. Oidemia_deglandi, White-winged Scoter. Of the same
undecided status as the preceding species. The dates I have
are: October 28th, 1904, one in the market; October 22nd, 1906, ;
Mr. N. Lachance saw seven at Shirley’s Bay, out of which he
shot two immature specimens; May 4th, 1909, Mr. E. Bedard
shot one near the Rifle Range.

46.-Oidemia perspicillata, Surf Scoter. Like the foregoing,
if anything rarer. On October 13th, 1908, Mr. E. Bedard shot
an adult male, and on October 29th of same year a im-
mature ones.

47. Erismatura jamaicensis, Ruddy Duck. A rare irregular
fall visitor. On October 15th, 1907, Mr. N. Lachance shot a ;
young female on Shirley’s Bay. e

48. Chen hyperborea nivalis, Greater Snow Goose. Appar-
ently other geese than the Canada Goose pass over our district,
but until more are secured this species must be put down as a
very rare accidental visitor. The only available record goes as —
far back as 1867, when Dr. Van Cortlandt shot one above the a
Chaudiere Falls, the head and wings of which were in the posses-
sion of the Ottawa Literary and Scientific Society until destroyed
by moths.

49. Chen cerulescens, Blue Goose. Another extremely rare
accidental visitor here from the far north. Three specimens of
this goose were shot by Mr. G. R.White within a few miles of the
city on October 11th, 1886.

50. Branta canadensis, Canada Goose. This magnificent
and truly Canadian bird is a common migrant here and until |
within comparatively recent years undoubtedly bred in the ~ -
district. I was told by natives that it nested, till lately, at Echo _ .

THe Otrtrawa NATURALIST. 163

ee

_ Beach Lake, Quebec, about 35 miles ina straight line from the

oa

3 city. The earliest date for its arrival here from the south which
I have is March 16th (1898). From then till well into May
- (9th, 1907) its wedge-shaped flocks enliven the air, and again

in the fall from October 11th to about November, 20th.

51. Branta bernicla, Brant. This abundant eastern mi-
grant is only a very rare accidental visitor with us, the only
record being a specimen shot some thirty miles down the river
by Mr. P. Thompson in the fall of 1887.

OrpER HERoDIONES—HERONS, STORKS, IBISES, ETC.
ARDEIDZ—HERONS, BITTERNS.

52. Botaurus lentiginosus, Bittern. A common summer
resident, breeding in large and small swamps and sloughs. They
come in the spring as early as April 6th, and stragglers remain as
late as October 30th.

53. Ixobrychus exilis, Least Bittern. A very rare summer
resident at Shirley’s Bay.

54. Ardea herodias, Great Blue Heron. This large bird,
popularly but erroneously called ‘‘ Blue Crane,”’ is still a common
figure with us, though most possessors of guns deem it a piece
of great heroism and marksmanship to kill every one they see.
Its heronies, collections of big bulky nests up in trees in swampy,
flooded woods, are found here and there in the district. Extreme
dates of arrival and departure are: March 17th (1907), and
November 17th (1909).

55. Butorides virescens, Green Heron. A rare visitor to us
from further south, in the fall. It has been taken once by Mr.
W. E. Saunders on the banks of the Rideau. As it nests not far
to the south of us, along the St. Lawrence, and as this species
has the habit in common with other herons to take a little
ramble northward from their breeding grounds before departing
to the south in fall, it should be looked for more assiduously and
will probably be found more regularly.

56. Nycticorav iycticorav nevius, Black-crowned Night
Heron. Th’s is a summer resident of circumscribed local distri-
bution. It nests on Kettle Island, and there it is not rare,
otherwise it is. But even at Kettle Island, birds in the adult
plumage are rare and none had been taken here till September
10th, 1907, when Mr. E. White shot two adult males in a little
spruce and cedar thicket near Hurdman’s Bridge.. One was seen
by him also late as October 19th (1905) in Lochaber Bay.

(To be continued.)

164 THE OrTawa NATURALIST.

THE MIGRATION OF SOME NATIVE LOCUSTS.

By NORMAN CRIDDLE, TREESBANK, MANITOBA.

We read from time to time, and have done so for many years
past, of vast hordes of locusts darkening the sky, as they sweep
onward, from unknown breeding grounds; how they devastated
the crops and ate up every living leaf in any locality they hap-
pened to make a stopping place, and in fact left behind a desolate
and leafless waste where a few hours previous all had been
luxury and beauty. Such is said to be the case, at times, in
parts of Africa, India and certain South American countries.
There is, however, no longer any mystery connected with these
visitations. Science has explained all that; has discovered the
breeding grounds and is doing much to eliminate the injury by
guarding against attacks and providing for them when they
occur.

We are not, as a rule, apt to associate our common grass-
hoppers—many of which, however, are true locusts—with those
devastating species. In fact, of all our many different kinds we
usually claim but one as truly migratory, namely, the Rocky
Mountain Locust, Melanoplus spretis, the locust made famous
- by having a special commission appointed to investigate its
ravages. This species, in the past, has done immense damage
to vegetation mostly in the United States, but it also invaded
a great portion of Manitoba in the seventies, and is specially
remembered on account of its having practically swept the Red
River Valley clear of vegetation. Since then there have been
two minor outbreaks confined to southern Manitoba, the locusts
having evidently flown from somewhere south. In spite of the
prevalence of this species in Manitoba at times it is very doubtful
whether it can be classed-as a native, a distinction which, after
all, we are not anxious for.

Leaving out M. spretis we have still several destructive
species, foremost among them being the Lesser Migratory Locust,
Melanoplus atlants, with several minor lights such as M. gladstoni,
M. jemur-rubrum, M, angustipennis, M. packardw, M. mimor, M.
bivittatus and others, all of which are very injurious at times and
migrate regularly during the months of July and August.

It is a wonderful thing this migration. Few animals are free
from a desire or instinctive stimulus to move to other parts and
so spread the species. Plants, also, are constantly doing it by
means of their seeds, and those that cannot go far by their own
exertions, fasten themselves to such as can, and so, as with
ourselves, air, land and water, are all made use of for the purpare
of travel.

—

sail a la decile ila

THE Ottawa NATURALIST. 165

With regard to grasshoppers, it is strange that their regular
periodic movements have been largely overlooked, though no
doubt this is partly due to a lack of knowledge as to where to
look. At Aweme, Man., where locusts have been troublesome
of recent years, one instinctively looks up towards the sun,
taking care to get behind some building, or in some way hide
the sun’s disc and then, if there are any flying, they will be
easily observed within a radius of from one to fifteen diameters
from the sun.

When a locust has the instinctive incentive to fly it is said
to inflate the air sacks along the side of its body; it then rises
with a spiral movement, round and round, higher and higher,
until reaching a height of some hundred feet or more and feeling
the resistance of the wind, it sails slowly away, usually flying
with its head facing the breeze if it is at all strong, and gradually
getting higher as it moves along with it, until it becomes a mere

speck of glistening whiteness, when close in line with the sun

and invisable elsewhere. When there is no breeze it will return
obliquely to earth to await a more favourable opportunity.

That this desire, or instinct, to fly elsewhere is no sudden

_ impulse is shown by the fact that a locust when disturbed seldom

flies any great distance, and in fact seems incapable of doing so,

while those that are prepared rise easily. Nor is the movement

due to lack of food, as one often sees them rise in the midst of
plenty. No, it is Dame Nature’s way of spreading her children
over the country, and she has taught them, through the law of
natural selection, to go and also how to prepare for their journey.

The migratory season commences soon after locusts reach

maturity, that is when they have passed their final moult, and

some three or four weeks before they commence laying eggs.
It lasts almost a month. There is not, however, a continual
movement, only hot sunny days are chosen and even then the
locust is dependent on the wind which not only carries it along
but also indicates its direction. The days most preferred are
those when the breeze averages some fifteen miles an hour,
though lesser winds, as well as higher, are used to advantage;
locusts seldom fly, however, when the wind is blowing hard.

It is interesting to watch these movements on a gusty day,
when calm one moment and breezy the next. Then every fresh
gust is taken advantage of and one sees hundreds of locusts rise
on such occasions, as if having waited their opportunity. It is
the same while looking up towards the sun, one moment will
only discover a few, the next a perfect swarm moving at different
angles owing to the breeze having slightly different directions at

166 = Tue Ortawa NATURALIST.
different heights. And so the journeys continue, first east, then
west, south or north, as the wind varies. At night they apparently
drop to earth* to infest new neighbourhoods or perchance rise ~
and move elsewhere next day. But not all go, among the
Orthoptera especially Nature has made a wise provision. Some
are endowed with long wings; these are built specially for loco- —
motion and conveying the insect long distances. Others of the
same species have short or rudimentery wings which oblige them
to stay at home. So that while the tong-winged forms seek new ~
homes, there are enough short-winged brothers and sisters to
carry on the family at home and incidently the work of destruc-
tion also.

BOOK NOTICE.

DisTRIBUTION AND MIGRATION OF NORTH AMERICAN SHORE
Birps. By Wells W. Cooke, U. S. Department of Agriculture,
Biological Survey, Bulletin No. 35, 100 pages and four half-
tone plates, by Fuertes.

‘

er ae ee ee mee

This publication is another valuable contribution towards a
knowledge of the habits of North American birds. It deals, as
the title indicates, with distribution, breeding range and migra-
tion, and also touches upon the economic side of the question
which has hitherto received very little attention. The author
claims that, so far as present knowledge goes, the evidence of
food eaten is wholly in the birds favour, as no shore bird has yet
been discovered to do harm to any appreciable extent; while
many, such as the Upland Plover and Killdeer are of very great
use to agriculture in destroying noxious insects. A special plea
is made for the general protection of all shore birds in spring
time, especially the Golden Plover, which is in a fair way to join-
ing other extinct species.

The book is throughout an extremely useful work, covering,

as it does, the range—both winter and summer—of birds in-
habiting the whole of North America.

N. C.

Ca

Oe eee, ee eee ee, ee a ee

*It is well known that some grasshoppers travel throughout the
night. Such an instance is related by Prof. S. J. Hunter of Dissosteira
lonzipenn's, and though I have no direct ev'dence, it is possible that some
of the Manitoba species are also no-turnal during the migratory season,

2

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THe Ottawa N ATURALIST. 167

THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO.

The forty-seventh annual meeting of the Entomological

Society of Ontario was held at the Ontario Agricultural College,
- Guelph, on November 3rd and 4th.

The important address of the meeting was delivered by
Prof. J. G. Needham, of Cornell University, on ‘‘The Role of
~Insects in Water Life.’”’ No one is more fitted for a discussion of
such a subject than the eminent investigator from that great
seat of learning at Ithaca. For many years Prof. Needham has
made a close study of aquatic insects and his work on certain of
the groups is unique. After some introductory remarks on the
existing relations between animal and plant life in our waters,
he discussed the exceeding great importance of a thorough

_knowledge of the life habits of aquatic insects in its direct rela-

tionship to fish culture. Much information was given on the
value of insects as food for young fish. He pointed out how
certain species could be reared very easily in large numbers.
The waters of Canada and the United States were as productive
-acre to acre as the land. Large areas of water which at present
are practically worthless from an economic point of view, could
by scientific water farming be made of greater value than the
best of land farms. Beautiful lantern slides were shown which
illustrated the life-histories of certain species of dragon flies,
stone flies, may flies, etc. At the conclusion of the address Prof.
C. C. James, Deputy Minister of Agriculture for Ontario, spoke
briefly of the importance of the subject, as did also President
Creelman, of the O.A.C.

During the afternoon of the first day’s session, papers on
economic entomology were presented by Messrs. Gibson,

- Williams, Morris and Treherne, dealing with the injurious insects

which were complained of in their respective districts. In
addition to these papers Mr. L. Cesar spoke of the ‘‘Insects
of the Year in Ontario,’ and Dr.Hewitt on ‘‘The More Injurious
Insects in Canada during the Year 1910.”

In the other sessions the following papers were read or
presented by title: ‘‘Leaf-eating Beetles,” by F. J. A. Morris,
Port Hope; “The Pool” and ‘‘Notes on the Season of 1910,”
by Rev. Dr. T. W. Fyles, Hull, Que.; ‘‘Collecting in the White
Mountains,” by H. H. Lyman, Montreal; ‘‘Spread of Diseases
Amongst Animals and Man by Acarids, acl *) deed Wiens © Ra § Tg CP
Guelph; ‘‘The Horse-radish Flea Beetle,” by A. F. Winn,
Montreal; ‘‘Further Notes on Basswood Insects” and ‘‘The
“Entomological Record for 1910,” by Arthur Gibson, Ottawa;
“The Migration of Some Nativé Locusts,” by Norman Criddle,
Treesbank, Man.; ‘‘Some Observations on the Practical Import-

168 Tue Ottrawa NaTURALIST [Drc. -

ance of Parasitic Insects,’ by Dr. C. Gordon Hewitt, Ottawa;
“Scolytide of the Larch,” by J. M. Swaine, Macdonald College, |
Que.; ‘“‘Notes on the Breeding of Tropidopria conica Fab.,” by 4
G. E. Sanders, Ottawa, and ‘‘The Bean Root Maggot,” by J. .
E. Howitt, Guelph.
All of the above papers and addresses will be published in
full in the forthcoming annual report of the Entomological
‘Society of Ontario, which will appear early in 1911.—A. G.

NOTE.

Tue CLarRKE NUTCRACKER IN ManitroBa.—A bird has been
received at the Experimental Farm which has been identified
as the Clarke Nutcracker or Crow, Nucifraga columbiana (Wils)
Aud., the specimen agreeing perfectly with published descrip-
tions, and specimens in the Geological Survey, of that bird.
This specimen was received early in September from Mr. W. D.
Black, Margaret, Man., whose brother shot it on the banks of
the Souris River in that province. The Clarke Nutcracker has
not previously been recorded, to our knowledge, from any Can-
adian station east of the Rocky Mountains. In Macoun’s
Catalogue of Canadian Birds it is reported to have been “‘rather
common at Banff, Rocky Mountains, in 1891, and breeding in
the mountains; common in the Crow Nest Pass in August, 1897;
in the summer of 1885, when the Canadian Pacific Railway was
being built through the Rocky and Selkirk Mountains, the bird
was very common around the camps, and apparently living on
their refuse (Macoun).’”’ It occurs widely in British Columbia
and Alaska, keeping generally to mountainous country. In
Coues’ ‘‘Key to North American Birds,” it is said to be a bird
of the coniferous belt of the West, ranging from within the
Arctic circle in Alaska, to Lower California and Mexico, and
eastward to the eastern spurs and foothills of the Rockies, with
casual appearances in Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, and Arkansas.
The States mentioned lie within the same meridians as Manitoba;
therefore, while the present extension of the range of the species
is a noteworthy one, it is not one which might not reasonably
have been expected. :

In his letter, Mr. Black makes some interesting observations
on the habits of the Nutcracker, which are worthy of quotation
here. ‘‘This bird made no sound or noise that I could hear, but
perched on a tree or shrub, from whence it would suddenly
swoop to the ground, and pursue a cricket or grasshopper, and,
after catching it, it would return, and after hitting its prey
against a limb of the tree it was sitting on, would devour it.
The actions of this bird resemble a Canada Jay’s somewhat, as 4
does its color, but of course it is muchlarger.’—HERBERT GROH.

———

P,P sae es

3
:
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THE OTTAWA NATURALIST

VOL. XXIV. OTTAWA, JANUARY, 1911 No. 10

CLUB MOSSES.

By F. J. A. Morris, Port Hope, Onr.

Few who worship Nature in her primeval shrine of the
ancient wood can fail to have noticed some of these pretty ever-
greens on the forest floor: One kind with conspicuous fruiting
spike woodmen and others know as Club Moss par excellence,
but apparently the plants have always been favorites of the
more simple peasantry, and in England their household names
are legion. Many of these folk-names are of the quaintest—
Foxtail, Staghorn, Buck-grass, Creeping Bur, Forks and Knives,
Foxes’ Claws, Lamb’s-tail, Running Moss, Robin Hood’s Hat-
band, Tod’s Tail, Traveller’s Joy, Wolf’s-claws; of these a few
have migrated with early settlers, and occasionally in Canada
you hear the names ‘‘Staghorn”’ and “‘Wolf’s Foot” applied,
but more generally the common species are distinguished as
“Hemlock Club Moss’’, ‘‘Ground Pine’’,‘‘Running Pine’’, and
“Ground Cedar”’ or ‘‘ Trailing Christmas Green’.

Even the unhappy town-dweller gets glimpses from time to
time of the fairer scenes of boyhood or the home of his rustic
ancestry; for cartloads of Lycopodium are drawn to the city
markets in December for Yule-tide decorations. The spores,
too, of some species are gathered for commercial purposes, being

_ dusted over pills to prevent them from sticking together; asfa

fixative for dyes; and for flashlights in photography, in pyro-
technics and on the stage, the spores containing more than half
their bulk in a highly inflammable oil. On the mountain-sides
of Cumberland in the English Lake District, I have sometimes
shaken the fruiting spikes of L. clavatum over a lighted match
and seen how instantaneous the combustion was.

These points of curious interest fade into nothingness com-
pared with the importance of the plant to a student of evolution.
The systematic botanist may be content with placing the Club
Mosses among ferns and fern allies as sporophytes, but they
throw a highly illuminative side-light on the doctrine of descent.

170 ~ Tue Ottawa NATURALIST.

The spore-producing plants occupy a position mid-way

between the lowest forms of vegetation, which are purely

aquatic, and the highest, which are terrestrial. They are all
more or less amphibious, their spores requiring water to germ-
inate in. But with flora as with fauna there are amphibians and
amphibians. The Club Moss among plants, like the Duck-billed
Platypus among animals, is a living fossil, and the importance of
its bearing on the question of origins can hardly be over-esti-

mated. It may be said recently to have come into its own and

reaped the reward of its conservatism; for it has been given a
prominent place in that splendid floral tribute to Darwin, Prof.
Bower’s “Origin of a Land Flora’; easily the most notable
contribution (in English) ever made by Botany to the Theory
of Evolution, and the first philosophic treatise on the subject
since the labours of men like Hooker and Gray. were supple-
mented by their greater contemporary’s “Origin of Species”.

The Club Moss has been a hide-bound conservative ever
since the Coal Age, pursuing the even tenor of its way uninfluenced
by change and progress towards higher forms as evinced by the
more adaptive members of the vegetable kingdom. Aton after
zon its policy has been the same; its stock argument, that what
was good enough for its primitive ancestors is good enough for it.

Clad in the same simple armour and wielding the same weapons ~

as when first it left its aquatic home and started on the war-path
in its daring conquest of earth, this pigmy of the forest still sub-
sists; and strange sights it must have seen in its time.

It saw the first forests ever formed, those dense jungles of
rank vegetation, tree-ferns and giant horse-tails—quorum pars
magna fuit, indeed, for Club Mosses abounded then. It saw the
ancient whorled or radial outgrowth—such as is preserved in the
Horse-tails, in the branching of certain Conifers, the foliation of
the Juniper, or the parts of a flower—superseded by a more and
more complex system of spiral symmetry asin the phyllotaxy of
our modern forest trees; it saw its cousins the ferns evolve larger
and larger leaf-areas, and it saw the idea adopted and adapted
all down the line, each new type bettering the instruction till
they reached the umbrageous foliage of more recent vegetation as
it dominates to-day. It watched plants pass from the primitive
strobiloid form of terminal fruiting spike,such as survives in the
Lycopodiums and Equisetums, with their analogies in Ophio-
glossum or the cones of pines and spruces. It was present at
the inception of seed formation whereby the earliest Gymno-
sperms (Cycads) first broke away from the aquatic nursery to
which the Lycopod still clings; and it witnessed the miracle of
the floral envelope replacing the wasteful vagaries of the wind

by the ordered efforts of myriad insect myrmidons, a marshalled

" 4 . ve ° a ¥ :
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THE Ottawa NATURALIST. | 171

‘host of winged allies. With what astonishment it must have
seen its neighbours, the Lady’s Slipper, the Wood Lily and the
upland Harebell,.blossom forth in all their glory to repel the
wanton advances of the spendthrift breeze, turning a deaf ear
to all its airy whisperings and yielding to the embrace of the
frugal honey-gathering bee.
: More than all, from amphibian through reptile to bird and
me. - beast, it-has watched unfold the whole drama of animal lifé on
- earth, through scenes grotesque and monstrous, to culminate in
the grandeur of man; and in all probability it will see that drama
_ draw at long last to its tragic close.

It has been outdistanced in the race and nearly all its
compeers and contemporaries have passed to their grave. Yet
still on that grave it grows green and lives undaunted beneath
the shadow of alien giants no longer sporophyte, claiming elbow

-- room among flowering herbs and other such new-fangled forms
of life.
Of all the members of this conservative family probably the
-archetype of our land plants is Lycopodium selago, or its wood-
land next of kin L. lucidulum. The plants are very similar, and
an examination of either will serve to show the underlying
idea* (to use a Platonic term) that informed their prototype.
It is that of a simple vegetative shoot of unlimited apical growth,
with a radial output of small leaves, each leaf subtending a
sporangium or spore-case. The lines of development shown in
the genus as now extant are all subservient to the two great
functions of nutrition and reproduction, they consist in the
formation of (a) branches, (b) roots, (c) cones (i.e., terminal
fruiting spikes or strobiles). In the simplest forms the branch-
ing is dichotomous, that is, by the forking of the apex into two
____—- growing tips; the process being repeated again and again so that
r the plant in time has many leafy shoots on which to produce its
spore-cases; the development of branches in L. selago usually
stops here, the species growing for the most part on rocks and
exposed mountain sides. But in L. lucidulum a further step has
_been possible owing to its growing in damp shady situations;
a - when the erect stem has branched and re-branched several times,
:
a
’

it becomes top-heavy and sinking under the weight of the super-
structure totters and falls into a recumbent position on the forest

' floor; here a pall of dead leaves and decay settles down upon it

and in the darkness the shining green leaves that fringe it

; densely from end to end forsake their office, grow yellow and
7 die. The mother stem is buried; but she is not dead, and she
thrusts down rootlets on the under side into the rich vegetable

*V ide Bower’s Land Flora, pp. 288-365.

172 Tue Ottawa N ATURALIST.

mould, thus nailing herself down inch by inch to the ground and
enabling the vigorous shoots at her head to get a good foot-hold
and stand erect some inches away from where in her day she
stood and flourished.

The first step made, then, in locomotion by the individual
plant is by branching dichotomously, and the second is by root-
ing laterally as in the overweighted stems of L. lucidulum. This
second mode of land-grabbing is an important advance on L,
selago and leads to the formation by a single plant of extensive
colonies, say a yard in diameter. At first the plant, rooted at
the base, grows erect for a term of years; then it begins con-
verting the lowest length of its stem from an upright leaf-
bearer to a prostrate root-bearer. The next step in the division
of labour is to make these successive acts of the vegetative and
the locomotor simultaneous.

The beginnings of this advance are seen in L. inundatum;
the stem is weak and prostrate and creeps along from 2 to 4
inches a year by thrusting rootlets into the sand (or peat) at its
growing tip; in fact, it walks along by loops like a geometrid
caterpillar or the Walking-leaf Fern; soon after the part beyond
the root-anchor has found its sea legs, so to say, the brittle stem
severs connection; the growing tip is cut adrift and left to steer
a course for itself. It is not often that you find a plant more
than 5 inches long and it may have 2 or 3 sets of roots on its
creeping stem; the stem, meantime, carries on the vegetative
function and is closely fringed with small leaves all along and all
round—though those on the under side curve upwards for light
and air. The stems also branch laterally 3 or 4 times in their
few inches of length; some of these branches are weak and
prostrate, rooting at their tip, but one at least (usually the first)
is strong and erect, surmounted by a terminal fruiting spike.

The other species which stand higher up in the scale of
evolution have stems that are regular runners and extend for
yards, sending out at intervals more or less complex systems of
lateral branches for vegetative and reproductive purposes. In
one species (L. obscurum or dendroideum) the running stem is
subterranean and destitute of leaves; in the other three (L.
annotinum, L. clavaium and L. complanatum) they are surface-
runners and more or less leafy.

Throughout this course of upward progress the Club Moss
may be regarded as attempting by various means to make its
way over the ground. From this point of view, the production of
a horizontal runner is the most important step in the whole line
of advance, since it enables the plant to throw out branches and
fertile shoots laterally at various points without interfering with
its continuous forging ahead. On this principle of classification

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1911] ‘Pus Orrawa NatuRALIsT. 173

we have two kinds of Club Moss, viz., those without running
- stems and those with running stems.

The first class comprises L. selago and L. lucidulum, the two
species we have seen reasons for considering primitive; and as
though to compensate for the defects of their upright terminal
growth, they have both devised the expedient of detachable
branches. Near the apex of the annual growth, just above the
region of fertile sporangia, 2 or 3 deciduous gemme or vivi-
parous buds are formed. These detach themselves from the
growing axis or are blown away by the wind and form new plants
by striking root on contact with the ground. It is a purely
vegetative form of reproduction and dispenses with the inter-
mediate stage of the prothallus. It has its analogy in the bulbils
of Cystopteris bulbijera. In many plants it is the roots that thus
reproduce, ¢.g., the tubers of the potato; and in one species of
Club Moss, L. cernuum, a more or less tropical kind, are found
similar subterranean nuclei for plant-multiplication.

These gemme represent the plant’s supreme effort at land-
grabbing; their attempt to jump aclaim. This is borne out by a
curious fact I have noticed in L. lucidulum: the deciduous buds
are centrifugal in nature; they nearly always are thrust forth on
the side remote from the older and prostrate stem; if they do not
always face in the direction towards which the plant has been
struggling forward, they never look straight back towards the
centre from which the plant started. In structure they seem to
be modified leaves, for they take their regular place in the whorl
of leaves, each being in its whorl a substitute for the normal leaf.
Usually even when as many as three gemme are produced, they
are all in the same whorl, or at most in two successive leaf-
whorls.

So far we have seen how the Club Moss by adopting a more and
more complex system of branching and rooting has progressed
as a plant; we have yet to note the steps of advance it has made
as asporophyte. These steps are still on the principle of division
of labour and consist in the separation of the vegetative from
the reproductive tract. I said a little way back that all the
various kinds of differentiation subserved the two functions of
nutrition and reproduction. Of course the life-ambition of the
plant is to perpetuate its kind; but to be fertile it must first be
vigorous, and if you look at a young Club Moss you will see that
its first care is the output of a vegetative system, a leafy shoot
that will support the later output of sporangia.

In the archetype postulated by Prof. Bower, each of the
leaves all round and all up the simple shoot performs a vegetative
function and supports a sporangium at its base. The first change
is by the lower leaves becoming abortive and no longer bearing

174

spore-cases in their axils, but simply serving as a nutritive basis
for the sporophyte tract above them. This is the point where
development has ceased in L. selago and L. lucidulum; the
lowest leaves of the shoot are purely vegetative, the upper are
both vegetative and sporangia-bearing, and next season the
growth of the main axis goes on uninterruptedly above this
year’s apex into another similar tract, vegetative below and
fertile above. This is the first step in the formation of a cone;
two points are to be noticed: the sporophylls are unmodified,

‘

performing a purely vegetative function; and the main axis

grows on above the fertile area. The second step was made when
the Club Moss put out lateral branches as well as lateral roots,
1.e., when the runner was developed. This is seen in L. tnun-
datum, where the sporangia are limited to a compact terminal
spike, the sporophylls are still vegetative and hardly modified,
but being appressed and directed upwards they serve to clamp
down the sporangia to the main axis and partly protect them;
two points are to be noticed: there is no growth possible above

the fruiting spike; and the leaves of the spike are still vegetative. |

The third step was made when a more or less compound
system of lateral branches was introduced, and it consists ina
further separation of fertile from vegetative tracts by the leaves
of the terminal spike ceasing to be assimilative and becoming
scales closely imbricated to protect the sporangia within their
folds. In L. annotinum and L. obscurum these terminal cones
or strobiles are sessile immediately on the apex of the leafy
vegetative tract; in both the cones are single, in the former on
primary branches as well as secondary, in the latter on branchlets
only. ;

The last step, seen in L. clavatum and L. complanatum, is
further to separate the reproductive from the vegetative, by
raising the scaly cone on a naked or nearly naked peduncle; in
L. clavatum this is usually compound, branching near the top into
short pedicels, each surmounted by a cone; the branching of the

peduncle is usually somewhat one-sided or alternate, and the

stronger pedicel is frequently re-divided, so that 3 cones at

different distances appear on the peduncle; in L. complanatum~

it is always compound and more symmetrical, by terminal
dichotomy of the peduncle, so that a level-topped cluster of
cones is the result, often 4 in number by dichotomy of the
pedicels.

That this story of the development of the Club Moss from
the simple to the complex is not a mere figment of the imagina-
tion is shown by various species ‘‘throwing back’’; instances of

this sort of atavism or reversion are not infrequent: evidence

. of the terminal strobile having evolved from an earlier form of

19 eA. Tue Orrawa NATURALIST. 175
- shoot fertile throughout is found in the occasional appearance of
sterile sporangia at the base of the fertile branch in L. imun-
datum, 1.¢., in the vegetative tract below the cone; the identity
of the scaly cone with the leafy branch is seen in the occasional
prolongation of the cone of L. obscurum. into a vegetative tract
above; and sometimes in L. clavatum the peduncle with its
aborted foliage fails to produce a cone at its apex, showing the
_ bare branch to be a modified leafy shoot.

It is noteworthy that in every member of the family the
shoot or branch or branchlet destined to bear sporangia rises
sturdy and erect from the ground. Presumably this is to help
distribute the spores, the wind having thus a chance to get under
them and bear them away on its back. Fern-lovers will readily
find analogies in the upright fertile fronds of Cryptogramma,
i Asplenium angustijolium, Aspidium cristatum, Onoclea, Osmunda,
__- Botrychium or Ophioglossum.

NOTES FROM PEMBROKE, ONT.

By Ernest THOMPSON SETON.

On November 7th, I called on Dr. G. H. Belaire, V.S., of
Pembroke. In his collection I found some interesting local birds
and mammals and made the following notes on certain of them,

BLACK SQUIRRELL (Sciurus carolinensis).—This specimen, a
pure black, was killed one mile west of Pembroke, in November,
1909. It is exceedingly rare here, but others have been seen

and two were taken about 1904.

Cormorant (Phalacrocorax diplophus).—This, an immature
specimen of the double-crested species, was killed at Mud Lake,
7 miles south-east of Pembroke, about 1907, by an Indian named
Pappin. This is the only one ever seen.

Woopcock (Philohela minor).—This, a very small specimen,
was found dead in the town of Pembroke in the summer of 1903.
It had killed itself by striking a wire. This is the only one ever
seen.

PERSONAL.

Mr. Andrew Halkett, President of the Ottawa Field-
Naturalists’ Club, and Naturalist to the Department of Marine
-_ and Fisheries, left Ottawa on December 8th for Europe. Un-
fortunately he will be absent from our winter meetings, but we
hope to see him back again before the date of the annual meet-
ing. Mr. Halkett’s trip is mainly for the purpose of visiting.
Natural History Museums, Zoological Gardens, Aquaria, etc.
He has arranged to spend most of his time in Germany.

176 THE OTTAWA NATURALIST.

THE BIRDS OF OTTAWA.

By C. W. G. Errric.

(Continued from page 163). ,
OrDER PALUDICOL£—CRANES, Raits, Etc.

RALLIDZ—RAILS.

57. Ralluse elegans, King Rail. Rare accidental visitor.
Mr. G. R. White identified one that had been shot at Billing’s
Bridge, May 7th, 1896.

58. Rallus virginianus, Virginia Rail. A moderately com-
mon summer resident. Breeds in large and small cat-tail
marshes, like the small ones at Blueberry Point, near Aylmer.
On July 13th, 1909, Mr. C. N. Robertson and the writer found
the marsh along Cranberry Creek near Osgoode full of the little
young ones, which are pitch black. They arrive during the first
half of May, just when is hard to say, as they are retiring and
secretive. They leave about September 10th.

59. Porzana carolina, Sora. Of the same status and habits”

as the preceding species, perhaps a little more numerous. On
May 8th, 1906, one was found dead in New Edinburgh, having
probably flown against a wire over night, and on October 29th,
1906, Mr. C. H. Young saw one along the Rideau.

60. Coturnicops noveboracensis, Yellow Rail. Being small,
in addition to its skulking habits, and in more or less impassable
haunts, it may eventually be found commoner than
the now available dates warrant. There are only two, October
22nd, 1895, and October 20th, 1909, both records made by Mr.
G. R. White. Accordingly, we have to put it down now as a
very rare accidental visitor or breeder.

61. Gallinula galeata, Florida Gallinule. It is interesting to
record this bird in our list, as it probably finds its northern
limit of distribution for this part of Canada in the Ottawa district,
where it is a rather common breeder in the marshes along the
Rideau River at Osgoode and Kars. A nest with seven eggs,
partly incubated, was taken there by Messrs. W. E. and F. A.
Saunders, July 9th, 1890. Mr. G. R. White shot one still farther
north, namely at Hurdman’s Bridge, Ottawa.

62. Fulica americana, Coot. A moderately common summer
resident in its chosen haunts, the marshes along the Ottawa.
There, Mr. E. Bedard shot one May 11th, 1909, and Mr. E. White
saw one as late as October 19th, 1905, at Lochaber Bay, and in
the same marshes Mr. G. R. White found three nests.

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OrvER LimicoL2—SuHoreE Birps.
PHALAROPODID£—PHALAROPES.
63. Phalaropus fulicarius, Red Phalarope. A rare accidental

‘visitor. Two only have been taken here, one October 21st, 1886,

by Mr. E. White; the other September 1st, 1888, by Mr. G. R.

. White.

64. Lobipes lobatus, Northern Phalarope. Rarer than the
preceding species. A specimen was shot September 10th, 1890,
at Burritt’s Rapids, and identified by Mr. A. G. Kingston.

~ SCOLOPACID2—SNIPES, SANDPIPERS, ETC.

65. Philohela minor, Woodcock. A moderately common
summer resident. Extreme dates are: May 8th, 1908, and
October 31st, 1908, when Mr. Bedard, Jr., saw a flock of eleven
on Kettle Island, out of which he took several. This is con-
siderably after the soft spongy ground in the woods, out of
which they extract their staple article of food, earthworms, is
frozen over several times.

66. Gallinago delizata, Wilson’s Snipe, Jack-snipe. An
abundant migrant and moderately common breeder. Extreme
dates: April 14th (1904), and November Sth (1906), at which
latter date Mr. N. Lachance shot one at Shirley’s Bay, which he
gave to the writer.

- _ 67. Macrorhamphus griseus, Dowitcher. A rare accidental
visitor. A pair were shot May 22nd, 1890, by Mr. E. White.

68. Tringacanutus, Knot. Rare, accidental visitor. A male in
full breeding plumage was shot by Mr. E. White on June 4th,1890.

69. Arquatella maritima, Purple Sandpiper. Rare, acci-
dental visitor. One was shot on the Rideau, October 29th, 1885,
by Mr. W. Forbes.

70. Pisobia maculata, Pectoral Sandpiper. A common mi-
grant in spring and fall. Extreme dates, April 14th, 1909, when
several were taken by Mr. E. Bedard, and October 28th, 1907,
when Mr. N. Lachance shot one on Shirley’s Bay.

71. Pisobia fuscicollis, White-rumped Sandpiper. <A rare
migrant. One was shot in 1883, and two on the 8th, one on the
18th, and two on the 27th of October, 1884, three by Mr. E.
White and two by Mr. S. Herring.

72. Pisobia bairdii, Baird's “Sandpiper. A very rare acci-
dental visitor, the only record being one taken by Mr. G. White,
September 11th, 1894.

73. Pisobia minutilla, Least Sandpiper. A moderately com-
mon migrant. I took one in Hull, September 6th, 1905.

74. Pelidna alpina sakhalina, Red-backed Sandpiper. A
rare migrant. On October 28th, 1908, Mr. E. Bedard shot three
immature ones.

178276 THE Ottawa NATURALIST. : [JAN.

75. Ereunetes pusilus, Semipalmated Sandpiper. A moder-
ately common fall visitor. As early as August they are seen in
company with the Sanderling and Semipalmated Plover, nimbly
scurrying over the sand at the water’s edge along the beaches of
Kettle Island and similar localities. On August 24th, 1906, Mr.
G. R. White saw some at Kettle Island, and on August 12th
(1904), specimens were seen by the writer.

76. Calidris leucophea, Sanderling. A moderately common %
migrant. On October ist, 1908, Mr. E. Bedard shot two. Its 4
habits are like those of the preceding species.

77. Limosa fedoa, Marbled Godwit. A rare accidental ,
visitor. The only record is that made by Mr. G. R. White, who ;
took one of these birds on June 4th, 1902.

.
7

78. Limosa hemastica, Hudsonian Godwit. Like the pre- ~
ceeding. The only record is October 20th, 1900 (G. R. White).

79. Totanus melanoleucus, Greater Yellow-legs. A common
migrant. Extreme dates, April 27th (1897), and October 29th
(1908). ia

80. Totanus flavipes, Yellow-legs. A moderately common
migrant; it arrives and departs at about the same time as
melanoleucus. -

81. Helodromas solitarius, Solitary Sandpiper. A common
migrant and rare breeder. Mr. E. White has found young,
recently out of the nest, along the Ottawa. Extreme dates, ¥
May 11th and October 10th.

82. Tryngites subruficollis, Buff-breasted Sandpiper. Rare
accidental visitor. One was shot near Templeton by Mr. E.
White on August 24th, 1886.

83. Actitis macularius, Spotted Sandpiper. An abundant t
summer resident. Seems to be increasing in numbers. Extreme
dates are April 24th (1893) and October 30th (1908). The bulk
arrives during the first half of May. In the first week of June,
their nests, with usually four eggs, may be found, often in
gardens or fields far away from water.

CHARADRIID2—-PLOVERS.

84. Squatarola squatarola, Black-bellied Plover. A moder-
ately common fall migrant, apparently becoming rarer. On
October 19th, 1905, Mr. E. White shot one at Lochaber Bay. .

85. Chomdirins dominicus, Golden Plover. Status same as ;
last species. Quite a few are offered for sale in the market each
fall, nearly all “birds of the year. Dates: September 3rd (1906)
to November 4th (1908).

86. Oxyechus vocijerus, Killdeer. A common migrant and .
moderately common breeder. In the meadows near Holland
Avenue and in those between the city and Blackburn on the

co Le hey AS oS eee - >
, a, Fis &

an ie fem >
e. 4951] Tue Ottawa NarTurRALISsT. ee
Canadian Pacific Railway, several pairs may usually be seen all
summer. It is one of the first arrivals in spring, which announces
its presence in no uncertain way, by its shrill call, killdee, killdee.
Dates: March 27th (1907) to October 15th (1909).
. 87. Agialitis semtpalmata, Semipalmated Plover. This di-
minutive plover is found in the groups of other small shore-
birds on the same beaches along our rivers and lakes, from
~ August to September, the 29th of the latter month being the
- latest date at hand. It thus may be classed as a moderately

common fall migrant.

APHRIZIDZ—_TURNSTONES.

‘ Ae 88. Arenaria interpres, Turnstone. In the list of 1891 this
| is called a rare migrant. I have not met with it.

x ORDER GALLIN®—GALLINACEOUS Birps.

. TETRAONID£—GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, ETC.

: 89. Canachites canadensis canace, Canada Grouse, Spruce
: Partridge. Formerly a common if not abundant permanent

resident, but now a rare one. The Mer Bleue, a large bog a few

-miles east of the city, was formerly a favorite haunt. It probably
is still found in some of the densest and most impassable spruce
thickets in the district. In the winter of 1908-1909 Mr. E.
Bedard saw one in a thicket at the river’s edge on the Rifle
Range, and Mr. C. H. Young once told me of several he had seen
in a woods near Billings’ Bridge.

90. Bonasa umbellus togata, Canadian Ruffed Grouse. A
common permanent resident. Frequently still found in the small
: pieces of woodland near the city limits. It should be protected
more, otherwise its days will soon be numbered. :

; [Lagopus lagopus, Willow Ptarmigan. It is very doubtful
whether this northern species should have a place in our list.

, =*
t

The reference to it in the 1891 list: ‘‘One shot on the Gatineau
, in the winter of 1885-6,’’ refers to the shooting of several at.
‘* Gracefield, which is far beyond the accepted limits of our district.

However, having come down so far, they may be expected to
turn up any winter within our terri‘ory.]

ORDER COLUMBZ=—PIGEONS.

91. Ectopistes migratorius, Passenger Pigeon. Formerly a
common summer resident, but now evidently extinct here.
The last positive dates of its occurrence in the district are the
following: on June 6th, 1884, an adult male was shot in
Cumming’s woods; on May 10th and on August 25th, a male
was seen in Col. W. White’s garden, and on June 25th of the
same year a female and one young were shot near McKay’s Lake;

180 Tue Orrawa NaTuRALIST. , [Jan.

on April 15th twelve, and on May 24th, 1886, one was seen at
the same lake; and, finally, in 1887, one was seen on August 23rd
in the above-mentioned garden, and on September 3rd one on :
Kettle Island (Messrs. G. R. and E. G. White). q

92. Zenaidura macroura carolinensis, Mourning Dove. This a
desirable, more southerly species can now be added to our list. ;
Specimens were seen near Shirley’s Bay on August 20th, 1903.
Several were also seen in the summer of 1908. On August 9th,
1910, a young one in the first plumage was shot near Dow’s
Swamp, thus clearly establishing its breeding here.

ORDER RApToRES—BIRDS OF PREY.
BUTEONID£—FALCONS, HAWKS, EAGLES, ETC.

93. Circus hudsonius, Marsh Hawk. A common summer
resident. Can be seen harrying back and forth over extensive
meadows having here and there a marshy place. The bulk of
the species arrive in early April and depart in October, but
extreme dates are, March 25th (1907), and November 7th
(1905), when Mr. N. Lachance shot one on Shirley’s Bay. .

94. Acctpiter velox, Sharp-shinned Hawk. This little terroT |
to small birds is a common summer resident and less commo®
permanent resident, 7.e., a few remain here over winter and thet
work havoc among the English Sparrows in the city. Favorit®
nesting sites are the small black spruce trees in the Mer Bleue,
where on June 30th, 1909, we found a nest with four nearly fresh
eggs. On July 11th, 1904, I found several families of young in :
the spruce stand near Blackburn Station.

95. Accipiter coopert, Cooper’s Hawk. A rare summer resi-
dent, and fortunately so, because it is a very destructive species.
It arrives in April (17th, 1904), and is still seen in September.

96. Astur airicapillus, Goshawk; Blue Hen-hawk. The
three accipitrine hawks are the only really harmful ones to
farmers and poultrymen. The Goshawk is the largest and é
fiercest of them, but again, fortunately, it is only a winter |
resident with us, though a few undoubtedly breed in the big
woods in the northern part of the district. A great part of their
number migrate, following the ducks, etc., south in October,
and return with them in April. In these two months, therefore,
they are mostly seen here. Dates at hand range from October 3
18th (1906) to May 13th (1908). For an account of a migration
of this species see OrrawA NATURALIST, vol. XX., p. 217; and 4
of eee ferocity, vol. XXI., p. 96. :

. Buteo borealis, Red-tailed Hawk. This fances slowly
eae buzzard is a moderately common summer resident. A
pair of either this or the next species may be seen sailing over

i i ees - eed,

re ae

a

THe Ortrawa NaTuRALIST. ~ 181

_ most of the larger woods in the district. Dates range from
- April 11th (1908) to November ist (1908).

98. Buteo lineatus, Red-shouldered Hawk. Of* about the

same degree of frequency as the Red-tailed. Dates: from March
28th (1909) to November 6th (1907).
99. Buteo platypterus, Broad-winged Hawk. A moderately
common summer resident. This useful hawk is smaller than the
two last named and rather unsuspicious. On June ist, 1907,
while on an excursion of the Club to Chelsea, a section of the
party found a dead one in the woods there. On May 8th, 1909,
one was taken at the Rifle Range, and on October 16th, 1908, a
bird of the year. This is the latest date for the year on record,
the first being April 23rd (1908).

100. Archibuteo lagopus sancti-johannis, Rough-legged
Hawk. This large, useful buzzard is a rare migrant. Dates are:
March 16th,1898, and November ist, 1908. Probably commoner
in migration than supposed.

101. Aquila chrysaetos, Golden Eagle. This majestic bird
is'a rare accidental visitor. It breeds sparingly in the Laurentian
Hills north of us, and may do so near the northern limits of our
district. A young one, but fully grown, was caught in a trap
at High Falls, Quebec, on November 22nd, 1904, and given to
the writer. The local taxidermist now and then gets a specimen,
shot not far up the Gatineau, and Mr. E. Bedard reports one
flying about, over the Rifle Range, for several days in January,
1910.

102. Halieetus leucocephalus, Bald Eagle. A rare accidental
visitor and possibly a rare breeder. There was a nest formerly
at Lake Wilson, near Wakefield. One was shot October 28th,
1892.

FALCONIDA—FALCONS, ETC.

103. Falco rusticolus gyrfalco, Gyrfalcon. Rare accidental
visitor. One was shot by Mr. E. White on the bank of the
Rideau below Cumming’s Bridge, on December 23rd, 1890.

104. Falco peregrinus anatum, Duck Hawk. A rare mi-
grant. One was seen April 28th, 1889, by Mr. G. R. White;
another at King’s Mountain, July 11th, 1890, by Messrs. W. E.
and F. A. Saunders. The latter also shot. but not secured,
another on September 22nd, 1890.

105. Falco columbarius, Pigeon Hawk. A rare migrant.
On April 9th, 1905, Mr. E. White saw one and on October 5th,
1904, secured another. On May Sth and 11th, 1905, one was
seen about Col. White’s garden, being attracted there by
the presence of some pigeons.

106. Falco sparveritus, Sparrow Hawk. A moderately com-

182 THE Ottawa NATURALIST. : ee 1 9S. ae a
» i "« by

mon summer resident. It arrivesin April, but usually diminishes __
in numbers before the fall migration, when it again becomes more
numerous. Extreme dates: March 30th (1907) and September ~
21st (1904). A winter record is January 26th, 1890.

PANDIONIDA:—-OSPREYS.

107. Pandion haliaetus carolinensis, Osprey. A moderately
common migrant and rare breeder. Its bulky nest may be seen
on a few of the lakes in the Gatineau district, where campers
may also see it perform its fishing tactics. Dates: April 11th
(1908), to September 21st (1904). On May 3rd, 1908, Mr. E.
Bedard saw a regular flight of them on the Ottawa, no less than ©
eleven being in sight at one time.

STRIGIDZA—HORNED OWLS, ETC.

108. Asio wilsonianus, Long-eared Owl. A rare resident or
migrant. The latest dates of its capture are as follows: No-
vember ist, 1901; October 28th, 1904; October 24th 1905; 5
November 4th, 1905. Two of these are in my collection. aw

109. Asio flammeus, Short-eared Owl. Also of uncertain
status. Dates of capture are: November 16th, 1894, on which
date Mr. G. R. White shot several in a swampy wood, and again
on the 6th of November, 1895; on October 20th, 1904, one was
taken by Mr. E. White, and on December 2nd, 1905, one by Mr.
E. Bedard.

110. Strix varia, Barred Owl. A rare resident, more com-
mon in the Gatineau district. For an account of a fight between
one of this species and a Goshawk see THE Ottawa NATURALIST,
vol. XXIV., p. 97. A female in my collection was taken on
November 24th, 1905.

111. Scotiaptex nebulosa, Great Gray Owl. This large
northern species is an irregular accidental visitor here, becoming
rather common at times. In November, 1905, one was taken by
a farmer at South March; on February 1st, 1906. one near East
Templeton, now in my collection; on January 10th, 1907, Mr. — ~
Henry got two to mount, which had been taken near the city a ’
day or two previously; on March 19th, 1908, Mr. E. Bedard shot
one on the Rifle Range.

112. Cryptoglaux funerea richardsont, Richardson’s Owl. A
rare accidental winter visitor from the far north. Late dates are:
December 15th, 1903; November 16th, 1906, and in February,
1907, Mr.E.Bedard shot one,which is now in the writer’s collection,
on the Rifle Range.

113. Cryptoglaux acadica, Saw-whet Owl. This diminutive =
Species is a moderately common resident. It lives in thickets
composed of spruce, cedar and alder, also in cemeteries and

183

. THE OtTrtawaA NATURALIST.

a F ieaiar Soc On April 11th, 1901, a female was found dead
. tg ina -yard in New Edinburgh, having a fully developed egg in the
ovary. Other dates: October 16th, 1906; January 20th, 1907.

Ft eg 114. Oius asio, Screech’OQwl. This useful little owl ‘has of
_ late years put in an appearance here, and is now a moderately
- common resident, apparently becoming more numerous. Both
. 5 IY the gray and brown forms are seen, the former predominating.
» On December 8th, 1908, a brown one flew into the kitchen of Dr.
_ Saunders’ residence on the Experimental Farm. They are more
_ in evidence in winter than in summer, as they then seem to move
into the city to live on the English Sparrow.

Bee 415. Bubo virgintanus, Great Horned Owl. A moderately
common resident of the large woods of the district. At High
Falls I once saw two in one tree. For an account of one from
Inlet, Quebec, which must have had an encounter with a porcu-
pine, see the Auk, vol. XXVI., p. 58.

116. Nyctea nyctea, Snowy Owl. This large northern owl is
usually a rare accidental winter visitor, but occasionally a big
flight comes through, as several years ago, when the local taxi-
dermist received about three hundred. Also, in November, 1906,
and December, 1907 and 1908 he got several from the Gatineau
valley, one being from Farrellton.

117. Surnia ulula caparoch, Hawk Owl. Another rare acci-
dental winter visitor from the far north. Dates are: October
9th, 1906, one shot-in Beechwood; November, 1906, one taken
in Graham’s bush, Ottawa East; January 20th, 1907; April
x 5th, and May 8th, 1908, on which dates Mr. E. Bedard shot
several at the Rifle Range. Perhaps they are commoner and stay
longer than usually supposed.

OrpDER CoccyGEs—CucKOoos.
CUCULID£—CUCKOOS, ANIS, ETC.

118. Coccyzus americanus, Yellow-billed Cuckoo. A rare
summer resident, arriving late in May. It may be found in
bushy woods, vine-covered trees, etc., as at Blueberry Point and
along the Base-line road, east of the Catholic cemetery on the
Montreal road.

119. Coccyzus erythrophthalmus, Black-billed Cuckoo. A
moderately common summer resident, locally even common;
in 1909 it was more numerous than ever before. It is found in
similar localities as the Yellow-billed, also in orchards. On
September 7th, 1908, a dead one was found in Beechwood;
most of these birds are gone, however, long before that time. 4

eee eS Pip Oe
A r ° .
1

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y

e

1. = Pons,

ALCEDINID2—KINGFISHERS.
120. Ceryle alcyon, Belted Kingfisher. A common summer

GE Pe ee ee te ted

=

184 Tue Orrawa NatTuRALIST

resident. Dates extend from the 8th of April to the 23rd of
October. One or two pairs usually nest in the gravel pit at
Britannia. This bird, being a decided ornament to our rivers,
creeks and lakes, should be protected and not made the target
of prowling boys and men.

ORDER Picit—WoOoDPECKERS.
PICIDZ—WOODPECKERS.

121. Dryobates villosus leucomelas, Northern Hairy Wood-
pecker. A rather rare resident, apparently becoming rarer,
although it is difficult to assign a reason for this.

122. Dryobates pubescens medianus, Northern Downy Wood-
pecker. A common resident; on some days during migration in
April or May it is even abundant. They are also frequently seen
in the streets of the city. Dates of greatest abundance, April
8th and May 8th, 1905, at Beechwood and Britannia.

123. Picoides arcticus, Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker.
Rare resident, more in evidence in the Laurentian Hills north of
us than in other parts of the district. On June 14th, 1905, I
observed one at Inlet, Quebec, calling and making much ado.
Specimens were taken at Ottawa on October 12th, 1907 (Kettle
Island); February 13th, 1908; October 28th, 1908; April 3rd,
1909; the last three at the Rifle Range.

124. Picoides americanus, American Three-toed Wood-
pecker. An even rarer resident than the foregoing. Seen 28th
and 29th September and 12th and 13th October, 1890 (F. A.
Saunders).

125. Sphyrapicus varius, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. A mod-
erately common summer resident and abundant migrant. The
earliest arrivals come April 6th, but they reach their greatest’
abundance about the 26th of that month. Nests with nearly
full grown young, in stumps and trees from three to forty feet up,
were found June 24th and July ist. Some remain till end of
September.

126. Phleotomus pileatus abieticola, Pileated Woodpecker.
A resident which is rare and becoming rarer in most parts of the
district, but moderately common in the northern portion of it.
At High Falls, its loud,wild call and its striking form of black and
white may often be heard and seen. It has even been seen on
Parliament Hill. It is the largest of our woodpeckers.

127. Melanerpes erythrocephalus, Red-headed Woodpecker.
This formerly common bird must now be called a rare summer
resident, as one sees only about two to five in a season. The
reason for this, undoubtedly, is the fact that there are fewer dead
trees left standing than formerly. It arrives in May and remains
till well into September.

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THE Ottawa NaTuRALIST. 185

128. Colaptes auratus luteus, Northern Flicker. This large,

handsome woodpecker is a common or even abundant summer

resident, apparently increasing in numbers. The earliest date
of arrival is March 26th (1907), but the bulk arrive from the 5th

to 21st of April. Those which breed locally leave by about

September 9th, but migrants from farther north continue to pass
through till September 30th. A pair had their nest in a hole in
a trolley pole at one of the entrances to the Rifle Range, from
which a total of 60 eggs were gradually taken, but nothing
daunted, they finally brought out their brood of young.
ORDER MACROCHIRES—GOATSUCKERS, SWIFTS, ETC.
CAPRIMULGIDZ—GOATSUCKERS.

129. Antrostomus voctjerus, Whip-poor-will. A moderately
common summer resident. It arrives in the first part of May,
April 29th, 1908, being an exceptionally early date; the last are
usually heard September i6th, but in 1909 one tarried until
October 16th (G. R. White).

130. Chordeiles virginianus, Nighthawk. An abundant
summer resident. It breeds on many of the flat roofs in the city
and therefore may be seen any day performing its wonderful
aerial evolutions overhead. It is also remarkable for the regu-
larity of its coming and going, it arriving. usually May 16th
(some years May 11th), and departing about August 23rd, when
large numbers are seen over or near the city. For an account of
its nesting on a residence in the city see THe Ottawa Nart-
URALIST, vol. XIX., p. 56.

MICROPODIDZ—SWIFTS.

131. Chetura pelagica, Chimney Swift. An exceedingly
abundant summer resident. Flocks of hundreds may be seen
nearly every evening in summer whirling over and into the large
ventilator shafts and chimneys of the Parliament, and depart-
mental, buildings, and of some of the public schools. The date
of their arrival varies with the meteorological conditions of the
seasons, the earliest date being April 22nd (1897), and the latest
May 10th; they leave at the end of August and beginning of
September (10th last date). In 1883 a live Swift was captured
during the first week of February in the house of the late Dr.
Whiteaves.

TROCHILIDZ—HU MMINGBIRDS.

132. Archilochus colubris, Ruby-throated Hummingbird.
A common summer resident. They arrive during the middle of
May, the 9th being the*earliest date, and leave about the middle
of September (9th to 14th). In 1909, however, owing to the
unusually mild autumn one was seen as late as October 16th
(G. R. White).

4 a
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186 THE Otrawa NATURALIST. | . = [Jan. bathe

ORDER PASSERES—PERCHING BIRDS. a Ste
TYRANNIDZ——FLYCATCHERS. = Res

133. Tyrannus tyrannus, Kingbird. A common summer
resident. It arrives early in May (4th to 16th), and the last of
the breeding birds leave about August 28th (Mrs. Brown).

134. Myiarchus crinitus, Crested Flycatcher. A moderately
common summer resident. Its coming and going coincides with
that of the Kingbird. But, while the latter is a bird of the open
field and meadow, perching on fences and wires, this is distinctly
a woodland bird. At Blueberry Point, Chelsea, etc., one or two
pairs may usually be met with. At the former place a nest with
four eggs, in a Flicker’s hole, was found June 12th, 1909.

135. Sayornis phebe, Pheebe. A common summer resident.
For an insectivorous bird it comes very early, too early tur its
own welfare, one would think. The first date is March 28th.
A nest with four eggs was found May 14th. The latest date is
October 9th.

136. Nuttalornis borealis, Olive-sided Flycatcher. This
interesting northern flycatcher is a rare summer resident over
most of the district, although rather common in its chosen ~
haunts, e.g., the western end of Meach Lake. In places like this,
swampy borders of lakes and streams, fringed or overgrown with
spruces, it breeds, and there its call: houd take care, may be
heard all day long. The swampy widening of the canal at the
Experimental Farm also harbored a pair in 1909. During their
migration, from May 17th, they may be seen in the spruces along
the water-front, Hull, and around Cache Bay. They leave
unostentatiously in August.

137. Mytochanes virens, Wood Pewee. A common summer
resident. Like most of the flycatchers it arrives late, during the
second half of May, the 12th being a very early date. It breeds
where there are large trees in open woods or in city streets,where
their monotonous pee-a-wee may be heard at all hours of the day
and sometimes of the night The local birds have gone by the
ist of September, the 22nd being the latest date for any
migrants.

138. Empidonax flaviventris, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. A
rare summer resident, breeding sparingly in the Mer Bleue and
the silent moist evergreen woods in the northern part of the
district. Dates: May 10th to August 15th.

139. Empidonax tratllai alnorum, Alder Flycatcher. A com-
mon summer resident. The name well irficates its habitat. It
is common in the alder fringe around the Mer Bleue, in the Beaver
Meadow and similar places. Dates: May 19th, August 15th.

140. Empidonax minimus, Least Flycatcher, Chebec. A

THe Ottawa NaTurRALIST. 187

common summer resident. One never needs to be in doubt
_._ whether it has arrived in the spring or not, for its call, chebec,
hurled out in a somewhat scratchy voice, heralds its presence
_ plainly enough. This is in the latter half of May (11th to 17th),
and may be heard in any of our city streets lined with large trees.

It leaves in July and early August (10th), the remarkable fall of
1909 again being an exception, when one was seen as late as
September 14th.
ALAUDIDE#—LARKS.

- 141. Otocoris alpestris, Horned Lark. A rare migrant,
although when it comes at all it will, locally and temporarily,-be
‘abundant. The writer has never met with this bird here,
despite careful looking for it. In 1890 a flock remained from
_ . April 19th to May 25th, and again from September 26th to
October 28th. ~

0 ee ee
~ : a

141. Otocoris alpestris praticola, Prairie Horned Lark. A
| common spring and summer resident and abundant migrant.
1 This is our earliest arrival from the south, as early as F ebruary

10th. The bulk of the species come in the first part of March, but
by the end of that month these flocks have again moved on or
have scattered into breeding pairs. Nests with eggs may be
found in old meadows, etc., as early as March 28th, and fully
fledged young in May. It is thus the earliest breeder of our
common perching birds. In summer they make themselves less
apparent. The latest dates for fall migrants are: November 22nd,
1908; January 12th, 1909, when one was seen.

CORVID2—CROWS, JAYS, ETC.

143. Cyanocitta cristata, Blue Jay. A moderately common
resident, although most of them move southward for the winter.
Their number, for a certain locality, changes from season to

- season. Mrs. R. D. Brown noticed them fifteen times in January,
1908, but only four times from November 1st, 1908 to March 21st,
1909. In April it is locally abundant.

144. Perisoreus canadensis, Canada Jay; Meat Bird. This

- inhabitant of the northern woods makes the Ottawa River the
southern boundary of its range, rarely, even in winter, going far
south of it. It is a moderately common resident in the northern
parts of the district. At the farm houses along the Gatineau and
Lievre it is a daily visitor in winter, especially at butchering
time. It nests even earlier than the Prairie Horned Lark,
namely in February and March, when the thermometer is often
far below zero. For an account of its fearlessness or rather
greediness for food, see THe Orrawa Natura ist, vol. XXIL.,
p. 65.

(To be continued.)

188 THE OTTAWA NATURALIST.

THE OTTAWA FIELD-NATURALISTS’ CLUB.
LECTURE PROGRAMME

1910

December 6th—In the Normal School.
“‘Some Recent Developments in Canadian Fisheries.”’
(with lantern slide illustrations)
By Prof. E. E. Prince, Dominion Commissioner of Fisheries.

1911

January 10th—In the Normal School.
‘‘Conservation, or the Protection of Nature.’’
(with lantern slide illustrations)
By Dr. C. Gordon Hewitt, Dominion Entomologist.

January 24th—In the Hall of the Carnegie Library.

‘‘Local Geology—The Rocks and Their Fossils.’’
By Dr. Percy E. Raymond, of the Geological Survey.

February 7th—In the Normal School.

‘‘The Natural History of a Hen’s Egg.”’
(with lantern slide illustrations)
By Prof. F. C. Elford, of Macdonald College, Que.

February 21st—In the Normal School.
‘‘Edible, Poisonous and other Fungi.’’
(with lantern slide illustrations)
By Mr. H. T.. Gussow, Dominion Botanist.

March 7th—In the Normal School.

‘‘Bird Study, from a Beginner’s Standpoint.”’
(with lantern slide illustrations)
By Mr. W. E. Saunders, of London, Ont.

March 21st—In the Hall of the CarnegieLibrary.

ANNUAL MEETING.
President’s Address—Mr. Andrew Halkett. Election of Officers, etc.

All Lectures are free and open to the Public. Each meeting will begin
at 8 o’clock sharp.

-
~

|
;

re ite
> en =
a, >

THE OTTAWA NATURALIST

VOL. XXIV. OTTAWA, FEBRUARY, 1911 No. 11

PRELIMINARY NOTES ON THE “CHAZY” FORMATION
IN THE VICINITY OF OTTAWA.*

By Percy E. RAyMonb.

The strata which lie between the Beekmantown and the
Black River in the Ottawa Valley have been referred to the
the Chazy, principally on account of their stratigraphic position.
Their character and distribution have been described in the
“Geology of Canada,” 1863, pp.123-130, and in more detail by
Dr. Ells in reports accompanying the various maps covering the
region.

The fauna of this formation is unlike the fauna of the typical
Chazy of the Champlain Valley in New York and Vermont, and
its extension in Canada, and the writer has recently begun some
Studies at various places between Ottawa and Montreal, with the
hope of finding the reason for this change. The present paper is
a preliminary one, prepared for the purpose of showing the
lithological characters and the range of the principal fossils in
the formation near Ottawa.

Since the first description of the formation two members
have been defined. The lower portion consists of sandstone and
shale, and the upper portion of limestone. The two members
have been mapped separately by Dr. Ells, and their distribution
in the vicinity of Ottawa is well shown on his map of the region.
At the base of the formation are layers of coarse-grained conglo-
merates and sometimes arkose, lying on the fine-grained dolo-
mites of the Beekmantown. The top of the formation does not
appear to have been definitely defined, but it would seem from
the maps and descriptions that all the limestone up to the black,
lumpy, cephalopod-bearing beds of the Black River were in-
cluded in the Chazy.

In the vicinity of Ottawa both the sandstone and limestone
are fairly well exposed, but no one exposure presents a good

*Published by permission of the Director of the Geological Survey of Canada.

Pi a Ree er Ge SP cee A Baht een ig
A MT EE ae ks
oo §

pos a OR: tatiaagiay ‘fe f haa syed gy MeN aos ;
a o re. iat ‘ae
ty eee: oe a
A eps e = : é $ ies ne of
190 Tue Ottawa NATurRALIST. ee = rate.

section of the entire thickness. In order to Bet an ice of the - =

whole formation, it is, therefore, necessary to measure the rocks
exposed at each favorable outcrop, and correlate the various

sections. Fortunately there are a few beds which may easily __

be recognized by their lithology and fossils. One of the most

useful of these beds is a very black thin-bedded shale containing

Isochilina? clavigera, a large and easily recognized ostracod. This
bed is exposed opposite Mr. Sowter’s house on Broad Street,
Aylmer, beside the electric railway one mile west of Westboro,
near the ruins of Skead’s Mill, and was revealed in a trench
on Buena Vista Road, at the corner of Minto Place, Rockcliffe,
during excavations made this last summer. A second horizon
is indicated by thin-bedded limestone containing Onchometopus
simplex, and always followed by a layer full of a species of
Beatricea. This horizon was found at Aylmer, Mechanicsville,
and on a road leading to the river from a point just east of
Robilliard’s quarries on the Montreal Road. A few other easily
recognized beds have been found useful in checking up the
correlations made on the basis of the two just described.

SECTIONS.

The lower portion of the formation is best displayed at
Rockcliffe, where the following section was measured, the beds
being given in descending order :—

4. Green shale with numerous Lingule........... 5 5
3. Heavy-bedded, ight gray sandstone.. ........ 10798
2. Rather heavy-bedded light gray sandstone with .

some cross-bedding, and thin layers of coarse

grains of sand. Camarotechia plena and

Hebertella wmperator at the base............. 105-25
1. Shaly, thin-bedded, light colored sandstone with

lenses of heavy-bedded sandstone. Rusophy-

cus grenillensis and other burrows and trails

ate common snc hicea ud eae seen ee en eee 53. one

At this locality the base of the black layer with [sochilina?
clavigera is about 31 feet above the top of this section. A large
part of the intervening strata are concealed here, but are well
exposed at the Hog’s Back, where the following section was

measured.
Ft! Incl AS
7. Dark brown and black shale with ost-
TACOS 02 ES ee he em eaed 4 4
6. Rather pure, dark gray limestone with
ostracods and bry-020a. sare yee he as 1 5

>

Gray hale: calcareous in sei with 6 in.
__- pure coarse-grained limestone 4 ft. be-

Bueelowthe tops pis. 2. ce cee ik san tee may

4. Impure sandy limestone and shale...... 6 22 Aa
. Hard, greenish limestone with abundance

pe OL Comarciachia plend:.. 2.2... SS 10 23 4
. Greenish limestone and shale, with Cam-

arotechia plena near the top. bee ake 33> Aa

Calcareous shale with thin layers ‘of lime-

stone and many thin sandy layers.

Glossima belle common: ............6.% 205 ,.6° R53 tG
_ _Isochilina ? clavigera was not found in No. 7, although other

ee were plentiful, but this is undoubtedly the clavigera

horizon. The hard greenish limestone with Camarotechia plena
- outcrops again in a small cut tting in Rockcliffe Park, just below

the Buena Vista station on the Electric railway, and is especially

well shown in the first bluff south of the town at Rockland, 30
miles east of Ottawa.

The strata immediately above the clavigera zone are not
fully exposed in any one section, but portions are well shown
both at Westboro and at Aylmer. The section at Westboro is

. : as follows :—

Feo hn. Pts is
13. Rusty dolomite, ‘‘cement bed”’......... 2 2
12. Heavy-bedded, light blue limestone, the

ae upper bed full of large undetermined
: lie: a ee erated SEIS ot hag 1 nO) AA ooo
PIMC oS en ia ere PS Soa Fic btw! were am 16 20% 29

10. Heavy-bedded, dark gray limestone.
One of the upper layers shows wavy
bedding, and the highest layer is full of

fossils; Lophospira, Helicotoma, etc.... 5 33-299
9. Rusty dolomite, PECIICHE. DEG? neck 3 36,128
8. Black shale and very thin layers of dark
a SS la 2 NG, BOF eae
tele se as eS 1 6 AGL
6. Blue-black, wavy bedded limestone, Cor-
nulites and Isochilina abundant ...... 6 46 9
Pemeeteeated. oo AP oe ee 2 6 Ae
4. Cream-colored sandstone, full of black
phosphatic fragments. .............. 3 $225
Sandstone and brown shale, the sandstone
full of badly preserved bryozoans..... 3 55°--<3
Black shale with [sochilina? clavigera and
PIEEIORERACUER. 5. iF.) sy bes Spee 2 oF bee
Blocky, greenish limestone. ............ 1 56,02¢3

192

well exposed in the trenches at Rockcliffe, especially on Buena

THE Ottawa NATURALIST.

The strata immediately overlying the clavigera zone were

Ble sae
aes ik < 4 ke
“ - pat os re »* %
Ss $i 5 : ry -—*

= ye :

% ~
2 bates .
%
+

-
ey
ne

Vista Road in front of the residence of Mr. Elfric Drew Ingall of
the Geological Survey, who made a large collection of the fossils.

A large species of Loxoceras, and Modtolopsis parviuscula were |

common in the sandstones, and a few thin beds of limestone

associated with them were full of Leperditia canadensis nana. A

bryozoan, which Dr. Bassler has identified as a Dekayella similar
to D. simplex, Ulrich, was abundant in the sandstone.
Within 20 feet above the clavigera zone at Aylmer there are a
number of thin layers of limestone almost entirely made up of
ostracods, and with the ostracods are found Helicotoma whtte-
avsiana, Bathyurus angelint, and a Crytodonta.

The strata above those exposed at the station on the electric
railway are well exposed at the Hogs Back:—

8.
i

Z.
iL

No. 6, of THE OtTawa NATURALIST.

Blue-gray limestone mostly rather heavy-
bedded. Some layers very fossiliferous
Rather pure dark gray limestone with
irregular wavy bedding. ..........:..
Heavy-bedded, fine grained light gray to
cream-colored sandstone with Vanux-
emia and other lamellibranchs........
Dark gray shale, with two or three thin
layers of limestone. | 2 cites, aoe ee
Heav y-bedded sandstone with many
replaced DEY danas 2S Sok ne igs
Shale and thin-bedded black fiestas
With ostracods... os 47 Sc ee
Thin-bedded sandstone and shale.......
Heavy-bedded, greenish limestone. .....

Ft.- In.

10 6
5
4 6
t <2
cis
4 9
See
$ sg

Ft. In.
10 +6
15 2S
20 |
20S
25;
a0"<2 2
359
44

No. 1 of this section is believed to be the same as No. 12 of
the section at Westboro.
The sandstone, No. 6 of this section, is a very important one,
as from it Mr. W. R. Billings obtained the various species of
lamellibranchs described by the late Dr. Whiteavesin vol. XXII,

This same layer, with the

same fossils, was found on the road leading down to the river
just beyond the Robillard quarries on Montreal Road, about 3

miles east of Ottawa.

42;

Massive, impure, dark gray lumpy lime-
stone with Columnaria halla and Ormo-
ceras tenuifluyn near the base. Top
not seen." Black Rivers. sie nase

The section there is as follows:—
Pip

Ft. In.

a
Arg
St

—*
“

Sa ee ke eg
THe Otrawa NaTurRALIST. 193
. Massive buff limestone, the whole surface
covered with Phytopsis tubulosum and
Tetradium cellulosum. ............... 9 15
Concealed. Loose fragments of limestone
with surface covered with Beatricea
were seen just above the top of No. 9.
RSS hs ha ca an a Ags 5 21
9. Shaly, buff limestone with Onchometopus
simplex and numerous large ostracods.. 3 10 24 10
8. Light buff limestone, thin-bedded at top -
and heavy-bedded at bottom......... | Pein < Sadie paw
7. Concealed, below quarry............-.. 5 37. 4
6. Rusty vellow dolomite, ‘“‘cement beds... 5 42 4
5. Massive blue-black and dark gray lime-
ICR eg AAs AWE ee tl. Sooner ees 102) 6) S2ggrO
4. Hard, cream-colored sandstone with
Vanuxemia and other lamellibranchs.. 3 atom 4
3. Mostly concealed, but with two layers of
hard, dark blue limestone exposed.... 5 2 61
mera—pedded shale... tee ee Se 2 63
1. Impure, dark blue, heavy-bedded lime-
stone with large ostracods, Cyrtodonta,
and Bathyurus angelint.............. y aie Kees Medes

No. 4 of this section is believed to be the same as No. 6 of
the section at the Hogs Back. No. 5 is the same as the cement
beds which were formerly quarried at the Ottawa river at
Mechanicsville, and at that locality there is a thick layer of
delomitic limestone 3 feet below the base of the cement beds,
which yielded the types and a large number of other specimens

of the Bathyurus superbus described by the writer in the Novem-

ber (1910) number of THE Otrawa NATURALIST.

The layer with Beatricea, which is not well shown in this
section, is an important one. It is especially well exposed near
the top of the hill north of Aylmer, and it may also be seen about
15 feet below the base of the Black River at Mechanicsville.
The section along the river at Mechanicsville is an excellent one
for showing the upper and most fossiliferous part of the Lowville.
It is as follows:—

Bes: In SBte ie
9. 6 feet of shaly and nodular blue-black
limestone, resting on 8 feet of heavy-
bedded, impure, dark gray limestone.
Strophomena i imecurvata, Maclurites
logani, Columnaria halli, Gonioceras
guceps, ete-welack: River... . 6 22. hia 14 14

194 , Tas Orrawa Nirah: Ae

yo Fs

8. pate buff écloset Anieatade full of Tet-
radium cellulosum and T. columnare.

Top. ot Lowvwilles? 72) nists gos) See Tiss

7. Pure, buff limestone with numerous
molhiscan-1Tassus..\¢< Fats gee es 2. 10

6. One layer rather coarse grained limestone. ieee
Full of fragments of Bathyurus spiniger. 10°. 20 See

5. Thin-bedded blue and buff limestone;
numerous specimens of Bathyurus ex- ‘ ee
fans in the tipper Paths ly ag ann. «hee 7 6028s 4eeeeae

4. Blue-black limestone with Tetradium eds 5.

cellulosum and Stromatocerium. ....... 1 - \@129 aes
3. Light gray limestone with numerous Lae
limestone pebbles and mollusca....... A. DOs Oana
2. Dark gray limestone, the surface covered rt ray
With beawraced. 2585 so ON ee eee 10° 30. 4s hee
1. Dark gray limestone full of large flat Ee ae
limestone pebbles and many fossils... 1 9 32°91 (95
THE Fauna. - ee

At a number of horizons fossils are quite abundant, but as
they do not weather out readily they are not easily obtained in
identifiable condition. ae

From the sandstone and shale of the lower part of the” a
sections at Aylmer, Britannia, Deschenes and Rockcliffe, the -

following species are known: - 1
Hebertella imperator, Ctenodonta parvidens, a>
Camarotechia plena, Archinacella deformata, Goats

-C. orientalis, Raphistoma striatum, a
Lingula lyellt, Lophospira billingst, a “9
Glossina bell1, Tsotelus arenicola. a

At Aylmer, about 80 feet above the base of the section the %

following species were collected by Mr. T. W. E. Sowter: 3 he ang

Lingula lyelli, Ctenodonta parvidens.
Camarotechia plena, Modtolopsts sowtert,

From the greenish limestone above the shale and sandstone

at the Hogs Back and elsewhere we have only :— es
Glossina belli, Hebertella borealis, : —
Camarotechia plena, Tsotelus sp. ind. ay

In the clavigera zone or in the limestone and sandstone - a
within 20 feet above it we find:— nae

Modiolopsis parviuscula, Tsochilina ottawa,
Sowteria canadensis, Tsochilina? clavigera, i ae
Helicotoma whiteavsiana, I? clavigera clavifracta,

Loxoceras sp. ind., Primitia logant,

Bathyurus angelini, Leperditia canadensts,

Leperditella labellosa, I... amygdalina.

es isided limestones from 20 to 40 cas wire the
eyrichia zone are very fossiliferous in places, but it is difficult
“ae good specimens. <A Cornulites is very abundant in some
ofthelayers. The species which have so far been recognized are:
- Lygospira recurvirostris, Lophospira bictncta, |
Raphtstomina lapicida, Pterotheca sp. ind.
Lophospira perangulata,
The next bed above this which has furnished any good
Beastie is the cream-colored sandstone which is exposed at the —
Hogs Back and near Montreal Road. Nearly all the species

Lingula lyellt, Wammeromie parvula,
Clionychia otiawaensis ,* Sowteria canadensts,
C.? gibbosa, Holopea sp. ind.,
Modiolopsis jabaformis, Spyroceras sp. ind.,
Orthodesma antiquatum, Tsochilina? armata.+
Ina dark gray dolomitic limestone within 10 feet above this
Be layer, the following species have been found:—
gee . Tetradium columnare, Bathyurus superbus.
Be Dalmanella sp. ind.,
<viges About 15-20 feet above this layer are beds of shaly limestone
in which the following species are rather common:—
“a Dalmanella circulars, Bathyurus extans.
— *_s Strophomena incurvata, Onchometopus simplex,
per Cyrtodonta huronensis, Tsotelus sp. ind.
¥ _ Just above the preceding are thin layers in which a species
_ of -Beatricea and Cyrtodonta huronensis are abundant. In the
: upper 15 feet of the section fossils are rather abundant, but there
-__—s does not seem to be a very great variety. The following are the
4 more common ones :—
Tetradium cellulosum, Bathyurus extans,
T. columnare, B. spiniger,
Strophomena incurvata, Bumastus millert,
Helicotoma planulata, Tsotelus gigas.
Spyroceras sp.,

These lists, incomplete as they are, show at once that all the
fossils which belong to the typical Chazy are beneath
the clavigera horizon, and the deposits of Chazy age
end with the limestone which at the Hogs Back and Rock-

Tah hoa i)
}

Bes *Dr. Ulrich writes me that this is probably an Ambonychia, and
C.? gibbosa a Vanuxemia, while, Vanuxemia parvula is a Ctenodonta. The
types are not accessible at this writing.

tIidentified by Dr. Ulrich.

196 THe Otrtrawa NATURALIST.

land is so full of Camarotechia plena. There is nothing
in the typical Chazy which corresponds to the ostracod
layers such as the clavigera zone and the limestone in the
- 20 feet above it. Excepting the ostracods, nearly all the fossils
from this horizon upward are species found also in the Black
River and Trenton. The fauna found in the upper 15 feet is
evidently Lowville, Tetradiwm cellulosum and Bathyurus extans
being the guide fossils. Many of the fossils found below this
layer are known in the Lowville but the absence or rarity of
Tetradium cellulosum gives the fauna a slightly different aspect.
It may be significant that this Tetradium first becomes common
in beds above the ‘‘pebble beds’”’ (No. 1. in the section at Mech-
anicsville.) The pebbles in these beds are from 1 to 3 inches in
diameter and have well rounded edges. They are somewhat
greenish in color, and remind one of some of the green limestone
layers in the upper part of the Chazy at the Hogs Back. They
are in a rather pure limestone matrix which 1s very fossiliferous,
Cyrtodonta huronensis being abundant, and cephalopods common.
Though it cannot be called a conglomerate, this bed indicates
some sort of a physical change, and, coupled with the slight
change in fauna, may prove to be of some importance.

While the pebble bed may be the base of the Lowville, it
seems more probable that the line should be drawn 35 feet lower
down, at the base of the sandstone containing Clionychia and
Vanuxemia (No. 6 of the second section at the Hogs Back and
No. 4 of the section on the road beyond Robillard’s quarries.)

At the Hogs Back there are two of these thick beds of sand-
stone, which, coming as they do in the midst of a series of lime-
stones, indicate a pronounced change in the conditions govern-
ing sedimentation. The change in the fauna at this point,
though not striking, can be seen. The principal difference noted
is in the ostracods, which, below this sandstone are often so
abundant as to make up the entire mass of certain layers, and,
moreover, these ostracods are usually smaller than those found
above. Certain species, such as /sochilina? clavigera and Bathy-
urus angelint, are not found above this sandstone.

These rocks which lie above the highest bed containing
Camarotechia plena and below the sandstone with Vanuxemia
and Clionychia are similar, lithologically, to a formation which
occurs in northwestern New York. This formation was described
by Dr. H. P. Cushing,* who gave it the name Pamelia. The ©
formation, in New York, is from 60 to 150 feet thick, and con-
sists of 10 to 20 feet of shale and sandstone at the base,

*Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. Vol, 19, p. 55, 1908

1911] Tue Orrawa NaTuRALIST. 197

followed by beds of blue-black limestone, dove limestone, and ~
gray magnesian limestone. The upper portion of the forma-
tion is said to lack the black limestone and to consist of
alternations of dove limestone and gray magnesian limestone,
light gray to white thin-bedded, impure limestone, and yellow
water-lime. It will be noted that this succession is very similar
to that shown in the sections presented above. The fauna
has not yet been described, but it is said to contain numerous
small ostracods, an undescribed Bathyurus, gastropods, cephalo-
pods, and several species of Tetradium.

SUMMARY.

The sections in the vicinity of Ottawa show about 250 feet
of strata between the Beekmantown and the base of the Black
River. These strata are characterized by two groups of species.
The lower 125 to 135 feet contain a small fauna, some of whose
species are found in the upper part of the Chazy formation of the
Champlain Valley, and this portion is undoubtedly to be cor-
related with the Upper Chazy, or at least with the Upper Chazy
as exhibited north and west of Montreal. The writer some years
ago suggested the name Aylmer* formation for the Chazy of the
Ottawa Valley, and it will probably be well to restrict this term
to the beds characterized by the Chazy fossils, and use it as the
local designation of these lower beds.

The upper portion of the section consists of 115 to 125 feet
of limestone, sandstone and shale, with fossils more nearly akin
tothose found inthe Black River and lacking the typical Chazy
species. The fauna of these beds is very imperfectly known. and,
owing to the poor state of preservation of the specimens at most
localities, its elucidation will require a considerable amount of
field work and study. This portion of the section, while united
by several species which range throughout the whole thickness,
is capable of subdivision into two members, the lower of which
contains most of the shale and sandstone, and the upper the pure
limestone. The lower portion contains an immense number of
small ostracods, and, in the middle, great numbers of gastropods
and other fossils. This member is from 65 to 75 feet in thickness.

The upper member is composed mostly of pure limestone,
has a larger fauna than either of the other formations, the upper
15 feet being especially fossiliferous. This is the Lowville of the
New York section and the thickness is about 50 feet.

*Annals Carnegie Museum, Vol. III, p. 380, 1905.

198 Tue OtTtrawa NATURALIST.

THE BIRDS OF OTTAWA.

By C. W. G. EIrric.

(Continued from page 187).

145. Corvus corax princtpalis, Northern Raven. A rare
resident, becoming common in the northern parts of the district
On the larger lakes there, e.g., Hawk and Green Lakes in Labelle
County, Quebec, small bands are seen every winter and a few
usually succumb to the poisoned bait or to the traps put out.
In the immediate vicinity of Ottawa it is a rare winter visitor. -

146. Corvus brachyrhynchos, Crow. An abundant summer
resident and rare permanent resident. A few remain about the —
slaughter houses on the outskirts of the city. About March 15th
the large flocks of migrant crows pour in from the south, return-
ing again about November 4th.

IcTERID£—BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC.
147. Dolichonyx oryzivorus, Bobolink. This charming cor-
netist of the meadows is a common summer resident with us>
rarer in the more wooded portions of the district. It arrives
from the 5th to the 12th of May and returns at the end of July
and August, the 21st of the latter month being the latest date.
148. Molothrus ater, Cowbird. This, our only real parasite
among birds, is a far too common summer resident with us.
Extreme dates for arrival and departure are: March 21st and
October 17th. In 1901, one was seen even in-December. On
June 16th, 1909, I found a Red-eyed Vireo incubating two of
its own eggs together with three of the Cowbird; and on June
30th, another instance of the same kind, only, that one Cowbird
egg had already hatched out. Both nests were on the Experi-
mental Farm. The young of the smaller species almost in-
variably have to perish.
°149. Agelaius pheniceus, Red-winged Blackbird. An
abundant summer resident. Found in large and small cat-tail
swamps. They first arrive March 21st; the local breeding birds
move away about August 7th. A little after that the migrants
of this species from farther north begin to arrive and once more
enliven the temporarily deserted swamps. On October 19th,
1908, about 1,000 were in the marshes near Rockland, some of
which remained till November Ist.
150. Sturnella magna, Meadowlark. A common summer
resident, which seems to be increasing in numbers. The first-
comers arrive March 21st; by May 11th a nest with five eggs
was found. Our local breeding birds move away about August
8th, but the species becomes common once more in autumn.

Maye.
sf i
+

es

aes
1911] THe OTtTawa NATURALIST. 199

“

_ Then, most move south in the second half of October, but some

are seen in November, and even in December, as on the 27th

in 1907, 1st in 1908, and one on January 10th, 1909.

151. Icterus galbula, Baltimore Oriole. A common migrant

in spring, but rather rare as a breeder, at best only locally
moderately common. They first arrive May 6th, increasing in
numbers till the 15th, when they decrease again. They dis-
appear unostentatiously in August, and often before. In 1886,
one was seen as late as September 16th.

152. Euphagus carolinus, Rusty Blackbird. An abundant
migrant, whose breeding range, however, begins with the
northern limits of our district. On July 12th, 1905, the writer
found, on the banks of a pond near Inlet, Que. (32 miles in a
straight line from Ottawa), a pair with four recently fledged
young. While small bands of this Grackle arrive in April (lst,
10th, 12th, 13th, 18th), the larger flocks come only in May.
Their return journey southward brings them through here from
September 25th to October /th..

153. Quiscalus quiscula eneus, Bronzed Grackle; Black-
bird. An abundant summer resident. They first arrive March
23rd, although in 1906 some were seen as early as March 2nd.
Many take up quarters in gardens in the city, where there are
large spruce trees,much to the detriment of other nearby nesting
birds, the eggs and young of which they like to rob. Their own
young are able to fly by May 31st. The last sombre flocks leave
about November Ist.

FRINGILLIDE—FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC.

154. Hesperiphona vespertina, Evening Grosbeak. A rare,
accidental winter visitor; may, however, become temporarily
abundant. On March 12th, 1901, two were shot in Rideau Hall
grounds. But,they emphatically established their claim to a
place on our list by the long stay a flock made in and near the
city from February 7th to May 15th, 1909, about which see
THE Ottawa NarturRAListT, vol. XXII., p. 263.

155. Pinicola enucleator leucura, Pine Grosbeak. An ir-
regularly abundant winter resident, that is, may be abundant one
winter and nearly absent the next; may come early one season,
late another. Extreme dates of stay: October 30th to April
21st. Lives on rowan and sumach berries, old apples, buds of
maple, tamarack, etc. (See THE Ottawa NaruRaAList, vol.
XXII, p. 263.)

156. Carpodacus purpureus, Purple Finch. An abundant
migrant and wanderer, and common breeder. This species also
shares the spirit of irregularity that characterizes a number of the
truly Canadian birds. It usually arrives from the 1st of March

200 THE Otrrawa NATURALIST. - [FeB. |

on, but has been seen as early as February 11th; and leaves up
to October 2nd, but has been seen as late as December 29th —
(1885). Breeds at Blueberry Point, Beaver Meadow, Experi-
mental Farm, and in gardens in the city containing a number of
the larger trees.

157. Loxia curvirostra minor, Crossbill. Another highly ir-
regular, rare, or abundant migrant or winter resident, and -
probably a breeder in the northern part of the district. Dates:
April 21st, 1883; May 9th, 1907; May 10th, 1882; May 16th,
1905; May 24th, 1905; June 19th, 1889; July 3rd, 1890;
August 4th, 1887; ‘October 28th, 1908; November 15th, 1908;
November 23rd, 1904.

158. Loxia leucoptera, White-winged Crossbill. Status like
that of the American Crossbill, if anything somewhat rarer and
more roving. In October and November, 1908, large and small
bands were roaming about in the vicinity of Ottawa. On
Feburary 8th, 1909, Mr. Groh made a Northern Shrike give up
its prey, which proved a bird of this species, and a large flock
was seen in June, 1882, in Beechwood Cemetery.

159. Acanthts hornemannt exilipes, Hoary Redpoll. A rare
accidental winter visitor. On January 24th, 1908, three were
seen in a flock of common Redpolls (E. White), and Mr. W. L.
Scott took several in the spring of 1883.

160. Acanthis linaria, Redpoll. An irregularly abundant
winter resident and migrant. Some probably breed in the
northern part of the district. In 1908 they were present con-
tinually from February 14th to May 13th, and in 1909 from
January 24th to May 10th. In fall, they arrive about November
1st (earliest October 26th) and are then more or less abundant
during the winter months. Summer dates, pointing to their
probable breeding, are May 22nd, 1890, June 3rd, 1888, and June
6th, 1882.

161. Astragalinus tristis, Goldfinch. Abundant summer resi-
dent and occasionally permanent resident, as large flocks
wintered here in 1888-89, and a few may be seen nearly every
winter. The coming of the migrant individuals is as irregular as
that of its congeners; they follow no set rule. They come in
March, or April, or May, and leave again, in the same desultory
manner, in September, or October, or November.

162. Spinus pinus, Pine Siskin. A common winter resident
and rare breeder. It has been found here every month from
October (14th) to June (7th), and its nest has been found by Mr.
Garneau.

163. Passer domesticus, English Sparrow. This introduced
species has become here, as elsewhere, an unmitigated nuisance.

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THe Ottawa NATURALIST. 201

While being a permanent resident, numbers of the local birds

~ move somewhat farther south in fall. On some of the first mild

days in spring I have noticed certain individuals of this species
producing a rather pleasing song. A case of erythrism in this

| _ species is reported in THE Ottawa Narvuratist, vol. XXII, p.

64.

164. Plectrophenax nivalis, Snow Bunting. An irregularly
common and abundant migrant and winter resident. They arrive
end of October (earliest 19th) and in November, and disappear

in March (latest April 18th).

165. Calcarius lapponicus, Lapland Longspur. A migrant
of uncertain status, probably far less rare than supposed, as
they are difficult to see and flush, when on the ground, and often
wild and high up when on wing. First recorded here in 1890,
when some stayed in the company of Horned Larks (O. alpestris)
till May 25th, and again from October 3rd to November 18th
(W. E. and F. A. Saunders).

166. Powcetes gramineus, Vesper Sparrow. A common
summer resident. Preeminently a bird of the plowed fields
and of the roadside, hence its popular name ‘‘Groundbird.”’
The first ones arrive about April 6th, and the last depart about
October 16th.

167. Passerculus sandwichensis savanna, Savannah Sparrow.
A common summer resident and inhabitant of moist meadows.
Its high-pitched trill may be heard within the city limits, as near
the Isolation Hospital. Dates: 31st of March to 29th of Sep-
tember.

168. Ammodramus savannarum australis, Grasshopper Spar-
row. This more southerly form seems to be among those that
are trying to extend their range northward. It has been re- |
corded three times from our district: one seen at Hull by Mr.
F. A. Saunders, June 24th, 1898, and again by him in the rear .
of the Experimental Farm on the 26th, 27th, and 28th of the
same month. Then it was not reported again until 1909, when
Mr. C. N. Robertson and the writer found it on June 30th in
the northwest corner of the Experimental Farm.

169. Passerherbulus caudacutus, Sharp-tailed Sparrow. One
was shot here in 1882 and subsequently identified by Dr. Coues.

170. Zonotrichia leucophrys, White-crowned Sparrow. This
handsome finch is an abundant migrant here, passing through
Ottawa from May 1st to 23rd in spring, and from September
27th to November 1st in fall. An unusually early one was seen
by Mrs. R. D. Brown, April 12th, 1909. During the second week
of May their numbers and music attain their high-water mark.

171. Zonotrichia albicollis, White-throated Sparrow. This
bird, which to most is but a voice which from its retreat in the

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202 Tue OTTAWA. NATURALIST. Sa bess

thickets and swamps seems ever to be whiseins? dint, Cano ie haat ‘a
Canada, etc., is a common summer resident, hedc eee oe
in wet thickets in Beechwood, Beaver Meadow, Rockcliffe, and 7
even within the city limits. It may be found here from April _ F
11th to October 23rd. a
172. Spizella monticola, Tree Sparrow. An abundant mi-_
grant from and to the Hudson Bay region. In fall it passes
through from September 17th to October 30th, and in spring
from March 23rd to May 3rd._ Its song, a sweet tsewee, tsewee, z
tsewee wee wee a wee, is seldom heard. ee
173. Spizella passerina, Chipping Sparrow. This sociable Fe
little finch is a common summer resident, making its nest in om
bushes and small trees, both deciduous and evergreen, as closely a
as possible to houses. It extends its stay with us from April 5th a
to September 28th. In 4884, one was seen as early as March
28th. eee
174. Spizella pusilla, Field Sparrow. This dainty little : = ;
finch with pink bill and feet is a rare summer resident with us,
although found to be rather common at Kazabazua, 48 miles
north of Ottawa. I have only seen three in six years near
Ottawa. Being a southern bird, it should be, other things being
equal, more common at Ottawa than north of it. It should be ©
looked for in bushy clearings, pastures, etc. 34
175. Junco hyemalis, Slate-colored Junco. An abundant .
migrant and moderately common summer resident. In dry or —
moist evergreen woods, like at Blueberry Point, Rockcliffe, ete.,
a pair or two may be counted on any day in summer. They _
begin to come March 23rd (earliest March 3rd), but reach their
climax April 25th, after which their numbers decrease rapidly
until only the few remaining breeding pairs are left. On July 6th,
* 1908, I found a nest with four eggs at Meach Lake. The migrant
hosts return again in September, the last leaving about October —
28th.

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176. Melospiza melodia, Song Sparrow. This cheerful har-_
binger of spring is an abundant summer resident. It arrives
from the 11th of March on, although the first larger band can
only be expected between the 23rd and 25th of that month, -
The latest date is November 25th.

177. Melospiza lincolnt, Lincoln’s Sparrow. A rare migrant, |
but owing to its extremely secretive habits, it may be commoner
than thought and may even breed within the district. One was
taken May 16th, 1884, by Mr. G. R. White. eee

178. Melospiza georgiana, Swamp Sparrow. A conumigee
summer resident. Every large and small cat-tail swamp, and —
even swampy corners in fields, overgrown with willows, harbors _
one or more pairs. Time: “April 21st to October 11th. ; BANS

Tue Orrawa NATURALIST.
et :
a “179. Passerella iliaca, Fox Sparrow. This large, handsome
i ‘sparrow is a moderately common migrant. If one goes, during
_ the latter half of April, to the fringe of bushes along the railway
beyond Britannia, he can be tolerably certain of meeting them.
; ey can usually be heard scratching among the dry leaves on
-theground. To hear their flute-like song, a performance between
the song of the Purple Finch and Baltimore Oriole, is a rare
treat, heard not often south of us. It passes through from
April 15th to May 10th, and again from October 4th to November
‘ith. In 1897 one was even seen on December 4th.
+ ~~: 180. Pipilo. erythrophthalmus, Chewink; Towhee. This is a
ae new arrival in our district and on our list. While it has once
-__ been seen far out of its range, in 1894 by Mr. F. A. Saunders,
80 miles north of Ottawa, the first record for Ottawa was made
: in 1904 when, in July, one was shot by Mr. E. Bedard, in Beech-
- wood and later identified by the writer. Mr. Warwick, of
be Buckingham, Quebec, has taken one there, in 1902. On June
28th, 1908, two males were seen in Beechwood Cemetery by
_ _ Mr. E. White, but the year 1909 has so far furnished the most
-_ records, as between May 10th and 20th no fewer than five obser-
vations of it were made at three different places. This seems to
: indicate that it also wants to extend its range northward. It
_ should be encouraged in this, and not hindered by persecution.
“ 181. Zamelodia ludoviciana, Rose-breasted Grosbeak. A
moderately common summer resident. At Meach Lake I found
-itt most common in an old orchard adjoining a deciduous wood.
It usually arrives May 11th, and the last are seen about October
i ist. In°1908, Mrs. R. D. Brown saw one April 23rd during a
_-—s Cheavy migration.
: 182. Passerina cyanea, Indigo Bunting. A rare summer
: resident, temporarily and locally commoner. While I have seen
: only six all told in six years, Mr. A. G. Kingston saw, at Meach
< Lake, about ten at one time, in July, 1909. In certain small
‘ circumscribed localities a pair will be nesting year after year,
, for instance at the northern side of Fairy Lake at the end of
- Beaver Meadow, Hull. Those seen by the writer were here from
May 3rd to at least August 12th.

183. Spiza americana, Dickcissel. This. more southerly
bird of uncertain, ever changing range of distribution, is entitled
to a place on our list by the protracted stay of a fine male in
June. 1895, at the Experimental Farm. where it was watched

-closely-by Mr. F. A. Saunders and also seen by Messrs. W. A. D.
Lees and A. G. Kingston.
- TANGARIDE—TANAGERS.

184. Piranga erythromelas, Scarlet Tanager. This gleam

of tropical coloration is a common migrant and a moderately

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204 Tue Orrawa NATURALIST. nae (FEB. * “a

common breeder in the hills north of Ottawa. Inthe inne :

neighborhood of the capital it is rarely seen in summer. Its

stay covers the time from May 13th to October 3rd. On May —

23rd, 1909, I saw as many as three in one tree in Major’s Hill

Park, Ottawa. ;
HIRUNDINIDZ—SWALLOWS.

185. Progne subis, Purple Martin. A common summer resi-
dent. While in many parts of the United States people com-
plain that this fine bird is rapidly decreasing in numbers, it is
rather increasing here. Many flourishing colonies are found in
martin houses and in the cornices of buildings in Ottawa, and I
found usually at least one colony in every town and village in
Carleton, Renfrew and Russell Counties, Ontario, and in Labelle
County, Quebec, which I visited. They begin to come as early
as April 13th and assemble in huge migratory flocks towards the
middle of August. On the 22nd of August, 1909, a flock of
5-10,000 was on the Rifle Range all dav, all leaving for the south
at 7 o'clock p.m. The last stragglers are seen September 5th.

186. Petrochelidon luntfrons, Cliff Swallow. A moderately
common summer resident. It may be abundant around a
certain farm yard, and then no more be seen for miles of territory.
Its colonies of gourd-shaped, sometimes two-storied mud nests
under the eaves of barns, etc., are a very interesting sight.
Time: April 27th (1908) to September 30th (1908).

187. Hirundo erythrogastra, Barn Swallow. A common to
abundant summer resident. They arrive about the 21st of
April (earliest 7th) and the last go September 21st. On August
7th, 1909, I saw a flock of about 500 along the wires of fences,
and on the road, near Blanche P.O., Quebec. While many species
slip away quietly and unnoticed for their fall migration, all
the Swallows, Night Hawks and Blackbirds make their
migration very noticeable, by gathering into large armies, the
first twoin August, the last later.

188. Irtdoprocne bicolor, Tree Swallow. An abundant
summer resident. For an insectivorous bird it comes very early,
March 27th being the earliest date, when more or less snow is on
the ground and ice in lakes and rivers; but it apparently thrives.
On August 14th, 1909, Mr. G. R. White saw thousands with
other Swallows on the Chaudiere Islands in the Ottawa River.
The last seen to go was on August 25th.

189. Riparia riparia, Bank Swallow. An abundant summer -
resident. This is the last of our Swallows to arrive from the
south, coming from May 13th to 20th, although the advance
guard in some years comes on the ist, 3rd, or 8th. As soon as
they arrive they at once begin to tunnel their nesting burrows
in sand banks, not minding traffic and people in the least.

1911) we Tue Orrawa NaTuRALIST. 205

‘September 6th is the last date for them.

BOMBYCILLIDZE—WAXWINGS.

190. Bombycilla garrula, Bohemian Waxwing. A rare,
irregular winter visitor from the north. The last stay of this beauti-
ful bird at Ottawa took place in the winter of 1908-09, when
a flock of 22 took up quarters in the rowan-trees on a much used
corner in the city. They remained from December 15th to
March 6th. (See THE Ottawa NarTuraLtist, vol. XXII, p. 266.)
Now and then a solitary one is seen, as in December, 1906, when
one came to a small mountain-ash tree on Russell Avenue and
stayed there for a week.

191. Bombycilla cedrorum, Cedar Waxwing. A somewhat
irregular, but usually abundant summer resident. Some years

they turn up in March, in others in April or May, and in 1907

they only were seen in June, but then in great numbers. Un-

usual dates are: December ist, 1906; February 22nd, 1908.

As a rule, the last ones disappear about September 12th.
LANIIDZ—SHRIKES.

192. Lantus borealis, Northern Shrike. A moderately com-
mon winter resident. They arrive from the north about October
30th, frequently taking up residence in the city, where they
feast on English Sparrows; the latest date for leaving is April
18th (1884).

193. Lantus ludovicianus migrans, Migrant Shrike. This,
the local breeding form, is a moderately common summer resi-
dent, some years rarer than others. The earliest date on which
it has been recorded so far is March 25th (1907), and the latest,
October 10th (1905).

VIREONIDE—VIREOS.

194. Vireosyluva olivacea, Red-eyed Vireo. An abundant
summer resident, although more often heard than seen. In
summer, in almost any deciduous woods, one is hardly ever
outside of the reach of its somewhat monotonous, prattling
song. Time of stay: May 6th to September 26th. How it is

-often- victimized by the Cowbird, was noted under that species,

which see.

195. Vuireosylva philadelphica, Philadelphia Vireo. A rare
migrant and probable breeder. As it is small and elusive it may
be commoner than supposed. It seems to be one of our latest
migrants. On May 17th, 1905, I saw one at Britannia, and May
30th, 1906, in a large warbler wave, four to five near Cyrville.
September 4th, 1884, is the only fall date available.

196. Vireosylva gilva, Warbling Vireo. A common summer
resident, found oftener in the shade trees of the cities than in the
woods outside. Like the Red-eyed Vireo, it is a persistent singer,
even after all other bird notes have stopped in the heat of

_ about May 11th. =a a

. i AN Sy al TD Dove

206 Tue Orrawa NATURALIST. _
summer, and thus betrays its presence. Time of stay:
May to 22nd of September. ey
197. Lanivireo flavijrons, Yellow-throated Vireo. a
summer resident. In six years I have seen four here, two oe
cectre

which were on King’s Mountain, July 20th, 1905. They arrive

198. Lanivireo solitarius, Blue-headed Vireo. A moderately
common migrant, but rare breeder. They arrive May 7th,and
the latest date for them is September 11th (1909). On May 28th
1898, a nest was found at Chelsea, and on August 21st, 1907, I
saw fully grown young on Keitle Island.

MNIOTILTIDZ—WOOD WARBLERS. : se aie

199. Mmotilta varia, Black and White Warbler. Acommon ~~
migrant and moderately common breeder. This frequenter of
the more open, deciduous second-growth woods arrives from
April 28th to May 13th; the last are seen September 21st. ~
Breeds in Beaver Meadow, Blueberry Point and similar places.

200. Vermivora rubricapilla, Nashville Warbler. A moder-
ately common migrant and breeder, but only in its chosen ~
haunts, viz., the stands of small poplar and birch in low, wet
places in woods. In such a spot at Blueberry Point a pair or a.
two can be found any day in summer. More common in the 4
poplar stands around the Mer Bleue. They begin to arrive May =
7th, reaching their climax in numbers May 15th. On July 13th, ~~
1881, a nest with four eggs was found at Dow’s Swamp. The. Bae
latest date for them is September 25th. =

201. Vermivora celata, Orange-crowned Warbler. An ex-
tremely rare migrant. On September 27th, 1885, one wastaken
by Mr. E. White near the eastern end of the city. This is the ce
only record. aa

202. Vermivora peregrina, Tennessee Warbler. A rare mi- ~—
grant; will probably be found breeding in some of the tamarack
swamps in the northern part of the district. It passes through |
Ottawa from May 12th to June 7th (1907), at which latter date
Messrs. Chapman and Fuertes saw some in Major’s Hill Park. a
The last are seen September 30th. Its song is a high, sharp =
tstp, tsip, tsip, pit it 1t ttereeeee.

203. Compsothlypis americana usnee, Northern Parula
Warbler. A moderately common migrant and rarer breeder.
Its habitat is tall deciduous trees, as on the west side of Beaver
Meadow, where it may be found in summer. It begins to arrive
May 7th, reaching its climax May 20th to 23rd. The last are
seen September 13th. The song is a somewhat scratchy, dreer,
dreer, dreer, last note highest and loudest; also a trill like
ve-e-e-e-e-e.

(To be continued.)

ie! i
Y

207

~ Tue Ottawa NATURALIST.

BOOK NOTICES.

_ A List or THE Insects oF New Jersey. By Dr. John B.

a Smith, Professor of Entomology at Rutgers College, State

Entomologist and Entomologist to the Agricultural College
_ Experiment Station at New Brunswick, N.J. Annual Report

_ of the New Jersey State Museum, 1909; Trenton, N.J., 1910.

This report, with the exception of 13 pages, is devoted to
Dr. Smith’s new List of the Insects of New Jersey. It is now ten
years since a similar list was prepared by the same author, who

. ; is one of our valued Corresponding Members, and who has always _
_ been exceedingly helpful to Canadian students of insects, par-

ticularly those who study the Noctuide. The present list, which
has recently come to hand, is an extremely valuable publication.

~The book contains 888 pages, the printing and paper are good

and the many illustrations excellent. No less than 10,385
different species are listed, comprising 3,486 genera and 331
families. In the 1899 list 8,537 species were included. It will
thus be seen that considerable progress has been made in a

‘knowledge of the insects of the State of New Jersey. Ento-

mologists generally will be grateful to Dr. Smith for this extremely
useful contribution to the literature of American entomology.
Through the example which he has set in the preparation of these
New Jersey Lists of Insects, similar lists are now in preparation
for other States in the Union, and in Canada a list of the in-
sects of the Province of Quebec is being prepared by members of
the Montreal Branch of the Entomological Society of Ontario
and the Quebec Society for the Protection of Plants from
Insects and Fungous Diseases, largely through the untiring
efforts of Messrs. A. F. Winn, G. Chagnon and J. M. Swaine.

In the preparation of the new list, Dr. Smith has had the
assistance of many recognized specialists in the various orders.
Unfortunately the edition of the New Jersey State Museum
report is a very limited one, and it will be impossible to supply
everyone who will want this work with a copy. It is distributed
by the Curator of the Museum. Dr. Smith has, however, had
some extra copies printed, and the price has been fixed at $1.50
each. These copies will be available as long as this extra edition
lasts.

We desire here to add our sincere appreciation of this recent
tesult of Dr. Smith’s labours. May our esteemed Corresponding
Member be spared many years to continue the good work he is
doing for the advancement of applied and systematic ento-
mology in America.

A. G.

208 THe Orrawa® NATURALIST. EF [FEB

Tue Orrawa Horvticutturist: The official organ of the
Ottawa Horticultural Society. This new monthly made its first —
appearance with the January, 1911, issue, and is highly credit-—
able to those who are responsible for its publication. It is not.

in any way intended to take the place of other horticultural
journals, but will be used chiefly for matters of local interest.

Besides publishing announcements of meetings, exhibitions, etc.,

and the Society’s Premium and Prize Lists, special articles will

appear from time to time on subjects of practical interest to -

members of the Society.

We extend to our sister Society our best wishes for the future
success of The Ottawa Horticulturist.
: Ae ae

NOTES.

CHANGE IN LECTURE PROGRAMME.—The Lecture Committee
announce that the lecture before the Club, for the evening of
March 7th, will be given by Mr. R. H. Campbell, Superintendent
of Forestry of the Department of the Interior, instead of by Mr.
W. E. Saunders, of London, Ont. The title of Mr. Campbell’s
lecture will be, ‘How the Forest Grows.’ It will be held in
the assembly hall of the Normal School, and will be illustrated
with lantern slides. It is hoped that Mr. Saunders will lecture
before the Clubjat a later date.

Maps oF Ortawa.—The Club has still on hand a number of
maps of the Ottawa District, which the Treasurer would like to
dispose of. Copies can be had from Mr. Herbert Groh, Central
Experimental Farm. The charge to members is 5 cents each,
to non-members, 10 cents.

A New Fievp-Natura.ists’ CLus.—A society has recently
been formed at Picton, Ont., under the name ‘“‘The Prince
Edward County Field-Naturalists’ Club’? for the purpose of
Nature Study and protection and study of birds and native
wild flowers, etc. The Ottawa Field-Naturalists’ Club extends
to this new society its warmest greetings and best wishes for its
future prosperity. Our Club was honored by receiving an invita-
tion for our President, Mr. Halkett, to address the new society
at one of its winter meetings.

Cr

way

so

THE OTTAWA NATURALIST

VOL. XXIV. OTTAWA, MARCH, 1911 No. 12

CONSERVATION, OR THE PROTECTION OF NATURE.*

By C. Gorpon Hewitt, 1:5¢..- FESS
Dominion Entomologist, Ottawa.

The most vital problem to be solved by Canada, at the pres-

~ ent time, is to know how we can insure the prosperity of the coun-

try and the consequent and incident prosperity of her people.
An enormous country is entrusted to our care as a people, a

vast heritage of Nature abounding in untold wealth and pro-

ductive of the greatest good. Nature is not ours to squander, to
amass wealth at her expense and enjoy a transient prosperity;
it is ours to protect, and the protection of Nature is nothing more
or less than the insuring of a national happiness. Through the
foresight of the representatives of the people who are charged
with the country’s weal, that question has been answered,
regardless of political creed, and in such a way as to place Canada
in the front rank of those nations upon whom the future existence
of the world will depend.. We must conserve those resources of
Nature in which are bound up the very life of this country and
its future, and Canada enjoys the privilege of having the first
Commission appointed by a national government to promote
the conservation of our natural resources.

But it must not be supposed, in fact it is the greatest mistake
to suppose, that this is a question which concerns those alone
who are charged with the governing of the country. It is one
which concerns every Canadian, whether he be an owner of
thousands of acres or the rude pioneer blazing the path of progress
through the wild unknown: it concerns every citizen.

To the naturalist, however, it should and does appeal with
especial force, and it is on this account, because conservation
means nothing more or less than the protection of Nature, the
prevention of destruction without perpetuation, and because
the work of the biologist must form the basis of a large proportion

*An address delivered before the Ottawa Field-Naturalists’ Club on January 10th, 1911,

’

210 THE Ottawa NaTuRALIST. [Mar.

of the principles that will guide us in attaining the end for which
we are working, that I have chosen this as the subject of my
address this evening. I will endeavour to indicate, somewhat
briefly I am afraid, a few of the problems which depend for their
solution upon the results of biological investigation. As His
Excellency Earl Grey truly said in his address to the Conserva-
tion Commission on the_ occasion of its first meeting: ‘‘The
future well-being of Canada depends upon the loyal acceptance
by its people of the principles which aim at the profitable and
scientific development and conservation of your natural re-
sources. I recognize that the future prosperity of Canada
depends upon scientific research and upon the efficient appli-
cation of the results of that research to the industrial and
physical life of the people.”’

We must take a broad view and regard the problem
from its esthetic and ethical side as well as from its practical.
We are a practical nation, but there is a growing danger that
success and material prosperity may be taken as synonymous
with, and as the criterion of, a national happiness, than which
there is no mistake more profoundly erroneous.

THE SOIL.

The greatest need of man is food, and his food, directly or
indirectly, is a product of the soil. On the producing power of
the soil, therefore, the lives of the people as well as the future
existence of the nation depend. It will be understood then how
important a question the conservation of this great producing
power, the fertility of the soil, is to so essentially an agricultural
nation as Canada. The supply of the organic constituents of the
food of plants is inexhaustible, but this is not the case with the
inorganic chemical constituents of the plant food—nitrogen,
potassium and phosphorous: and when we speak of the conserva-
tion of the essential elements of the soil we refer to these elements,
of which the most important is nitrogen. Since 1660 this element
has been regarded as one of the sources of the fertility of the soil,
and after many years of careful inquiry we have come to the con-
clusion that the fertility of the soil can be attributed to no one
cause: nevertheless, the available nitrogen is one of the chief
factors in this fertility. It will naturally be inferred that this is a
question of a chemical nature which does not concern the
biologist. The day has passed when one branch of science can
stand aloof from the rest, as the history of the present problem
will indicate. In 1886, Hellreigel and Wilfarth discovered that
the nodular growths found on the roots of the leguminous plants,
such as peas, clover, alfalfa, etc., contained bacteria which were
capable of drawing nitrogen from that large reservoir of other-

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THe Orrawa NATURALIST. 211

= wise almost unavailable nitrogen—the air. Plants cannot use
the free nitrogen, but require it in the form of nitrates, and this

transformation is brought about by the root bacteria found in
association with these plants. This discovery afforded an
explanation of the long known fact that such leguminous crops
enriched the soil. Since that discovery, other bacteria living free
in the soil have been found that are capable of fixing the essential
nitrogen, and Hall has recently stated that ‘‘We may with some
confidence attribute the vast stores of combined nitrogen con-
tained in the black virgin soils of places like Manitoba and the
Russian steppes to one of these organisms.” Humus is rich in
nitrogen, and the bacterial organisms, together with the oxygen
of the air, convert this into available plant food. It is owing to

_ the nitrogen-enriching power of such leguminous crops as clover

and alfalfa that they are of so great value in enriching soil which
has been depleted of nitrogen by other crops. It is on this
single fact that the system of the rotation of crops
is based, that is, the alternate planting of legumimous crops
which increase the amount of available nitrogen in the
soil with crops, such as cereals, which use up the nitrogen.
This rotation, therefore, is one of the most important means of
maintaining the fertility of the soil. Furthermore, by the plant-
ing of these leguminous crops we are enabled to inoculate soils
previously deficient in nitrogen and accordingly increase their
productive power.

Recently, at the Rothamsted laboratory in England,
Russell and Hutchinson have made some investigations
of more than ordinary interest upon this question of the relation
of soil bacteria to fertility. Subsequent to the discovery of the
nitrogen-fixing bacteria, the inexplicable fact was discovered
that when the soil was heated or treated with an antiseptic such
as chloroform to render it sterile, the fertility increased in an
astonishing manner. Heating the soil to a temperature of 70 to
100 degrees for two hours doubled the size of the crop. This fact
has been known since the time of the Romans and is practised
in intensive cultural systems, but the cause of. the increased
productivity was unknown. These authors find that this in-
creased fertilityfappears to be due to the fact that when the
soil is heated or treated with*an*antiseptic, all the bacteria are
not destroyed, but larger protozoal organisms, akin to
Ameeba, which normally feed upon the bacteria, are killed.
In consequence, the bacteria released from their enemies increase
and multiply at a rapid rate, which results in an increase in the
amount of available nitrogen in the soil.

These investigations will serve to indicate how these ques-
tions of the fertility of the soil and the maintenance of that

212 Tue Otrrawa NATURALIST [Mar. - ~

?

fertility could not be considered without reference to their
biological aspects which are really the fundaments. -

THE PREVENTION OF LOssEsS INCIDENT TO THE PRODUCTS_
OF THE SOIL. :

Having taken all the means that are necessary to conserve
the fertility of the soil, we are faced, in the production of our
crops, whether they may be farm or fruit crops, with serious
factors which, if not contended, will more than counterbalance
the advantage gained in such conservation. Therefore the com-
batting of those factors adverse to successful cultivation and
production is an integral and essential part of conservation.
Of such adverse factors, the chief are plant diseases and insect
pests, and I shall consider the latter more particularly as we have
at present more accurate data and statistics with regard to their
depredations. The immense losses which insects and plant
diseases incur are chiefly due to the disturbance of natural con-
ditions brought about when man cultivates the soil and provides
large quantities of eminently suitable food for insects often
previously subsisting on wild plants. It is generally conceded
that a ten per cent. basis may be taken as the average loss on
farm crops due to injurious insects, and those who have
given their continued attention to the question consider
that this is the minimum. On that basis Marlatt estimates
that the annual loss in plant products of the farm in the
United States, due to insects, is $650,000,000, and on the
same basis our annual loss in Canada would be over $50,000,000
worth of farm crops. In fruit production insects make a tax
of at least thirty per cent. and Chittenden puts the total
losses, plus the cost of treatment, at over $66,000,000 in the
United States. To the ordinary person these figures seem
incomprehensible, but this loss is capable of estimation on the
basis of experience, and those of us who are dealing with these
losses daily have no hesitation in maintaining that ten per cent.
is a minimum average loss. This is omitting the losses.
which are no less serious, due to plant diseases, and those which
are due to weeds. It is safe to say that, even with our present
knowledge of the methods of combatting these pests, we can
effect a saving of at least thirty per cent., and with the increase
of such knowledge, which can only be gained by scientific in-
vestigation, that percentage will gradually increase. It is nec-
essary that it shall increase, for the soil of Canada supplies the
food not only of cur own people but of other nations who are
looking to the new world and the west for their food supplies.

The conservation of the soil, therefore, rests on two principles

es |

1911] Tue Ortawa NATURALIST. 213

_—the maintenance of the soil-fertility, accomplished by scientific
methods of cultivation, and the combatting of those factors

which reduce the productivity by destroying the soil products,
namely insects, plant diseases and weeds. We must put an end
to exploitive farming, the taking out and not putting back the
equivalent, which is nothing more or less than stealing the nation’s
wealth; and the farmer who exploits the fertile soil of Canada
must be shown that he is criminally taking away the future
subsistence of the generations to come.

FORESTS.

The forests of Canada were responsible for the foundation
and the early history of the nation, for without the forests there
would never have been that great natural resource of fur-
bearing animals which lured the first wealth seekers and pioneers
to this land rich in forest, river and lake. The forests will be
responsible for the future prosperity of Canada, for upon their
conservation depends the conservation of the land and water.
They conserve the land in virtue of their great function as
natural filters, allowing the gradual running away of rainstorms
and melting snow, and in the place of wash-outs and floods
sweeping away the fertile soil by erosion, a continuous steady
flow of water is provided and maintained, and thus the water
which we shall require more and more as our natural
fuel supplies become more exhausted, is regulated in
the best possible manner for the purposes of obtaining
power. The maintenance and conservation of our natural
water supplies is primarily dependent upon the conserva-
tion of the forests, and on the conservation of the water
supplies depends the productivity of the land. What would our
great western provinces produce if they were not watered by
the rivers having their origin on the eastern slope of the Rocky
Mountains, the origin and flow of which rivers is directly due to
the forests covering those mountains? The setting aside of the
greater part of those forests on the eastern slope of the Rocky
Mountains as a reserve is one of the greatest prospective actions
ever taken by a government. In addition to the intimate relation
between forests and the land and water, their effect upon the
climate and also upon the health of the people are to be con-
sidered. By the majority of people one of the chief functions of
the forests is, of course, their utilization. The varied industries
which depend upon forest products, from the publishing of a
newspaper to the building of a railway, render it still further
necessary that we shall not only conserve but utilize in the
most economical manner possible and, by afforestation of
deforested areas and of areas unsuitable for agriculture, shall

214 THe Ottawa NaTUuRALIST. [Mar. —

insure the timber needs of the future. The total forest area of

Canada is, estimated at over 1,250,000 square miles, of which

about 400,000 square miles may be considered to be covered

with merchantable timber.

Two of the three factors which are chiefly responsible for

the, destruction of our forests depend for their solution upon the
results of biologicalinvestigation. The three chief forest destroy-
ing agencies are fire, insects and plant diseases, and_all are inter-
dependent. Naturally the first appears to be the most important
on account of the extremely apparent and ravaging devastation.
Nevertheless the destruction caused by insects and plant diseases,
though usually working for a long time, insidiously and unseen,
is,enormous. It is estimated by Hopkins that for a ten-year
period, during. which investigations were made, the average
amount of timber in the forests of the United States killed and
reduced in value by insects would represent a loss of $62,500,000
annually. It is impossible to estimate in the absence of the
necessary statistics the extent of the annual loss in Canada to the
growing forests, but on a conservative estimate the loss on the
annual cut of timber due to insectsin Canada would be morethan
$2,000,000. The injury to forests by fire receives the serious
consideration which it merits on account of its very noticeable
character, but insects and fungi carrying .on their destruction
in apparent secrecy are unobserved until their depredations
assume a magnitude such as to render their control almost im-
possible. :
Forest insects are injurious in a number of ways: they may
attack and kill the mature growing trees; they destroy the second
growth and thus hinder or prevent natural regeneration; they

attack the cut timber and the finished products to a serious

extent ; in a word, from the seed to the finished product they
exact no inconsiderable toll of this important and valuable
resource. There are two classes of insects injurious to forests:
those which defoliate the trees, and the boring insects which
attack both living trees and the cut products. Of the former class
we have two examples in Canada to which I may briefly refer.
The Larch Sawfly (Nematus erichsonit), which’ destroyed all the
mature larch or tamarack in eastern Canada in the outbreak of
1881-1885, is now repeating its depredations. The second is the
Spruce Budworm (Tortrix fumijerana), which is distributed
throughout. Quebec, and in many localities has effected serious
defoliation of the spruce and balsam during the last two years.
In British Columbia it is also attacking the Douglas Fir and has
already shown its ability to kill the young second growth. The
seriousness of this outbreak of the Spruce Budworm is not only
due to the probable effect on the trees of the repeated

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THE Ottawa NATURALIST. 215

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defoliation, but also to the fact that this defoliation
by weakening the vitality of the trees will render them
more susceptible to the attacks of the worst forest’
pests, the bark beetles. These latter insects attack healthy
and unhealthy trees and, by the boring of the adult beetles and
their larve in the growth layer beneath the bark, the trees are
girdled and in consequence killed. A species of bark beetle
(Dendroctonus piceaperda) attacking the spruce has caused con-
siderable destruction among the spruce forests of eastern Canada
and the United States. The activities of these bark beetles are
inter-related with those of the timber boring beetles, which attack
the standing trees which have been killed or are dying asa
result of the infestation of the bark beetles, and thus render
them useless for timber.

Fire, insects and fungal diseases as I have already
Stated, are all closely inter-related. Abundant evidence
has been gathered to show that trees killed by insects
have more readily acted as fuel for forest fires, and
also that insects may bring about the final destruction
of trees which might otherwise have recovered from the effects
of fire. By their borings and tunnellings in the bark and wood,

. these beetles provide means of entrance for the spores of fungi

which by their rapid growth hasten the destruction and decay of
the timber. It will be realized, then, that any system of forest
conservation and afforestation will fail in its object if it leaves
out of consideration the immense losses entailed by the attacks
of insects and fungi, the aggregate losses due to which I have no
hesitation in affirming, as others who have investigated these
matters maintain, exceeds even the total loss due to fires. In
most cases these losses can be prevented and the methods to be
adopted for the prevention of losses due to insects and plant
diseases are almost identical with those to be employed against
the prevention of forest fires: constant supervision and prompt
action immediately the outbreak is observed, which will be in an
early and controllable stage, if the supervision is sufficiently
adequate to be effective.

THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS.

The majority of people fail to appreciate the part which
birds play in the economy of Nature and the untold benefits
resulting from their protection and encouragement. In com-
batting those factors which are responsible for so great a loss to
the agriculture of this country—injurious insects, weeds and
small mammals, such as mice and gophers—and to the forests,
we shall be compelled to an increasing extent to rely on thenatural
enemies of these pests, especially the birds which are the most

216 Tue Orrawa NaTuRALIST. [Mar.

powerful insecticides which we have. Reference has already
-been made to the change in the balance of Nature which man
makes by interfering with the pre-existing natural con-
ditions through the cultivation of the soil and _ its
products, and this disturbance has a serious effect on bird life by
changing their environment. But more serious than this is the
effect of the wantonness and inherent barbaric traits of man.
One of the most appalling facts in relation to Canadian agri-
culture and the enjoyment of the people is the wanton destruc-
tion of bird life, especially in the West. Small wonder that the
visitations of grasshoppers and of other insects proceed un-

controlled when the farmer has killed off his best friends. Is it

a matter for surprise that one of the most serious questions
affecting the farmer of Canada to-day is the increase in the
number of weeds and their spread, when the greatest weed
destroyers are not only not encouraged and protected, but are
killed, because they have the misfortune to be living creatures
and so provide a target? Legislation is not the only remedy to
seek; we must employ the greatest of weapons—enlightenment
by education, and not rest until we make those who are dependent
upon the products of the land understand that they should treat
their bird friends as they would their human friends, and in this
way increase the pleasures of life and their allies in combatting
such foes aS destructive insects, mammals and weeds.

A few instances may be mentioned to illustrate the
unpaid and usually discouraged assistance of these friends of
ours. That large family of our native sparrows—lI do not refer
to the English sparrow, which does its best to drive away
most useful native birds, but to such birds as the tree sparrow,
the song sparrow, the junco and the dickcissel, etc.—as weed
destroyers they are unrivalled. Dr. Judd, of the Biological
Survey of the United States Department of Agriculture, has
made a comprehensive study of the food of about twenty species
of sparrows, and has examined over 4,000 stomachs of the birds
at different periods of the year from different localities. As a
result it was found that weed seeds form more than half their
food for the entire year, and during the colder half of the year
these seeds constituted about four-fifths of the food of many
species. A single bird will often be found to have eaten 300 seeds
of pigeon grass, or 500 seeds of lamb’s quarters or pigweed. As
they feed in flocks they are most efficient consumers of these and
other weeds. Beal estimated that the tree sparrow may consume
one-quarter ounce of weed seed per day, and, on that basis, in a

State the size of Iowa, this species would consume 800 tons of _

seed annually.
McAtee has given the results of an examination of the

bee 1911] Tus Orrawa NATURALIST. 217

stomachs of 1,154 Horned Larks collected in all parts of the
. United States and southern Canada. It was found that insects
constituted 20.6 per cent., and vegetable matter, six-sevenths
of which consisted of weeds, was 79.4 per cent. They occasional-
ly eat grain, but this is far outweighed by their destruction of weed
seeds and insects, and the destruction of such birds is criminal as
g affecting conservation.

Everyone appreciates the utility of the titmice and chicadees
as insect destroyers, but few regard the hawks and owls in their
proper light. Such species as the Sharp-shinned and Cooper
Hawks and the Great Horned Owl are certainly inimical to
farmers, but the majority of hawks and owls are either wholly
or partially beneficial. Of those which are wholly beneficial,
common, and destroyed on almost every occasion, one might
mention the American Sparrow Hawk (Falco spaverius L.) which
feeds chiefly upon grasshoppers and also destroys such noxious
: rodents as gophers and field mice. One of the best gopher and
grasshopper destroying hawks is Swainson’s Hawk (Buteo
| swainsont) common on the prairies of the West. Merriam

records three whose stomachs were examined and found to
contain no other food but grasshoppers; one contained 88,

another 96, and the third 156.
These facts, a few of a very large number which might be
quoted, indicate the practical value of such birds and the im-
portance of not only protecting them but encouraging them.
In forests this is specially desirable, and it will be necessary for
us to pay far greater attention to this aspect of forestry in the
future than is the case at the present time. We shall be well
advised to follow the guidance of those European countries who
regard the encouragement of birds by the provision of nest boxes
as an essential element in forestry systems. In good forests
there is little natural provision for the nesting of birds, and accor-
dingly these must be supplied. Many instances might be quoted
of the success of these measures in controlling insect attacks, but
a single one must suffice. Baron von Berlepsch, the greatest
European advocate of bird encouragement, gives the following
example: The Hainich wood, south of Eisenach, which covers
several square miles, was stripped entirely bare, in the spring of
1905, by the caterpillars of a little moth (Tortrix viridana).
His wood, in which there had long been nest boxes, and of which
there are now more than 2,000, was untouched. It actually
: stood out among the remaining woods like a green oasis. At a
/ distance of a little more than a quarter of a mile farther the first
traces of the plague were apparent, and at the same distance
farther on still it was in full force. It was a plain proof of the
distance the tits and their companions had gone during the

218 Tue Orrawa NATURALIST. [Mar.

winter and after their breeding time. In many of the German
states and other parts of Europe bird encouragement by means
of nest boxes is undertaken by the State, Hungary being one of
the foremost in this respect, at the instigation of Otto Hermann.
The value of encouragement in increasing the number of birds is
further illustrated by the use made of these means when they are
employed. On and near Baron Berlepsch’s estate, 90% of 2,000
nest boxes in one wood were occupied and nearly all of 500 and
2,100 in other localities. Of 9,300 boxes hung up by the Govern-
ment of the State of Hesse 70 to 80% were occupied during the
first year, and in 1907 all had occupants.

It will be seen, therefore, that. this question of bird protec-
tion and encouragement is one in which all lovers of Nature and
of our forests, and especially those who are dependent upon
forests and agriculture for their subsistence, as we are all in-
directly, should be deeply concerned. Our native birds are a
resource of inestimable value, practical and esthetic.

PusBiic HEALTH.

If the conservation of natural resources is for the benefit
of man and of the future generations, it naturally follows that
for such benefits, as may accrue from this policy of conservation,
to be utilized and enjoyed to their fullest extent, man himself
must be conserved. In other words, the public health must be
an object of conservation. It is useless to colonize if care is not
taken of the people. Of what use are these resources if there is
not a healthy nation to enjoy them? I may be accused of
wandering beyond the appointed limit in my treatment of this
subject and asked how the question of public health comes

within the domain of the naturalist. This question could certain- _

ly not be asked in any of those countries where such diseases as
malaria, yellow fever, sleeping sickness and other insect-borne
diseases are prevalent. Fifty thousand deaths from yellow fever
was the price paid by the French in cutting a portion of the
Panama Canal; the annual mortality in the Indian peninsula ~
from malaria is over a million human beings. The methods
adopted for the prevention of these devastating diseases are
based upon entomological knowledge. As Lord Robson recently
said in London: ‘It is the man of science who is to decide the
fate of the tropics, not the soldier or the statesman with his
programmes and perorations, but the quiet entomologist. He is
the man of science who of all others strikes the popular imagina-
tion the least and gets less of popular prestige; but he has begun
a fascinating campaign for the sanitary conquest of those
enormous tracts of the earth, and before long he will have added
their intensely fertile soil almost a free gift to the productive

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1911] THe Ortawa NATURALIST. 219

resources of the human race.’’ All who have followed the
recent progress of the war against those diseases which have
kept the tropics closed to civilization will perceive the truth of
Lord Robson’s statement. In Canada, however, we have not
these dread diseases, but we have others serious enough. It is
to one only that reference will be made as it is one in
which the naturalist is concerned. Next to tuberculosis the most
serious of the preventable diseases is infantile diarrhcea. This
disease is responsible for a greater mortality among infants than
any other preventable disease, and the importance therefore of
its prevention is apparent. The high rate of mortality among
children in Canada may be realized from the fact that for the
four years 1904~—7 the average infantile mortality per 1,000 births
in Ontario was 149.53, compared with 130.75 in England and
Wales, where thereis a far greater and more congested population.
The greatest factor responsible forthe spread of this disease is the
house-fly. In my address before this Society twelve months ago
I considered at length the relation of house-flies to public health
and the means of controlling these insects. In consequence, I
shall refer but briefly to this subject which illustrates the bearing
entomological knowledge has upon this aspect of public health.
Careful investigations by Niven and others have shown that
there is a close correspondence between the aggregate number
of house-flies in houses and the aggregate number of deaths from
diarrhcea week by week and that there is a closer correspondence
of diarrhceal mortality with the number of flies than with any
other varying seasonal fact, and that these seasonal facts are
capable of interpretation in the number of house-flies. Observa-
tions also have shown that flies cluster especially about the
noses and mouths of infants suffering from diarrhoea, and their
predilection for milk and sugar is well-known. Even though the
specific cause of this disease which carries off the lives of thou-
sands of infants in Canada each year is not known, it is enough
to know that the house fly is the chief agent in the dissemination
of the disease. Milk is also a factor in the spread of the disease
and the infection of the milk with the disease germs is largely
due to the agency of flies, as it has been shown that the bacterial
infection of milk can be reduced about 50% by protecting it
from flies. The relation of flies to typhoid fever is now becoming
an accepted fact and the house-fly is regarded as one of the most
serious menaces to the health of the civilized communities; its
abolition and control is rightly coming to be considered a neces-
sary step in the improvement of the sanitary conditions of our
cities and towns. Legislation is needed to prevent the exposing
of fruit, confectionery and other food supplies to the contact of
flies; to ensure that they cannot breed in the usual breeding

220 THE OTTAWA NATURALIST.

places, such as exposed manure and garbage heaps, but that
proper care shall be taken of such temporarily necessary nuisances.
The medical inspection of school children and their education in ~
the principles of hygiene are measures which will result in a
healthier and happier youth of Canada.

An enlightened public is essential for the bringing about of
these necessary sanitary reforms, which will result in a decreased
death rate especially among children and a healthier environ-
ment and the conservation of the people’s greatest asset.

WATER.

The question is naturally asked, in what way is the natural-
ist concerned in the question of conservation as affecting this
extensive natural resource? Many replies might be given to.
thisinquiry. There is one aspect in which not only the naturalist
but every citizen as a food consumer is concerned, namely, the
importance of the inhabitants of the water. As the problem of
supplying the people with food becomes increasingly important,
the value of fish as food will be generally appreciated to a greater
extent than it is at the present time. It is a matter which is
receiving and must necessarily receive careful consideration.
Our enormous areas of water and great extent of river and
stream are capable of providing, with proper care, a large amount
of valuable food, and the question is how to provide, conserve
and utilize that food in the most judicious manner possible.
First we must prevent the pollution of the streams and waters,’
this is not only a problem which sericusly affects the public
health, but also the fish supply inthe waters. The pollution
of streams and rivers is a ‘biological problem, for con-
tamination with sewage renders the water bacteriologically
unfit ‘without treatment; and commercial pollution, the
emptying of commercial waste products into the water,
renders it useless as a sustainer of life and so cuts off this
important item of our food supply which is under consideration.
The provision of hatcheries where the eggs are carried through
those stages in which there is so great a mortality in a state of
nature will ensure a larger supply of young fish; but, unless the
water is suitable and the young fish can obtain’an abundance of
food, it will be labour wasted. This leads to a subject the import
of which is hardly yet realized, namely, the food available in the
water for the fish. For a number of years this problem has been
receiving the attention of investigators with regard to the marine
fishes, and to a small extent in the United States in reference to
fresh water fishes. Recently, however, a real beginning has been
made by Prof. Needham, of Cornell University, of the study of

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the food of fresh-water fishes and the possibility of its artificial
cultivation. This food consists largely of the larve of certain

_ insects such as the May Flies or Ephemerids, part of whose life-
‘history is spent in water. At first sight this line of work would

appear to be somewhat impracticable, but when the importance
of utilizing so great a natural resource as our inland waters for
the production of a valuable form of food is realized, as will be
essential, then the relation which this question, of the scientific
provision of suitable food for the fishes, bear to the whole problem
of fish-culture will be fully appreciated. You may compare it
tothe growing of a crop; by the provision of hatcheries good seed
is provided, but does any farmer expect his seed to produce a
good -crop if the available plant food in the soil is insufficient ?
How then can we expect good fisheries if attention is not paid to

- theavailable fish food in the waters devoted to pisciculture? Fish

flesh is a highly nutritious food, in fact it is said to be an excellent
brain food; we may find that the conservation of this natural
resource may influence the clear thinking of the people!

In these few random remarks an attempt has been made to
show why the naturalist and*the lover of nature should be
especially concerned in this great question of. the conservation
of the natural resources of Canada. Conservation is nothing
more than a gospel of unselfishness, a lesson on our duty to
future generations of Canadians; no true citizen of this country
can fail in that duty by keeping silent if these great sources
ef natural wealth are plundered, not only injudiciously for the
use of the people, but wastefully by those who consider not the
present needs and future requirements, but their own personal
gain. Conservation, however, does noi Mean, as Many wrongly
suppose, the hoarding up of our national resources, such as our
forests, and the prevention of their full utilization. It means
use without waste, or with as little waste as possible. ~The sig-
nificance of this will be understood if you will remember that at
present only three-eighths of the timber cut is in the final pro-
duct ; conservation is the saving of the other five-eighths. Cut
the forests, but see that for every tree cut another is giowing to
take its place and fulfil its function. We are fortunate in being
able to begin at an early stage and to learn the lessons which
other nations have learned too late. Let each so work that
Canada may truly say:

“Carry the word to my sisters—
To the Queens of the east and south.
I have proven faith in the heritage,
By more than the word of the mouth.”

222 THE Ottawa NATURALIST. [Mar.
THE BIRDS OF OTTAWA.
By C. W. G. Etrric.

(Continued from page 206.)

204. Dendroica tigrina, Cape May Warbler. A moderately
sometimes fairly common migrant. The first have been noticed
May 12th, but they should be looked for between May 20th and
24th. Ina clump of fine black spruces west of Blueberry Point
they are then to be found, if anywhere; but they also occur in
Beaver Meadow, and in gardens, planted with evergreens, in the
city. As some were seen as late as June 7th (1885), they may
possibly breed in some of the thick evergreen woods in the
northern part of the district. Their song is, whee de de, whee de de,
whee de de, whee.

205. Dendroica estiva, Yellow Warbler. A very common
migrant and summer resident. This, like the Least Flycatcher,
Warbling Vireo, etc., breeds numerously in the city in trees and
shrubs. It begins to arrive May4th. By June 12th its nest and
eggs may be found. The local birds leave before August 17th,
but the more northerly contingent passes through till September
21st.

206. Dendroica cerulescens, Black-throated Blue Warbler.
This fine warbler in its striking livery of blue, black and white
is a common migrant and moderately common breeder. In the
woods on the east side of Beaver Meadow, or on the waterfront
nearby, a pair or two may be seen throughout the summer. Their
stay extends from May 6th to October 7th. Its song is a rasping,
rapidly ascending, dill dill dill dill dreer, or a harsh, tsreeeeeee.

207. Dendroica coronata, Myrtle Warbler. Abundant mi-
grant and rare breeder. This is our hardiest warbler, coming
first of all and staying longest. It begins to arrive April 24th,
becoming abundant early in May, and thinning out again before
the end of that month. In a spruce thicket at Blueberry
Point several were found singing lustily in June, 1909; indicating
breeding. The migrants from farther north pass through in fall
from September 10th to November 3rd. Song, a rapid, dee dee
dee dee dee dee trrrr, like the Nashville Warbler.

208. Dendroica magnolia, Magnolia Warbler. A moderately
common migrant and breeder. In the already mentioned spruce
thicket at Blueberry Point; on the waterfront, Hull; in the
Mer Bleue, they may be seen and heard throughout the summer.
Their presence with us falls in the time between May 7th and
September 19th. Their song is much like that of the Redstart,
dewee dewee deweetst, or ree deree di.

1911] Tue Orrawa NaTurAList. 223

209. Dendroica pensylvanica, Chestnut-sided Warbler. A
moderately common migrant and breeder. It is found in de-
¢ciduous second growth, and such spots in evergreen woods. In
Dow’s Swamp they breed yearly. Extreme dates are: May 6th
to October ist. The highwater mark in their migration is
reached May 17th.

210. Dendroica castanea, Bay-breasted Warbler. An
abundant migrant. It passes through from May 16th to June
7th (1907) and again August 28th to September 26th. This
and the next species, and some of the Flycatchers, are our last
migrants in spring. Its song is scarcely heard here; it is almost
identical with that of the Redstart.

211. Dendroica striata, Blackpoll Warbler. An abundant
migrant. Its chief travelling companion is the Bay-breasted. It
passes through from May 17th to June 12th (1907), and again
August 28th to September 26th. Song, a high, dry tsit tsit,
repeated six to ten times.

212. Dendrotca fusca, Blackburnian Warbler. <A_ very
common migrant and moderately common breeder. In Beaver
Meadow, Dow’s Swamp, Mer Bleue, Chelsea, etc., they may be
seen all summer. In spring they come from the 4th to the 25th
of May, reaching their climax on about the 17th; and in fall
the last are seen September 9th.

213. Dendroica virens, Black-throated Green Warbler. A
very common migrant and moderately common breeder. The
habitat of this species isin mixed woods, where some hemlock
occurs. Itssong. dee dee deeah dee, announces its presence
long before one sees the bird. They begin to come May Ist,
attaining their highest numbers about the 17th. In fact they are
most common September 10th to 27th. October 2nd marks the
latest date. The Beaver Meadow waterfront is the place near
Ottawa where one may look for it with the certainty of finding
itin summer. ,

214. Dendroica vigorst, Pine Warbler. A moderately com-
mon migrant and rather rare breeder. True to its name it is
found in evergreens only, and nine times out of ten in pines. It
breeds in the stand of somewhat taller pines along the river-
shore of Blueberry Point, and in similar locations, but owing to
its habitat, is rarely seen. It is found here from May 7th on.

215. Dendroica palmarum, Palm Warbler. The status of
this Warbler will have to be revised from that given in the last
list. It is a moderately common migrant only. I have taken
typical examples of it only on May 10th, 1905, at Blueberry Point
Aylmer, and September 20th, 1905, near Hurdman’s Bridge.
The breeding birds found in our district and reported at various
times in THE Ottawa NaTuRALIsT must go under the following

224 Tue Orrawa NATURALIST. mi [Maa

sub-species.. Song, whe che, whe che, whe che de de.

216. Dendroica palmarum hypochrysea, Yellow Patek
Warbler... This is an. abundant. summer resident, in the Mer
Bleue only so far as is known, but probably also in other similar
localities in the district. .I have taken them June 3rd, 1904;
June 13th, 1909; August 5th, 1910, when the young were full-
grown. They probably arrive here before palmarum, as a nest
with four eggs was found as early as May 23rd (1908). The song
is like that of the Chipping Sparrow.

217. Seirus aurocapilus, Oven-bird. A common niigtant
and summer resident. In deciduous woods, as Beechwood,
Beaver Meadow, etc., one or two may nearly always be heard.
Extreme dates of stay: May 6th to September 19th.

218. Seiurus noveboracensis, Water-Thrush. A moderately
common migrant and summer resident. At the pools in the
waterfront, west of Eddy’s mills, Hull, several pairs may be
seen and heard throughout the summer, as also on the eastern

side of Beaver Meadow. -Extreme dates: May 8thto September |

6th. One of their loud, liquid songs may be represented,
whitla whit-cher, watch watch watch watch.

219. Oporornis agilis, Connecticut Warbler. A rare migrant.
I have seen it: twice at a range of 5-10 feet, at, Rockcliffe Park
May 5th, 1906, and at High Falls, Quebec, October 3rd, 1907. ;

220. Oporornis philadelphia, Mourning Warbler. <A rather
rare migrant and breeder. It is a swamp-loving species; where
cedar, spruce and alder bushes, especially the last, are found
growing in or near water, it must be looked for. A pair usually
breeds in each of the following places: alders near Slattery’s
slaughter house, Ottawa East; Dow’s Swamp; alder fringe in
Beaver Meadow. and west of Blueberry Point. Time of stay:
May 19th to September 9th. |

221. Geothlypis trichas, Maryland Yellow-throat. A very
common migrant and summer resident. In willow, alder and
cat-tail swamps. down to the smallest, it is usually to be seen.
Its call, whitchedy, whitchedy, whitchedy, announces its presence
long before one sees the bird. It has also quite a repertoire of
other songs. By June 7th its nest with three eggs has been
found. It first arrives May 5th; our locally breeding birds go
by August 1st, but their place is soon taken by migrants from
farther north, of which the last is seen September 25th.

222. Wilsonia pulsilla, Wilson’s Warbler. A moderately
common migrant only, not breeder, although it may yet, be
found as such. | It is one of the later comers in May, not arriving
before the 15th. As late as June 2nd, 1907, they were abundant
at Ottawa East. The last have been seen September 15th. Atte
song, rarely heard, is, tsit sit sit dreer 1dididee.

— sc or atts se e? e e ae te
y t

t

hi es

TO. ee ee ee ee
t

t

ie ei --

=e oo

—S et oe oe ee

eS ee a er COU ee,

THE Ortawa NATURALIST. . 225

*

86 223. Walsonia canadensis, Canadian Warbler. A moderately

common migrant and breeder. In Dow’s Swamp it may be

_ found all summer. Places like that are its characteristic habitat.
“Extreme dates: May 12th to September 10th.

224. Setophaga ruticilla, Redstart. A common migrant and

summer resident. It often builds its nest in vines and bushes

on and near houses, or e.g., in bushes along ‘Lovers’ Walk,”
Parliament Hill. They first come May 5th, and the last usually

depart before September 10th, but in the extraordinary mild

fall of 1909, some were seen as late as October 9th (G. White).

MOTACILLIDZ—-WAGTAILS.

225. Anthus rubescens, Pipit. A migrant to and from the
Hudson Bay and Arctic regions. It passes through about May
14th, and again from September 28th to about October 7th,
and probably later. As it frequents plowed fields, walking
leisurely and not flushing readily, it may by reason of its neutral
tints easily be overlooked.

MIMIDZ——-THRASHERS, MOCKINGBIRDS, ETC.

226. Dumetella carolinensis, Catbird. A common summer
resident. It stays from May 3rd to October 7th.

227. Toxostoma rufum, Brown Thrasher. A moderately
common summer resident, one that is evidently on the increase,
as in 1909 pairs of them could be seen in places where formerly
mone were seen. Formerly one to two pairs nested on the
Experimental Farm, now five to six. It arrives about April 27th
and is last seen September 13th. It is one of our finest singers.

TROGLODYTIDZ-——_WRENS.

228. Troglodytes aedon, House Wren. A very common
summer resident. Its nests are placed in cavities in posts and

‘trees, and in boxes in yards of houses put out for it, and is

prospering and increasing. It arrives about May 1st (earliest
April. 2ist, 1897), and the last are seen October 16th.

229. Nannus hiemalis, Winter Wren. A moderately com-
mon summer resident. Its habitat is the northern silent, moist
coniferous forest. There its song, like a long silver thread
entwining the dark green foliage of the trees, may be heard to
best advantage, especially early in the morning and in the

evening. In certain spots in the Beaver Meadow a few pairs

breéd, also in the woods east of the Rifle Range. Time: March
26th to October 18th.

230. Cistothorus stellaris, Short-billed Marsh Wren. This
species, once put on our list, and then removed again, certainly
‘belongs there. It was first found by Mr. F. A. Saunders on
June 17th, 1898. On June 16th, 1905, one was taken in the

226 THE Ottrawa NATURALIST. [Mar.

coarse grass and weeds along a wet meadow adjoining the Mer
Bleue at Carlsbad Springs, and on August 8th, 1907, one was
seen in a Similar place along the railway ditch near Blackburn.
Another one was seen in the little swamp hole at the entrance
to Beaver Meadow from the Aylmer Road. Its coarse note is
unmistakable.

231. Telmatodytes palustris, Long-billed Marsh Wren. A
common summer resident in larger cat-tail swamps. Along
Cranberry Creek near Osgoode, many of its globular nests are
to be seen in the cat-tails. On June 23rd, 1905, two out of
twelve nests investigated contained six eggs each.

CERTHIIDA—CREEPERS.

232. Certhia familiaris americana, Brown Creeper. A com-
mon migrant and rare breeder. On certain days, as on April
17th, 1908, many may be seen on the trees in the city, laboriously
clambering upward. Such days mark the climax in their migra-
tion, which in some years starts March 12th. They breed in
swampy woods, where there are large trees. The south-bound
migration ends about October 18th. Winter records are:
December 8th, 1883; February 18th, and December 5th, 1885.

SITTIDA—_-NUTHATCHES.

233. Sitta carolinensis, White-breasted Nuthatch. This
well known bird, so common in most places, is far from common
in our district, although it would be difficult to assign a satis-
factory reason for this. It is a resident species, which does not
preclude a certain amount of roaming about; they may be
commoner for a day or two, even in the city. In summer they
must be called rare. At the ‘‘Pines,’’ Ottawa East, they were
seen 23 times from November ist, 1908, to March 21st, 1909,
whereas only three times in the three summer months of 1907.

234. Sitta canadensis, Red-breasted Nuthatch. Of about
the same status as its congener. But, whereas carolinensis
prefers deciduous woods, canadensis frequents the evergreen
forests, and is therefore more numerous in the northern part of
our district. The bulk of the species migrate.

PARIDE®—TITMICE.

235. Penthestes atricapillus, Chickadee. This jolly little
bunch of feathers is a common permanent resident with us,
although often strangely rare in summer. It is commonest at
migration time and in some winters, when it will even come into
the city. During the winter of 1907-08 Mrs. Brown saw the
Chickadee seventy times, while only nine times in the following
winter. During mild winters this and similar species are often
strangely absent, and common in severe winters.

“sae .hCUh Oe eS
} .
y

1911] _.- Tae Ottawa NaTurRALIsT. 22

236. Penthestes hudsonicus, Hudsonian Chickadee. A rare
fall migrant. Early fall records for this species are: October

‘3ist, 1883, and October 20th, 1889.

SYLVIIDA—KINGLETS, GNATCATCHERS, ETC.

237. Regulus satrapa, Golden-crowned Kinglet. A common
migrant and undoubted breeder. On June 3rd, 1909, Mr.
Kingston and IJ found it in song in a black spruce thicket in the
Mer Bleue. This is a very thin, wiry performance, something
like the song of the Blackpoll and Black and White Warblers,
becoming higher and more rapid towards the end, as though the
bird was rapidly running from the centre of the tree out along a
branch to its end. J found it in June and August, also, at Inlet,
Quebec. The earliest date for its arrival in spring is March 26th,
becoming most plentiful in April; in fall it comes again from
September 17th to November 12th.

238. Regulus calendula, Ruby-crowned Kinglet. An abund-
ant migrant. Although much like satrapa in every way except-
ing song, it, to a great extent, keeps apart from it in migration.

It passes through here from April 15th to May 23rd, which latter

date would seem to indicate that some do not breed far north of
here. About May 1st their fine sonorous song can be heard on
all sides in Rockcliffe Park. They return through here from
September 15th to October 23rd.

239. Polioptila cerulea, Blue-gray Gnat-catcher. This
southerly form has been taken once by Mr. G. R. White previous
to 1881. Since there is an unmistakable tendency in some
southern birds to extend their range northward, perhaps this
will also become more common here in time.

TURDID2—THRUSHES, BLUEBIRDS,. ETC.

240. Hylocichla mustelina, Wood Thrush. This fine songster
is a rare summer resident. The Ottawa River is undoubtedly
the northern boundary for it in this part of Canada. On May
10th, 1908, one was singing all day in Mr. A. G. Kingston’s
garden; on June 13th, 1904, I saw one in the Mer Bleue.

241. Hylocichla fuscescens, Veery; Wilson’s Thrush. A
common summer resident. In Beaver Meadow, at Chelsea, etc.,
it is usually to be found in summer. Time of stay: May 3rd
(earliest April 21st) to September 19th.

242. Hylocichla alicie, Gray-cheeked Thrush. A rare mi-
grant. I have seen it in the woods beyond Beechwood, May 16th,
1905, and 23rd, 1907. It is the most elusive of thrushes and will
undoubtedly eventually be found to be commoner than supposed.

243. Hylocichla ustulata swainsoni, Olive-backed Thrush.
A moderately common migrant and undoubted breeder in the
northern part of the district. It passes through here from May

228 THE OrTrawA NATURALIST. 5 [Mar.

13th to June 7th (1907), when they are plentiful om the water-
front, Hull; in fall from October ist to 12th.

244. H ylocichla guttata pallasi, Hermit Thrush. A common
summer resident. One is sure to find it at Blueberry Point, Mer
Bleue, Chelsea, and similar localities. Extreme dates of stay are:
April 10th to October 19th.

245. Planesticus migratorius, Robin. This old friend under
a new scientific name is an abundant summer resident and is
increasing in the city. Almost its only enemy there is the
domestic cat, which yearly kills untold thousands of this and
other species. Something should be done to limit their numbers
in and near the city. The Robin may almost be called a per-

manent resident, since dates in every month of the year are not _

rare. A small flock of about four birds stayed in the city from
December 21st to March 4th (see THE Ottawa NATURALIST,
vol. XXII., p. 265). The usual date for their appearance in
spring is March 23rd, sometimes a week or more before, some-
times one or several days later, according to the season. In fall
many linger around throughout October, as if loath to go, but
all have usually gone by the end of the month, excepting a few
stragglers in November.
246. Szalia stalis, Bluebird. A common migrant and moder-
ately common breeder. Late in summer it often becomes
strangely rare, where it was common earlier in summer, and
later on becomes common once more. It arrives as early as the
Robin, about March 23rd (earliest 12th), and is as loath to go
as that species. I have seen some as late as November 19th at
High Falls, Quebec, where it had to associate with Snow Buntings
(Plectrophenax nivalis) at that time. North and South in close
proximity! 7

BOOK NOTICE.

THe NaTuRE PHOTOGRAPHER, January, 1911.—The first —

number of this quarterly, the official organ of the Nature Photo-
graphic Society has been received. Some of the objects of the
Society, which has its headquarters in England, are to cultivate
the study of Nature Photography in all its branches; to protect
the copyright of,amateurs and a3sist them in placing their work
to advantage, and to protect wild life. In the journal, favourite
photographs will be reproduced, and experiences of popular Nat-
ure Photographers given. Apparatus, material and books will be
reviewed—from the nature photographic point of view—from
time to time. The Hon. Corresponding Secretary for Canada,
Mr. C. Macnamara, of Arnprior, Ont., will be glad to correspond
with anyone interested in such work.—A.G.

t

; PAGE

_Acanthis hornemanni exalipes 200

Go Seat 200

_ Accapiter atricapillus.. 19

0: ROG OTIS «id joy 08542 Ges 180

iy EOS nl ne hn rac 19, 180

: Actitis WRECUMIRTUS oss. 178

a m pedatum......... 67

_ Aschmophorus occidentalts.... 155

| Abciacus hirundinis......... 144

gialitis semipalmata.. 179

; Agelaius pheniceus......3.. 198

2 a ee 160

Ammodramus savannarum

UEMESoe 2 ce se 201

Ampelis cedrorum.......... 20

Y OT ES ae 20

Anas MME PCS co ess 159

Ay 159

* platyrhynchos......... 159

Anderson, J. R., notes by.23, 108,

109, 128

memeaticte PNStinict.........- 2. . 124

Antrostomus voctferus....... 185

Anthus rubescens,.......... 225

' Ardea herodias........... 18, 163

Aquila chrysaetos........... 181

Archulochus colubris.. 185
Archibuteo lagopus " sancti-

SS ee 181

Arctobolus onondago......... 95

Arenaria ANECT PLES... oo = 179

Arquatella maritima.. 177

Asio wilsonianus......... 19,182

Ror GGCEPTTINUs. 6%... ... 19, 42

OE IMEUUIMCUS. ©. cos sss. 182

Aspidium acrostichoides..... 70

CYISIAIUM. 5.8... . 71

*: _ marginale........ 71

“ noveboracense..... 71

= spinulosum....... 71

ie Thelypterts....... 70

© appa peel eh 53.69

platyneuron.. . 88

= trichomanes...... 87

THe Orrawa NATURALIST.

INDEX

TO THE
OTTAWA NATURALIST, VOL. XXIV, 1910- 11.

PAGE
Astragalinus tristts.......... 200
Astur atricapillus........... 180
Baldpate* 28 arate ae 160
Bastlona tmperialis......... 94
Bathyurus superbus sp. nov... 129
Bai tern: tsrcSe- auc een 18, 163
ms LGaeta soe eee eee 163
Bards of Alhertac .. i a: 21
Bird Migration in Northern
British Columbia......... 116

Bird Notes, A few winter.. 20
Birds, Distribution and Mig: =
ration of North una ames
Shore, notice of: «...... 4
Birds of New York, notice of 62

Birds of Ottawa 152, 176, 198, 222
Birds observed at Sherbrooke,
Que., Spring migration,
1 OOS 5 it ta aca a eee 55
Birds, Stomach contents of
some Canadians.) ss.» 18
Birds, Winter, at Point Pelee,
Onti?) (eee eee ee 35
Birds, Winter, in Hochelaga
and Compton Counties,
Ree re SENET ES 38
Blackbird. Red-w cediaas 198.
i Rusty.. aa , 199
Black Rail in Ontario.. .20, 44
Black Squirrel. 175
Blue bitds otis a hn See 228
Bobolink cee oh evi eres 198
Bombycilla garrulay.. 2 isp 205
cedrorum.. .23.... 205
Bonasa umbellus togata....18, 179

Book Notices. .62, 80, 96, 110. 166

207, 228

Botaurus lentiginosus.. ay 163
Botrychium lanceolatum... 101
matricar1@...... 98

> obliquum.,....... 97

os ramosum........ 98

ce

Simeplet cine Po 99

230 THe Ortawa NATURALIST. -
PAGE | PAGE
Botanical Branch, meetingof 23 —— Cliff Swallows, a colony of.. 143
Botany, Field Notes of Cana- | > Clat-Mosses = ...2 sano Popes
Gigi. Satan cece ee oe ae 138 Coccyzus americanus........ 183
Brake, Purple Cliff......... 90. | it erythrophthalmus... 183 —
oe aenaer Glitt 200. ' 90 laptes auratus luteus...... 185
Bratiine vot cee «hk eee 163 Co lymbus auritus., <9. 18; 156
Branta canadensis.......... 162 holboelli....... 18,155
¢ Bernicla i feg kts 163 Compsothlypis americana us-
Brown “parasber.¢2/.0 «ie ate 225 NEG IOS, «Ss Oe 206
Brown, W. J., article by.... 145 Conservation, or the Protec-
Bubo virgimanus........... 183 tion of Nature.7..2) ee 209
Butile=head eAaee 5 ree ake 161 Coote... als «Je 176
Bunting, Lbatchy: aga eee 203 Coral Root, Yellow-flowered
LLO Wee iors ies NS et 201 variety of large... es 44
Buteo borealis........ 000... 180 Cormorant: ¢. 2c. ee
P SIAVSSIPRM Se eit es 19 s Double-crested... 158
(SP AUINEGIAS HAWK: waste sce 181 Correspondence. «34 Sane 23, 109
AS PMY PIT US sor ais weg os 181 Corvus brachyrhynchos....-.. 198
Butorides virescens.......... 163 “ corax princtpalis..... 198
Biriber- bal * okt sc 0). saat) ok ete 161 Coturnicops noveboracensts... 176
Couricil, 1910-191 TSS noe fA
Canachites canadensis canace. 179 Council, Report of= sarees 8
canadensis....... 18 Cowbird:. :3 °° 2.22 =e 198
Canadian Species of Thalic- Crane, Whooping........... 22
rity ee eee 25 252 Cratzegi of the Ottawa Dis-
Calcarius lapponicus........ 201 trict, Preliminary list of
Calidris leucoph@a.......... 178 thes.)....71 55... ae 126
Camptosorus rhizophyllus.... 87 Creeper; Brown. | 7a 226
Carpodacus purpureus....... 199 Criddle, Norman, articles by. 143
Gataiitales Pere te ek aie 225 164
Gedar-Bird'. 44-420. ws )4 + 20 Crossbill .0.° >. ees 200
Centrosaurus apertus........ 149 Ss White-winged 21, 200
Ceophleus pileatus abieticola. 19 Crow. hs.) 2 98
Gorvleralcyonion. oss s6 ot 183 Cryptoglaux junerea richard-
Certhia familzaris americana. 226 SOUL... $e aa eee 182
‘‘Chazy,’”’ Formation in Vici- > acadica......... 182
nity of Ottawa, Prelimi- Cuckoo, Yellow- billed. 183
nary Notes on the........ 189 * Black-billed.. . 183
Chetura pelagica........... 185 Cyanocitta cristata.......... 187
Charadrius dominicus....... 178 Giystabiotis fragilis >. fae 72
Charitonetto albeola......... 161 rs bulbifera...:..... TZ
Chaulelasmus streperus...... 159
Chebechet tees: ses ee eae 186 Dafila.acuia....7 = ae 160
Chen cerulescens........... 162 Dendroica aeshva. ©... pane 222
‘* hyperbosea nivalis..... 162 caerulescens...... 222
Chewinls.- tree a cate). ates nt 203 a coronata.. oa 222
Chicddees 2 3oF.. =. ee as 226 - castaneds a. eee 223
= Hudsonian.. wich oes ROE % fusca... eee 223
Chordetles virginianus.. Los ‘ magnolia... 222
Circus hudsonius......... -18, 180 * palmarum... 223
Cistothorus stellaris......... 225 ¢ palmarum hypoch-
Clark, Geo. H., article by... 57 TYSOG. ... Sean 224
Clangula clangula americana. 161 é. pennsylvanica..... 223
Clarke, T. E., erp Re- : r sivtaia.. a3 sen 223
port of Council DY... Brees yey, < Ugrina.. ns aeeee 222
Clay. Nodulesticvie sci cee a 147 eo UViZOTSV...., ea 223

Dendroica” WRYONS Je eo rons ook 223

F Beirpieissel:: 258 ps. oe 203
_ . Dicksonia punctilobula..... net Oe
0S be a i 156
-. Dodge, Charles K., article by 45
ae Dolictonyx oryzivorus Mie sitps 198
* Dove, Mourning............ 180
Dowitcher................. 177

~Dryobates pubescens medianus 184
tA villosus leucomelas. 184

Duck, See 159

Black-legged Black... 159

a 159

pies Canvas-back......... 160

eee weLesser ocaup......... 161

Ree bome-tailed....:.:..: ' 161

Peper CUSHCAC 02. a. 5: 160

eebmeingo-—necked....... .\ 161

I 0 5 162

S50 a rr 161

BEV OOGS.. 5.057, c's... - 160

Du metella carolinensis.. 225

Eagle, olde Ao ea 181

= ie a ae 181

=e migratorius....... 179

Hager, American......-.-... 161

a 161

= Eifrig, C. W. G., articles by, 18, 22

152, 176, 198, 222

4 E mpidonax flaviventris Satane 5 186

7 minimus........ 186

#: tratllit alnorum.. 186
; Entomological Branch, Re-

0 Ea eee 119
Entomological Branch, meet-

; | 2S SAS ee 40
x Entomological Society of On-
= tario, 40th Annual Report

: aE, HOICEIOL =. =. .5.-).. . 1,» EC

Entomological Society of On-

- tario, annual meeting of... 167
; Ereunetes pusillus.......... 178
Erismatura jamatcensis..... 162
; Euphagus corolinus......... 199
. Euoplocephalus, new generic
: gt 2 ae > bie eee 151
waiwon detersa... 22... 106
ee PerSONAIGS.2 = es ss 106
Excursions. ...23, 41, 60, 76, 93,
; 118, 146
| Falco columbartus.”......... 181
““ peregrinus anatum..... 181
“ rusticolus gyrfalco..... 181
ee SPOLVerIUs Safes. « 19,181

PAGE

Fern, Adder’s Tongue....... 103
13 a ee ee as eee 68

‘ Bladder Bulblet...... 72
2,7 GGHTISUMaSS) 3 lea Ae 70

‘““ Fragrant Shield:...... 90

‘** Goldie’s Shield... ..... 70

™ Spel Oly eaeha ss ee Sey 70

‘u" Hay Stentedics. 2265 89

‘““ Larch-leaved Grape... 102

“. -—Maideshiairs= 12s. $37. 67

‘*” ’ Marsh Shield.: 2... ; 70

‘* - Matricary Grape...... 101

“ Narrow. Beach. >20. 89

Sit New Woek i 0tet ce 71

Yc: ake Le a he eee 68

On Osieich.c 3 aie 72

‘“‘ Polypody, or Rock.... 68

“s*\ Priskiy=Shield jo 282 te 71

ne SEAR GY ALS. cere oe 67

se SIMeLEhS 22 Giese ae eee 68

4 SERSIOLVESs ie soe ee (i.

‘““. Ternate. Grape. pemayer 5 (2)7/
“Virginia Rattlesnake. 97
‘Walking Leaf.. 87
Fern Hunting in Ontario. 65, 86,
97

Field-Naturalists’ Club, a new 208
Finch; Purple: :-3 es: 5k s 199

Fishes of Labrador, notice of 112
Fletcher Memorial Fountain,

unveiling of 235 4544' 81
Flicker, Northern. .....7.= 185
Flora of the Nerepis Marsh,

N.B., notes, on thes. 32.) 121
Flycatcher, Alderts, sateen 186

Crested.. Aa." WL BO
east Sasa 186
is Olive-sided...... 186
F Yellow-bellied... 186
Fly Nuisance, How to deal

With nna ee. 79
Fratercula arctica... ...>.... 156
Fulica americana........... 176
Gallinago delicata........... 177
Gallinule, Florida.......... 176
Gallinula galeata........... 176
Ganhet azar 6 ea 158
Gavia tmberic. Sao. See 8 18, 156

stellates meio 3) 2 eeeean 156
Geothlypts trichas........... 224
Gibson, Arthur, Treasurer,

Statement of. ... S200 it)
Gibson, Arthur, notes by..94, 95
Gadwelli. Ae Pee 159
Gnat-catcher, Blue-gray 227

Set Oe PS Se Oe
* REG Gx ae
232 Tue OTTawa NATURALIST. ° ~ [Mar.
PAGE PAGE
Godwit, Hudsonian........ 178 Hesperiphona vespertina. ..19, 199
ts At DIGG. 2 hese ars 178 Hewitt, C. Gordon, articles
Golden-eye, American.....21, 161 Dye 0). 005 30, 209
Goldfinch. 2k noe he 200 Hibuscus opulifolius......... 37
Goose elie saree peabiee © oo 162 Holmes; R:, note byos2 ee . 44
eats 60712: LP Carael Wine Fee 162 House Flies and the Public
Greater Snow 162 Health | os. Ae = 2g eee 30
Goshawi-2. Ber era: 19, 180 House Fly, Musca domestica
Grackle <Brotzeds <2 Fria 6 199 L.,/notaceé-of . “Sas Bee 110
Grebe, Holbeell’s......... 18,155 Hummingbird, Ruby-throat-
Hornedzn. ) suctei 1S 9056: 3). cede i an 185
ey EIB eG 2 ASS 156 H pt cetedadlon migra surin-
74 Red-necked......... 155 DMNENSAS... 3 oo 0a Cee 158
Up) Wester gory 5: Sen's 155 Hylocichla alicé@ si Bae 2208
Greene, Edward L., articles fuscescens.. 2 are
DY Seen ae D5 2 158 aes guttata pallasi.. es
Groh, H., articles by..64, 126, 168 a mustelina........ 227
Grosbeak, Evening....... 19, 21, re ustulata swatnsoni 227
199
“ Icterus galbula:.. 725 see 199
PATIOS. oe sd en ee 19,199 :
fi Pica tiearieds 2. 28S Imperial Moth... votes a ee
Insects of New Jersey, List of
Grouse, 1CanadGan cn Grete cet 3s 179
“ Canadien Ruled 8179 the, n0Otice.of =, wens eee 207
“i tries te er Lridoprocne gael ints Sheree nt
RCE WOT ee sotelus arenicola, sp. NOV...
Gull, sae Sg SASOANAD 5 a [xobrychus extlts... ©... seas 163
1 LCT LIS tag Ates nae ae 157 #
“Great iene Aer eqs 7 qacger, Parasitic: seo ee ae a
“ Ring-billed........... 157 J2y) RUS «22> ae He
Gussow, H. T., article by.... 113 ae ae on Ses ee
Gyrialcones ai. yas wap 181 Juncohyemalis... 2. 2. ms =
y Junco, Slate-coloured....... 202
Halieetus leucocephalus...>.. 181 Kay, Alfred, note by....... 43
Harelda hyemalis........... 161 Keen, Rev. J. H., article by. 116
Hawk, Blue Henrie esis: 180 Killdeer: ... . i) kane 178
Broad-winged. . UO ft Kingbird....o.\.... se geeeeee 186
fo) PUMOPEL EY ais Se bes 2 180 Kingfisher; Belted..c eee 183
Be oo 2S RS ee 181 Kinglet, Golden-crowned.... 227
fm asViepeSiiewee. 6-005 300s 18, 180 Ruby-crowned..... 227
Se Nios 3A ccc Me’ 185 Klugh, A. B., article by....: 121
SSeS eas = 0h Dan rw) PR 181 Kote 2. : 20 6 ome 177
vg WEREU SbHeR Ata ere enS 180
Red-shouldered...... 181 Lobipes lobatus.....0.abween 177
Rough-legged........ 184 Lagopus lagopus.......... 18,179
Sharp-shinned.....19, 180 Lambe, Lawrence M., article
SPALLOWiem-.~ he-<teure 19,181 [o) PASTE 149
Helodromas solitarius....... 178 Lanius borealis..... ss sake 205
Hemiptera, Ottawa records > ludovicianus en 205
oa EA See Cea. 120 Lanivirea flavifrons.. ees Ae
Herbarium of Geological Sur- fe solitarius.:...... 206
vey, contributions from... 37 Lark, Horned... 5 eee 187
Heron, Black-crowned Night 163 “\ Praine Horned sates 187
“ UBIVE xa thers tate eek 18 ‘*) -Meadow. .. =.) 5ioaeee 198
a Great Blue... ....... 163 Larus. argentatus.... .. 9 ee a7.
tL GAPE alegre otaarea 163 ‘* delawarensis.......... 157
Hirundo erythrogastra....... 204 ‘S.., hpperboreusx.a ee ee 157

Regt eras rin tata ce ee ee
i. Tue Orrawa NaTuRALIST. 233
aes ity PAGE PAGE
& <4 - Larus WGTINUS.. 2605 a a LEY Nature, Conservation, or Pro-
pe > philadelphia,....:.... 157 BECHON OF, pa 7d.%eo ete te 209
re ag Programme, 1910- Natural Grafting, cases of .23, 64,
. UM Mil Serie aie soso ss we sie ske a 188 "108
: Eepidoptera, Ottawa records Nature sa a The
0 PL SSR a 120 TIOUICE TOLER, « oA eep eee 228
F Leucosticte, Gray-crowned.. 21 Nature Studyos.. Ailes oor 59
¥ Limosa fedoa.. Ped sMN ss Hs 178 Nettton carolinense.......... 160
aS eee MGeMastcd.. 1... .. 178 Nighthawks: foc 8 eh ees 185
® Liparis Loeselit............ 103 Nutcracker, Clarke, in Mani-
Locusts, Migration of some fio Dek: Go 25) ba ea eee gees 168
ies EA 02 eg, Si oa 164 Nuthatch, Red-breasted.. 226
4 Longspur, Lapland......... 201 White-breasted... 226
x _ oo Se 18, 156 Nuttalornis borealts......... 186
s "-med-throated........ .. 156 Nyetea nypelaa eet. eee 19, 183
. Lophodytes cucullatus....... 159 Nycticorax nycticoryx nevius. 163
Loxia curvirostra minor...... 200
Be IOUCO PEF G:. 0... s 200 Odonata of North America,
| Lychnis coronaria........... af Catalogue of, notice of.... 110
_ Lycopodium, species of..... 169 Oidemia amertcana......... 162
: = deglandés.. 3.3 fo 162
Macoun, James M., article oe 37 ce ren
. Macrorhamphus griseus.. Fae ie perspicthGe Sie
Old Sqtiaw. 2 ia 161
: a 159 Ousil bil; 79
* Mareca americana........... 160 COGS SO trae eet
Struthiopteris....... 72
Marila TL A eae 161 Gatavin Natuint See Bul
americana..-....-... 160 1 eee no eas ae
“a etin, No. 6, notice of.. 112
5 ee ree 161
ts . Ophioglossum vulgatum... . 103
LTS ee ieee ere 161 O; li
: ce Bee hee 160 porornis APRLIESi spice Suse 224
: philadelphia...... 224
Sete Purple... 5... 204
. Oriole, Baltimore........... 199
Meaneitdse fc. on oP. 187 Odteundanicwe 105
/ Meadowlark............. 21, 198 See ae ae te cnipescktanee 67
Melanerpes erythrocephalus... 184 Gane ng er ig aE gp 182
Melospiza melodia.......... 202 panei net iy Cammint tee AoE
lincolm.......... 202 Phage 24 ests
fs Otocorts peta = a Saas ose 187
georgiana......... 202 “ t sexo? 187
Members, List of........... 3 Ott u be soheris vice
r Membership, Our........... 7 a ik SERRE UP ee 208
Merganser, POBERICAD.»-- »- =e Ottawa, Maps of........... 208
Hooded.. rae Otus asio 183
ae Red- fecneicd.. 2 159 Geeks bird oe a et ae ewe le ohare ek eee, eo 224
5 Millepede, an Interesting. . aS fe, Owl, Rarediciin: 7s eae 182
Mergus americanus......... $58) Po (one eee omen ee aan
if Z . Great. Gray. sta ee 182
Serrator ey,
: jy SES nS aa Great, Homed:*. nis. o. 183
Memowlia varia............. 206 Hah 19. 183
Molothrus ater............. 198 Long-eared grat.” Marea 19 182
Morris, F. J. A., articles by oo ee Richardson's. 37: 6k tak 182
_ 0 2 re 169 ae pea “pe dhe ate ne
Munro, J. A., note by.. Ae “ Short-eared...... 19, 42, 182
Murre, Brunnich’s. 43, 156 Mi Beagrie tS Oak 40° 183
Myiarchus Ce 186 Oa bis pees vets Se aia "4178
Mytochanes virens.........- 186 a: a ear etes
Nannus hiemalis........... 225 Pandion halietus carolinensis 182
Nash, C. W., note by....... 20 Passer doMe€SUCUS.....6-4055 200

234

PAGE
Passerherbulus caudacutus... 201
Passerina cyanea........... 203

Passerella iliaca.......... 20, 203

Passerculus s. savanna... .19, 201
Pelecanus erythrorhynchos.... 158
Pelican White. oo. ta ee oe 158
Pelidna alpina sakhalina.... 177
Pallea gracilis: 3.2 2). 2288: 90
Pembroke, Ont., Notes from 175
Penthestes ‘atricapillus Begs tp: 226
hudsomcus....... 227
Penstemon procerus......... 38
Percival, S. E., article by... — 59
Perisoreus canadensis....... 187
Peérsonalay. ienck yor Geetiok & ity
Petrochelidon lunifrons...... 204
IPE wee aWieodln a or, eens 186
Phalacrocorax pbs Bhi AS 158
diplophus.. 7S

Pialasapas fulicarius....... 177

Phalaropes in Western On-
EACID. cope Sete ee on bee 43

Phalarope, Ne Be 177
Sehr oe Bees 177
Phegopteris polutodiuitos® 89
Philohela mior......... 17 5, 177
Phlecotomus pileatus albieti-

1] 1) ae Pa eh on 184
BOE IC A. 7s. ork 2 a8 186
Picoides americanus......... 184

ye Gt CUCUS 2 AEE 19, 184
Pigeon, Passenger.......... 179

Pinicola enucleator leucura 19, 199

PPO UAL coins: Sections eee 160
Pig pie cS Sess Ses 225
Piptlio erythrophthalmus..... 203
Pirangea erythromelas....... 203
Pisobta. .batrditss. 6. 222 &. 177
- FUSCIGONMES: 22.38 aloe 177
MAGUIAIES SSE nee 177
PUENUTULG,. G2! ae 177

Plants Growing Wild and

Without Cultivation in the
County of Lambton, Ont.. 45

Planesticus migratorius...... 228
Plants Injured by Creosote... 128
Plant Physiology vs. Psy-
chology..ccr ee ahs ete 113
Plectrophenax nivalts........ 201
Pleurogne fontana.......... 38
Plov er, Black-bellied.. 178
Goldensaiiic a mie 178
‘ Semipalmated... 179
Podilymbus podiceps........ 156
Polioptila caerulea.......... 227
Polystrichum Lonchitis...... 70

THE Orrawa NATURALIST.

: PAGE

Porzana carolina....:...... 176

Poecetes gramineus...... > ZOE
Price, R. G., article ake: 55

Progne subiss.. 2 ange 204 -
Ptarmigan, Willow....... 18,179
Ping 7..5. 22 4S ee 156
Quiscalus quiscula eneus.... 199
Onermtntad discors; .2. 258% 160
Rail, Black, in Ontario... ..20, 44
SS) Kane... ..74 9 lege 176
‘Soraya 176
*. Virginia)... eee 176
Yellow. .~ =s\eeeeee 176
Rallus elegans.7...22 Wet 176
“UAT genianus.. oP 176
Raven, Northern.c2 eee 198

Raymond, Percy E., articles

by... 14-27 3 eee 129, 189
Record: Catch, Aj. gener 122
Redpoul: .--: (75) eee 200

Sve > HORTY 22525 rgke nel 200
Redstart 2, ae 225
Regulus calendula........... 227

.). Satrapa..°.)2.ee 227
Riparia rtparia....-....... 204
Robin .— 02 <>. 7a 228
Rosa alcea, .2:=.. (aa eee 37
vanderling.<. ~~ 3. “a3 een 178
Sandpiper, Baird’s Clop Eiz

Buff-breasted. . 178

sr Least. “Zee ewe 177

va Pectoral 177

5 Purples. see 177

~ Red-backed..... 177

a Semipalmated 178

i volitary;.v: id 178

; Spotted... tame 178

- White-rumped... 177
Sapsucker, Yellow-bellied... 184

Saunders, W. E., articles by. 22;
35, 43, 44, 148

Sayornis phave.. : 2... eee 186
Sciurus carolinensis......... 175
“ “aurocapillusy: thes 224

- noveboracensts....... 224
Sciaha stalis. i272 eee 228
Scoter, AmeriGanh:s,) => visa 162
Sure: 274 sta. see 162
White-winged....... 162
Scotiaptex nebulosa......... 182
Selaginella apus........2... 104

Seton, Ernest Thompson,
article "by ..\.. sa 2 eee a WW

erie tame TOr.2s:.4 0 22 < ss 151

~ to11} THE OrTtTawa NATURALIST 235
oes, = -
% i PAGE PAGE
-Setophaga ruticilla...+.... ei SEL Surnia ulula caparoch.....19, 183
AS eR eee 160 Svalof Seed Farm.......... 57
Monetke, Migrant v5... 205 swift, Chimney suns 2o Faenek 185
Ny DUGEEMETI. 2). 322". 205 Swallow, Bank............. 204
aici PINE). ou. . 20S. j3 19, 200 es bats: ieee ae 204
_ Sitwell, L. H., article by.... 123 > CTE ei epee .143, 204
Sitta canadensis............ 226 - Tveenh 2+ Sep. nate 204
EEENGETOUNENSIS. 0.0.5. 6 os 226
Skinner, Henry, article okie 74 Tanager, Scarlétows 38s a8 203
_ Smith, John B., article Oy 106 Teal, Blue-winged.......... 160
- Snipe, Wilson’s, nest of.. 148 ‘* Green-winged......... 160
See WWAISOI Si ie. ~.. fos it; Telmatodytes palustris....... 226
Beeemaeint soc... Wie, Pern, Asche 1 oh ache. gehen 158
0 rca 176 +> Blan Des oe rahe 158
Somateria dressert.......... 161 (, Somnonais. +. ees 157
fr spectabilis........ 161 Terrill, L. Mcl., articles by 38, 135
Spatula clypeata............ 160 Thalictrum, Canadian species
Sparrow, Chipping... .a.. 202 2) PEERS ariet tS ees 25-52)
ASTI se 200 Thalictru m canadense....... 25
ES POS GR eae eee 202 corynellum.. . 325
ee Meare Stl kaa 20, 203 = glaucodeum...... 54
a Grasshopper....... 201 Labradoricum.... 53
tS ancole se... 2s: 22, 202 leucocrinum..... 29
se Pieter S37 ote 6 21 zibellinum....... 30
on Savaiiniare..) =. 295 201 Terre Nove..... 52
Sharp-tailed....... 201 tortuosum....... 54
*: (oS ea ie 202 Thrush, Gray-cheeked...... 227
- SWAMP. Oe vis 202 Hiermih:; 738 nana 228
v “Eis ei ee ears Oe 202 Olive-backed....... 227
Y MESOGRO M2) ers, 201 Walsons2 5. aes 227
* White-crowned.... 201 Wood nhuer ere 227
iS White-throated 135, 201 Lotanus flaurpes: oan ae Oe 178
Spergula sativa....>........ 37 4 melanoleucus....... 178
Sphyrapicus varius......... 184 Towher: ds: Seana i ge
Spiders, Catalogue of Ne- Toxostoma rufum........... 225
meme, tOtice Of... . ..... 63 Treasurer’s Statement...... 17
Spinus pinus............ 19, 200 Treherne, R. C., articlejby.. 124
Spiza americana............ 203 Trimga camntiss;. . Pee 177
Spizella monticola........... 202 Trilobites, Two New, from 225
“ BUSSETONE 22 1.5515 oa: 202 the Chazy near Ottawa... 129
5 PSU TT orice «, SAS no ois 202 Troglodytes aedon........... 225
Spleenwort, ie a 87 Tryngites subruficollis....... 178
POG: ts. 88 TurnstoneAetesct4 Gee 179
fi Little Black.... 88 Tyrannus tyrannus......<.. 186
paumrel, Black............. 175
Squatarola squatarola... ee p.) Uria lomiunge esi... 5 i iaivitan 43, 156
Sterna hirundo............. 157
wie paradis@a....... 2. . 158 Veory:.<. ice c an (eae 227
Stercorarius parastticus.. wSy! Venables, E. P., article by... 20
Stomach Contents of Some Veronica Tournefortit Roa ey 38
Readdian Birds... .. 2... 18 Vermivora celata............ 206
MUIIEPOTE Seog ou sje ine ee os 182 peregrina..."..... 206
Sturnella magna............ 198 rubricapilla...... 206
Siig OGSSANG.. 0205.0... we 158 if ‘treosylva PLU GR eae 205
Stereocephalus tutus, new gen- olivacéa... vic. t 205
- philadelphia...... 205

236 THe Ottawa NATURALIST. ‘[Mar.
PAGE PAGE
Vireo, Blue-headed......... 206 WaterThrush =. <22h).> ee 224
“(), Philadelphia nov wer.28 205 Waxwing, Bohemian...20, 21, 205
“ aRed-eyedrtn gitar» ae 205 Cedar’. Ph 205
fo Wat bitne. 2s eet ae 205 Weasel’s Home =i eee 59°
‘* Yellow-throated...... 206 Whip-poor-will........... eee:
Wilsonia canadensis........ 225
Warbler, Bay-breasted...... 223 ee pulsilla.. o.oo vibes 224
Blackburnian...... 223 Woodcock... -4: + sore UY fest ir /
eS Biackpolliccn yack: 223 Woodsia ilvensis............
“Black-throated Woodpecker, American three-
reSn te eae 223 toed? 252 184
ay Black-throated i Arctic three-
Bike ke eee 222 toéd=eaae 19, 184
“ Black and White... 206 : Northern Hairy. 184
4 Rape Magy istics i 222 be Northern Downy 184
= Canadian..4 252.0 225 oy Pileated...... — 184
% Chestnut-sided..... 223 Red-headed. 184
ze Conmnecthtcuty. 2H. + 224 W oodwardia virginica, Se Pl > 92
Fi Magnolias vs... cits 222 Wren; House... 1, 2 eeeees 225
7 Maryland Yellow- ‘‘ Long-billed Marsh.... 226
mle Oe Gare et aya 224 ‘* — Short-billed Marsh... 225
Mourningin 62, 224 Winter... 2S 5te ene 225
a Myntles nck 22k 8 222
ze Nashiville ai fos 206 Wellowless:; Sa.ck ehyeteeenrae 178
- Northern Parula... 206 A Greatiag eratcata: 178
. Orange-crowned... 206
a Palma eee 22; 223 Zamelodia ludoviciana.. 72 =203
; Pine: st An eesti 22S Zenaidura macroura carolin-
a Tennessee.. 206 ONSIS 1. re 180
* Walsomss k sBeSste.: 224 Zonotrichia albicollas ....... 201
a V ellow.5 sleek. i 222 > leucophrys. ..... 201
<s Yellow Palm....22, 224 Zoology, Elementary Text
War, two kinds of.......... 74 Book of, notice of........
Water Purification, simple Zoology, Text Book of Field,
methodsok: a wha j aes 148 notice (Of ~..aataa ee
has

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