72 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist. 



Vol. XXXV. 



and between attempted feedings he climbed 

 around his box briskly enough for a por- 

 cupine. But his occasional fits of crying 

 were distressing. 



At last on the third day of his captiv- 

 ity I thought of a friendly correspondent, 

 Mr. Linwood Flint of Nortji Waterford, 

 Maine, who is probalily more intimate 

 with porcupines than anyone else in the 

 world, as he rears them for sale on a 

 ''Porcupine Farm". A query addressed 

 to him by telegram as to what to do with 

 a baby porcupine that wouldn't eat any- 

 thing brought the promj^t but disappoint- 

 ing reply, that it was impossible to rear 

 a young porcupine away from its mot.her. 

 This dashed my hopes of porcupine study, 

 and my only care now was to get the little 

 creature back to his mother as soon as 

 possible. For the last time I got my mitts 

 full of quills while putting him into the 

 rucksack, and just at nightfall I reached 

 the rocky ridge where I i.iad found him. 

 The long walk was lightened by hearing 

 on the way the meditative notes of the 

 first hermit thrush of the season, and a red 

 deer was startled from the path and leap- 



ed exquisitely over a log into tjie bushes. 

 As I emptied the little creature out of the 

 bag I had an absurd feeling of basely 

 abandoning an infant in the wilds. But 

 this was home to him, and as he moved off 

 deliberately into the darkling cedars, his 

 final leave taking was an angry flip of 

 his spiked tail. I did not blame him; he 

 had no reason to feel grateful to me. T/iat 

 niglit, when going to bed, as I was walking 

 around my room in bare feet a sudden 

 sharp pain took me in the toe. Jt was a 

 last physical reminder of the little porcu- 

 pine a slender needle-sliarp s])ine driven 

 into my flesh. 



Next day I visited again the place where 

 I had left him, and searched t/ioroughly 

 all around the spot, but discovered no 

 trace of liim. So I have no doubt that his 

 mother, who I am sure lives somewhere 

 in the neighboring rocks, heard his plaints 

 in tlie night and came to ;iim. And I like 

 to think that when I M^as looking for him 

 that afternoon he was safe in a nearby 

 rock crevice, with a full stomach, fast 

 asleep. 



NOTES ON CANADIAN ENTOMOSTRACA. 

 By a. Brooker Klugh, M. A., Queen's University, Kingston. 



The fresh-water Entomostraca have up 

 to the present received very little attention 

 in Canada. The only Ontario records, so 

 far as I know, are those of Dr. G. 0. Sars, 

 who reports on 16 species, collected at Go- 

 Home Bay, Muskoka, in 1907, by Dr. E. 

 M. Walker, in "Contributions to Canadian 

 Biology, 1911-14, Fasc. 2", and of Prof. 

 Acheson, who in "Proc. Can. Inst., Ser. 3, 

 Vol. 1" lists Daphnia PiUexf and Cyclops 

 qHadricornis as occurring in Toronto tap- 

 water. With regard to these last records, 

 it is possible that Daphnia pulexf was real- 

 \j that species, but it is more likely to 

 have been one of the D. Longispina group, 

 which are inhabitants of open water, while 

 Cyclops quadricornis is a name which was 

 at one time used for what are now regard- 

 ed as several distinct species. 



These minute crustaceans are of great 

 economic importance, because a great many 

 of our fresh-water food and game fis.hes, 



during their young stages, feed to a very 

 large extent on Cladocerans and Copepods, 

 while these same Entomostraca constitute 

 the chief food-supply of tlie smaller spe- 

 cies of fresh-water fishes, which in turn 

 are preyed upon by many of the larger 

 fishes. The Entomostraca are thus one of 

 the chief links in tjie chain of food-rela- 

 tions which leads from the fresh-water al- 

 gae to the commercial and game fishes of 

 our inland waters. 



in regard to distribution the different 

 species of Entomostraca differ markedly, 

 some, as Chydorus sphaericus, being prac- 

 tically cosmopolitan, while others are ap- 

 parently extremely local. 



The following records, obtained in 1920, 

 are presented as a preliminary list of Can- 

 adian Entomostraca, to which I hope to 

 add from time to time as my investigations 

 on t^iis ground continue. 





