May, 1921.] 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist. 



99 



drinkiiis: from the surface of the water. 

 \V. A. Linkletter^ writing in Rod and Clun 

 records some interesting notes which show 

 tliat t/ie Passenger Pigeon also drank from 

 the surface of the water. 



Tlie apposite portion of his article is 

 ({uoted below : 



"I wish to mention several peculiar- 

 ities which I deem no other variety of 

 birds have. Having lived with them for 

 thirty years I had an opportunity to 

 learn things about them which few people 

 ever enjoyed. And of the numerous art- 

 icles which I have seen in print in re- 

 gard to them, none of the writers men- 

 tioned any of the peculiar capers which 

 the pigeons cut. Alt/iough they were 

 not water-fowl, if there was no other 

 way to get to the water they would 

 ' light on the water with their wings half 

 spread and after drinking they would 

 clear the water at one flap of the wings. ' ' 

 This observer notes an important point 

 the wings were "half spread", doubt- 

 less to keep them dr}'. His evidence is 

 that this species also alighted on the sur- 

 face and did not drink while hovering over 

 it, for he says: "After drinking they 

 would clear the water with one flap of the 



wings. 



To sum up, the domestic pigeon (which 

 is descended from the Rock Dove of Eu- 

 rope) and the Wood Pigeon of Europe, 

 exhibit, and the Passenger Pigeon of Nortji 

 America esliibited, even if rarely, the ;iabit 

 of alighting upon water to drink. 



Perhai)s observation will show that many 

 ( ther species of the great Order Columbae 

 have similar habits. 



The occurrence of this habit in the gen- 

 era Ectopistes and Colum'ba shows that it 

 is wide-spread. Have these different spe- 

 eies all acquired suc]i a curious habit inde- 

 nendentlv or has it an ancient foundation? 

 Habits may be more or less transient and 

 the habit of the pigeons under discussion 

 is too rare to warrant specific conclusions, 

 but it sliould not be forgotten that many 

 groups of birds which are considered as 

 related to the Pigeons are aquatic. 



Pycraft'- shows the following grou])s 

 allied with the Pigeons in the Charadrii- 



formes (Plover-like birds). The groups 

 nuiy be separated as follows : 



Terrestrial. 

 Turnix (European and Australian Quail), 

 Columbi (Pigeons), Pterocles (Sand 

 Grouse). 



Aquatic. 

 T.hinocorys (Seed-Plovers), Glareoli (Cour- 

 sers), Chionis (Sheath-bills), Dromas 

 -(Crab-Plovers), Alcidae (Auks), Lari 

 (Gulls), Oedicnemidae (Stone-Curlews), 

 Charadrii (Plovers). 



HoYEs Lloyd. 



1 Rod and Gun in Canada, December. 1920, 

 ]). 754. 



-A History of Birds, Chap. Ill, p. 41. 



Freshwater Crustacea from Canada. 



Additional specimens of Gammarus lini- 

 naeus from British Columbia (see Vol. 

 XXXIV, p. 130), have been received from 

 :\Ir. and Mrs. T. L. Thacker, of Little 

 Mountain, Hope, B. C. They comprise 

 very young and half-grown individuals 

 from the following localities: 



Little Mountain, Hope, B. C, March- 

 April, 1918. 

 Sucker Creek, Hope, B. C, July 30. 



1921. 

 Nicomecal River, and two small creeks 

 running into it, about one-half mile 

 south of Langley Prairie Station, 

 B. C, August 5, 1921. 



In the article referred to above, p. 128, 

 I stated that anot.her amphipod, Ponfopo- 

 rcia dffiim, /lad so far only been found 

 in the sea. Dr. Chaneey Juday, of the 

 University of Wisconsin, Madison,, tells 

 me in a letter tlu)t the species (identified 

 by Prof. G. 0. Sars of Christiania) is 

 common in Green Lake, Wisconsin, and 

 has been found also in certain lakes in New 

 York State. Equally interesting is its oc- 

 currence in the deeper parts of certain 

 large lakes in the Scandinavian countries 

 (Denmark, Norway, Sweden), and in Rus- 

 sia, where it is generally considered (see 

 e.g. Wesenberg-Lund, in Kgl. Danske Vi- 

 deuskah. Selsk. Skrift., 1902 and 1917) 

 a typical, glacial relict-form, in the same 

 way as the schizopod, Mysis relicta Loven, 

 also occurring there and in certain lakes 

 upon this continent (see II. L. Schmitt, in 

 Rep. Can. Arctic E.rped. 1913-18, V<;1. 

 VII, Part B, p. 3). Some recent autjiors 

 think it more probable that neither Pon- 

 toporeia af finis nor Mysis relicta are "rel- 



