168 The Ottawa Naturalist [Dec. 



ance of Parasitic Insects," by Dr. C. Gordon Hewitt, Ottawa; 

 "Scolytidse of the Larch," by J. M. Swaine, Macdonald College, 

 Que.; "Notes on the Breeding of Tropidopria conica Fab.," by 

 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. 



The Clarke Nutcracker in Manitoba. A bird has been 

 received at the Experimental Farm which has been identified 

 as the Clarke Nutcracker or Crow, Nucijraga colmnbiana (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 (Macoww)." 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 

 does its color, but of course it is mu^Wlarger.." Herhtert Groh. 



