30 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



[May 



burnt to a powder. Our Iroquois Indians believe 

 that lizards bring on paralysis, while the Green 

 Snake, if allowed to coil about a paralyzed part of 

 the body, will cure it. Many misinformed people 

 believe that toads make warts, that snakes charm 

 birds and squirrels, that "Hoop Snakes" take their 

 tails in their mouths and roll after their victims and 

 that the Milk Snake milks cows, as it is often seen 

 about barns and farm yards, to which it is not 

 attracted by the cows but by the rats and mice 

 which infest such places. Prof. Cope once ob- 

 served a snake of this species which had captured 

 a family of field mice; one of these it had swallowed, 

 another was being swallowed, and the remaining 

 two were so tightly held in two turns of the snake's 

 body that they were incapable of biting their captor. 

 A meadow mouse is estimated to do damage to the 

 extent of fifty cents a year in field and orchard, 

 therefore this snake at one meal virtually put two 

 dollars :n a farmer's pocket, but owing to ignorance 

 combined with prejudice the average farmer in 

 return would have crushed the useful creature's head 

 with a rock had he seen it half an hour before. 



A snake is a better rat destroyer than a cat or a 

 dozen traps as it can enter cracks and holes and 

 destroy entire families of rodents. The Fox Snake, 

 which feeds chiefly on rats and mice, is often found 

 about farm buildings and in some localities is called 

 "house snake" or "rat snake". The Corn Snake 

 is so called because it frequents corn fields in search 

 of mice. 



Many of Canada's seventy-five or more species of 

 batrachians and reptiles enhance their value by 

 preying on stink bugs and anLs insects which are 

 not much subject to the attacks of birds. The 

 salamanders inhabit rotting legs which act as incu- 

 bators and brooders for the noxious grubs on which 

 they feed. The frogs, which are found in the 

 trees, meadows and ponds, destroy vast numbers of 

 flying, crawling and swimming insects, which if 

 allowed to exist would do thousands of dollars' 

 worth of damage to farm products. The turtles and 

 lizards also feed chiefly en insects, and just as the 

 horned lizards of the arid southwest are of 

 tremendous importance to agriculture, so the com- 

 mon toads are of greater value in the better watered 

 regions. It is estimated that in three months a 

 common toad will eat 9,936 injurious insects, and 

 that of this number 1 ,988 are cutworms. Placing 

 a bounty of one cent each on cutworms, the poten- 

 tial value of a single toad is at least $19.88 per year. 

 If additional toads were introduced into every 

 garden and boards placed in shady corners under 

 which they might hide during the day, the gardener's 

 loss due to insects would be greatly reduced. Toads 



should also be placed in greenhouses and propagat- 

 ing frames. 



According to the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, the yearly food loss in the United 

 States from the ravages of insects exceeds one billion 

 dollars, and from house rats and mice (not includ- 

 ing wild rodents) the loss amounts of $400,000,000; 

 and without doubt proportionate losses occur in 

 Canada. Protection should therefore be given to 

 toads, frogs, salamanders, turtles, lizards and snakes, 

 some of which destroy rodents and all of which prey 

 on such pests as potato, squash and cucumber 

 becdes and bugs ; click beetles, parents of the wire- 

 wcrms; slugs and plant-lice, that live on the lettuce; 

 Tussock, tent and armyworm caterpillars; sowbugs, 

 that destroy plant roots; crickets, grasshoppers, 

 locusts, grubs, worms, mosquitoes, flies, ants and 

 moths. 



NOTE ON INVERTEBRATES COL- 

 LECTED BY THE SOUTHERN PARTY 

 OF THE CANADIAN ARCTIC 

 EXPEDITION. 



The Marine and Freshwater Invertebrates, col- 

 lected by the Southern Party of the Canadian Arctic 

 Expedition during 1913-16, at various points on the 

 northwest and north coast of the continent from 

 Port Clarence, Alaska, to Bathurst Inlet, N.W.T., 

 have been sorted out and distributed to about fifty 

 different specialists in Canada and the United States 

 to report upon. The following is a short summary 

 covering the six groups which have thus far been 

 worked over. 



The Freshwater Worms (Oligochaeta) comprise 



about 10 species, of which two are new and all are 

 recorded for the first time from the American 

 Arctic. 



The Echinoderms, Isopod and Decapod Crustacea 

 include no new species, but the known ranges of 

 distribution of the various forms have been greatly 

 extended and gaps filled in. 



The Parasitic Copepods (Crustacea) comprise 

 five different species found on fishes and marine 

 annelids. 



The Molluscs represent 1 1 5 species, of which six 

 marine and one freshwater are new to science. Those 

 taken east of the Mackenzie delta are particularly 

 valuable, being the first specimens collected in that 

 region. 



Frits Johansen. 



