NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Additions to the Odonata of the Ottawa 

 District. When, in 1908, Dr. E. M. Walker 

 published his paper on the Odonata of the Ottawa 

 district,* he remarked that further investigation 

 would no doubt add other species to the list he was 

 publishing. Indeed, the material he had used for 

 his work had not been the result of systematic col- 

 lecting, but had been taken largely by entomologists 

 when hunting for insects of other orders. 



At Dr. F. Ris's request I paid special attention 

 to the Odonata, and though my collecting was mostly 

 done during holidays I obtained a fairly good num- 

 ber of species, namely 41, amongst which are 12 

 which are additions to the Ottawa fauna. All the 

 captures were made in the immediate neighborhood 

 of St. Alexander's College, Ironside, Que., which 

 is less than five miles distance from Ottawa. 



Another interesting result was the addition of a 

 few records to the fauna of Quebec, namely: 

 Comphus spicalus Hag. and Libellula luctuosa 

 Burm. Cordulcgaster obliquus Say, Haaenius 

 brevist})lus Selys and Boyeria grafiana Williams, 

 are for the first time definitively recorded from that 

 province, while Ophiogomphus anorualus Harv. has 

 not yet been mentioned for Canada, though Dr. E. 

 M. Walker has seen in the Carnegie Museum, Pitts- 

 burg, specimens from Lake Nipigon, Ont.~ The 

 entire list being of more interest for Quebec, is to be 

 published shortly in the Naiuralisie Canadien. The 

 additions to the Ottawa fauna are as follows: 



1 Enallagma anlennaium Say. 



2 Enallagma cantnculatuiu Morse. 



3 Cocnagrion resolutum Hagen. 



4 Corduk'gaster maculatus Selys. 



5 Cordulegasier obliquus Say. 



6 Hagenius brcvislylus Selys. 



7 Opliiogomphus anomalus Harvey. 



8 Qomphus spicatus Hagen. 



9 Aeshna canadensis Walker. 



10 Aeshna interupta Walker. 



11 Aeshna umbrosa Walker. 



12 T etragoneura cynosura simulans Muttowski. 



L. M. Stohr, St. Alexander's College, 

 Ironside, P.Q. 



One of Nature's Wonders. One evening we 

 were sitting on Bon-fire rock, and watching the 

 children at play. All were happy with sail-boats 

 except one little girl, who was watching something 

 on the shore very intently. Jumping up suddenly 

 she came running up to us, calling out in amaze- 



~ *Ott. Nat., Vol. XXII, pp. 16. 49. 



fDr. Walker has kindly permitted me to use 



this note liere. 



ment : "Come everybody and see two sticks walking 

 together!" 



As we could not resist her eagerness we followed 

 her back indulgently. Following the little pointing 

 finger we too, saw, with no little surprise, two small 

 twigs, evidently fastened together, slowly moving. 



Then we turned to our naturalist. 



Carefully he explained to both big folks and little 

 folks, that the caddis-fly in its early stage had made 

 itself cosy and secure m a little sack, partly under 

 and partly between, those two little twigs, fastening 

 all firmly together by a secretion stored within itself 

 for that purpose. Then he suggested that the finder. 

 Elsie, should put it in water in a glass jar and watch 

 it closely for a few days to see what would happen. 

 She did not have to watch long, for the next after- 

 noon she called everybody again, exclaiming that 

 something was certainly happening to her specimen. 

 The whole household hurried to the scene. Out 

 between the twigs was emerging a little form, all 

 wrapped in a dainty casing. Then out of this came 

 the adult caddis-fly. which after a few struggles and 

 a few restings, fluttered around the room and then 

 flew gayly out of the window. 



M. E. C. 



Bide-a-Wee Island, 



Upper Blue Sea Lake, Que. 



July 31st. 1918. 



The Effect of Gopher Poison on Grouse. 

 Too often tradition passes current as fact and "what 

 everybody says" is many times accepted without ex- 

 amination or verification, especially when it agrees 

 with conceptions of personal interest. An interest- 

 ing example of the care that should be used in ac- 

 cepting or acting upon popular report or opinion is 

 given in the report of the Game Branch in the 

 Public Service Bulletin, Vol. VI, No. 12, July, 

 1918, pp. 208-9, published by the Saskatchewan 

 Department of Agriculture. 



In this report it appears that the marked scarcity 

 of "Prairie Chicken" (Sharp-tailed Grouse, Pedi- 

 oeceies phasianellus) throughout the Prairie Pro- 

 vinces was almost universally attributed by sports- 

 men and others to the extensive use of strychnine in 

 gopher poisoning. On experimenting with live 

 birds, however, it was discovered that they have such 

 remarkable resistance to this poison that it can no 

 longer be blamed for their destruction. 



Two captive "Prairie Chicken" were used for this 

 purpose. Upon the first day these were each fed. 

 in four meals of from 5 to 350 grains each, a total 

 of 1 550 grains of wheat poisoned with the usual 



