92 Tiik Ottawa Naturalist. 



Erekia Discoidalis, Kirby. Some years ago a few specimens 

 of this very lare arctic butterfly were taken at Sudbury, < )nt., by Mr. 

 J. D. Evans, on 12th May. Ever since that time the leaders of the 

 Entomological branch have made great efforts to obtain eggs of this 

 species so as to breed the lanae through their different stages, to record 

 the life history, and to describe the appearance of the young caterpillars. 

 Although known to occur in comparative abundance at Calgary, N. VV. 

 T., no one could succeed in getting the eggs until this season, when 

 Mr. T. N. Willing, the Provincial Secretary of the Botanical Society of 

 Canada for the Northwest Territories, and one of our members, 

 succeeded in obtaining eggs which he sent to Ottawa. The eggs were 

 laid on May lo'.h and hatched on the 29th. The small caterpillars fed 

 readily on lawn grass, Poa pratensis, and several kinds of fine leaved 

 sedges, Can'ces, and are now growing rapidly ; the first moult was 

 passed on June 7th and the second on the 18th. The young larvae were 

 2)4 millemeters in length when first hatched, 5 mm. after first moult 

 and 9 mm. after 2nd moult. The'general appearance of these little 

 caterpillars may be thus described : Slender caterpillar?, whitish in 

 colour, with a dark brown stripe down the middle of the back and three 

 lateral stripes along each side. The uppermost of these is broken up 

 into separate elongated blotches, and the lowest has on its lower margin 

 the small black spiracles. Below these is a wid2, yellowish white, 

 conspicuous stripe ; the lower surface is mottled thickly with reddish 

 brown, and bears a narrow white stripe along the sides, lying just above 

 the bases of the legs. After the first moult the colour is darker and 

 the skin has many more bristles than in the first stage: after the second 

 moult the body is so much darker that the general colour would be 

 described as brown. 



J- ' . 



Ornithology. A Nev Birp for Eastern Ontario.- Mr. F. 

 A. Saunders reports the appearance of a Dickcissel, Spiza a/Hfricqna, 

 at the Central Experimental Farm. 



Previous to this, the only record of this species for Canada was 

 made at the most southerly point of the Dominion, Point Pelee, Lake 

 Erie. The presence of so distinguished a Southerner in Ottawa being 



