AN IMPUDENT THEFT. 313 



fall of the year, when the hunting and fishing- 

 grounds of the Old-man (Sea*la-ca, as the 

 Indians designate the eagle, on account of its 

 white head) grow scant of game, hunger prompts 

 them to be disagreeably bold. Constantly a fat 

 mallard, that I had taken a vast amount of trouble 

 to stalk, was pounced upon by a watchful eagle, 

 and borne off, ere the report of my gun was lost 

 in the hills, or the smoke had cleared away ; 

 indeed, I have sometimes given the robber the 

 benefit of a second barrel, as punishment for his 

 thievery. Numberless ducks have been lost to me 

 in this way. This eagle is by far the most abun- 

 dant of the falcon tribe in British Columbia, and 

 always a conspicuous object in ascending a river ; 

 he is seated on the loftiest tree or rocky pinnacle, 

 and soars off circling round, screaming like a tor- 

 tured demon, as if in remonstrance at such an 

 impudent intrusion into its solitudes. The adult 

 plumage is not attained until the fourth year from 

 the nest. 



MOSQUITOS ( Culex pinguis, nov. sp.) Reader, 

 if you have never been in British Columbia, 

 then, I say, you do not know anything about 

 insect persecution ; neither can you form the 

 faintest idea of the terrible suffering foes so 

 seemingly insignificant as the bloodthirsty horse- 



