THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 19 



his long legs away from the water, and I seized my first living scrutator. I 

 took several of them that afternoon alive, some of them simply that and 

 nothing more. At Long Point the evidence of what had been was unmis- 

 takable ; the water lines of various storms of different forces were marked 

 with bands of green wing-covers. I was too late for the harvest, very few 

 coming ashore while I was there. When sugaring for moths we took from 

 2 to 5 every night, and one night i6. A large gauze-winged fly was 

 attracted in great numbers to the sugar, and the scrutator was attracted by 

 them, for in almost every instance we took them with one of these in 

 their jaws. When seized they would drench the fingers with an acrid 

 fluid of the most offensive odor ; it was very volatile, drying rapidly with 

 a sensation like alcohol. In one instance I took one from under a board 

 on the beach, and in blowing off" the sand that adhered to it some of the 

 fluid struck my lip ; it burned for an instant sharply. The odor from 

 them leaves in a very short time. Does it not seem strange they should 

 remain so scarce in the country when they are landed in such numbers on 

 our shores alive? A friend, Mr. A. H. Kilman, of Ridgeway, writes me 

 that they came ashore this spring after a south-west storm in hundreds, 

 dead and alive. And we may suppose it to be about the same along the 

 whole north shore of Lake Erie, and yet I know of but three taken in the 

 neighborhood of Hamilton in 20 years. J. Alston Moffat. 



Hamilton, Ont., July 9th, 1880. 



arboreal auscultation. 

 Dear Sir, — 



Some time ago, while visiting the Dean and Williams Gold Mine, in 

 the township of Marmora, I was interested in observing the proceedings 

 of some woodpeckers which resorted to some half-dead pine trees in front 

 of my room window. I remarked that after alighting they would run 

 upwards in a zigzag way, stopping occasionally, and applying the side of 

 their heads to the tree, evidently listening for the noise made by a grub 

 while gnawing the wood. Suddenly a bird would begin to dig into the 

 bark, the rapid strokes of its powerful bill making the chips fly faster than 

 a lumberman's axe. On one occasion, by the aid of an opera-glass, I saw 

 one fellow transfer something large and white from the cavity he had 

 excavated to the interior of his craw, but the quickness of the action pre- 

 vented me from ascertaining precisely what it was. 



Thinking of this, it has occurred to me that the presence of a 



