THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 139 



about a mile and a half over a stretch of level country to the foot of Mt. 

 McKay. This flat area is open and prairie-like for a distance of several 

 hundred yards west of the river, beyond which it is a dense spruce swamp, 

 broken only bythe clearings of an Indian village, which are scattered 

 along each side of the roadway. At the foot of Mt. McKay we left the 

 road and followed a footpath up the mountain. 



Mt. McKay is a bold basaltic cliff rising suddenly out of the level 

 spruce swamp around it to a height of about 1,000 feet, its sides very 

 steep, and in many places quite perpendicular. The summit is about 

 i, 600 feet above sea level. 



Following the path up a steep slope wooded with a mixed growth of 

 small spruce, canoe birch, aspen and a few scattered white pine, we 

 reached, when about half way to the summit, a small treeless plateau, 

 some seventy-five square yards in area, and covered with short grass and 

 small herbaceous plants. This proved an interesting spot for Orthoptera, 

 and will be referred to again in discussing the fauna of this region. 



Above the plateau the sides of the mountain are for the most part 

 almost vertical, but we followed a level pathway for some distance through 

 the woods, and then completed the ascent by scrambling over the slabs of 

 a talus slope, finding ourselves at the summit in a scrubby wood of 

 Banksian pine, poplar, birch, etc., with small scattered openings, which 

 yielded good results in Orthoptera. 



The prairie-like area adjoining the river would have repaid a longer 

 visit than the few minutes we were able to spend there. The most note- 

 worthy capture made here was that of the interesting northern Dectician, 

 Idionotus brevipes, Caud., which is not uncommon on the prairies of 

 Manitoba and ranges westward to Calgary, Alta., and northward into Arctic 

 America. Mecostethus gracilis was common here, and, in fact, in open 

 places everywhere in this locality. Ch/oealtis abdominalis, Sienobothrns 

 curtipennis, Melanoplus femur-rubrum, extremus and bivittatus were also 

 quite common. 



The road through the spruce swamp was drained on each side by 

 ditches, which were full of water, and along which certain dragon-flies were 

 skimming back and forth in considerable numbers. The rank growth of 

 bushes and weeds along these did not yield much of interest in Orthoptera, 

 the chief species found here being Scudderia pistillata, Mel. bivittatus, 

 Mel. extremus and Stenobothrus curtipennis. From openings in the 



