THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 19 



Having purchased chemicals, &c, for the purpose of thoroughly 

 testing it at Anticosti and Labrador, last summer, I give my experience 

 with the hope that it may be of service. Dried apples, such as recom- 

 mended, were immersed in Nitric Ether, and hung on branches of trees 

 on the second day after my arrival on Anticosti, and I visited the baits 

 that night and each succeeding one during my stay on the Island. Moths 

 were Hying in the vicinity, and several passed within twelve inches of the 

 bait, but only one was noticed to rest on it during the season. The baits 

 on Anticosti and Labrador were constantly visited by Diptera and ants, 

 and these alone. My want of success discouraged me, and I resolved to 

 add sugar to the bait, and it was only with this addition that moths were 

 attracted. I think, therefore, that the old mode of sugaring is still the 

 best for this country. My friend, Mr. Cauifield, tried it here last summer 

 with a like result. 



It occurs to me that a bait might be prepared to attract Diurnal 

 Lepidoptera. I passed two months of the summer of 187 1 on the Black 

 River, about 140 miles north of Montreal. I resided in a shanty on the 

 new Colonization Road, which follows the river through the mountains. 

 Water in which salt pork had been par-boiled, was thrown out on the 

 sandy loam opposite the door, and I noticed that hundreds of Papilio 

 turnus frequented this spot during favorable weather, thrusting their 

 tongues into the moistened sand when the fluid absorbed, for which they 

 seemed to have such an extraordinary liking, rendered them semi- 

 intoxicated. 



I have seen them flying from all quarters direct for the shanty. Many 

 of them, I believe, came from a distance of two miles at least. The spot 

 which these butterflies visited was certainly that on which the pork water 

 was thrown, and the effluvia resulting from this was doubtless the great 

 source of attraction. In A. R. Wallace's " Malay Archipelago," page 

 124, he says that the rare Charaxes Kadenii, a Java swallow-tail butterfly, 

 was caught as it was sitting with wings erect sucking up the liquid from a 

 muddy spot by the roadside, and I have seen several of our Canadian 

 butterflies sucking the moisture from mud on the margins of ponds made 

 for the use of cattle. 



I intend to try a few experiments in suitable places next summer on 

 Anticosti, &c, with water in which salt pork has been par-boiled, with various 

 other substances added,and the results will be noted for the benefit of those 

 concerned. Cyanide of Potassium is a quick destroyer of insect life, 

 and I recommend it for night collecting. 



