70 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Oct. 



poisoned by these pleasant-tasted but deadly mtishrooms. In 

 this connection it may be worth while mentioning that the popu- 

 lar tests of the edibility of mushrooms, such as the blackening 

 of silver during cooking, the change of colour of the flesh when 

 broken, easy peeling of the skin, and a host of others, are all 

 perfectly worthless, and the mushroom eater who relies on them 

 is in inortal peril of his life. 



When we turn to the animal life of our wilds we find no 

 such deadly enemies as these. Although our fauna includes 

 a number of large mammals and about a dozen species of snakes, 

 it can be stated with the utmost confidence that, with the 

 single exception mentioned later on, no animal of Eastern 

 Canada ever makes an unprovoked attack on man, and very few 

 of them indeed show any fight even when brought to bay. 



Tonsidering first some of the lower forms, it may be remarked 

 that in many coiintries, insects are to be counted among the 

 worst foes of mankind. The pestiferous mosquitoes of the 

 tropics and sub-tropics, the tse-tse fly of Africa, and the flea 

 that spreads the bubonic plague are best known examples. 

 "We have our share of biters and blood-suckers, — deer flies, black 

 flies, sand flies and mosquitoes, — and it is hard to think of any- 

 thing kind to say about them. They make life in the woods 

 miserable during the finest season of the year; but annoying 

 as their attacks are, at least we must admit that they do not 

 inoculate us with yellow fever or malaria, sleeping sickness or 

 the plague. 



Our ophidia comprise about a dozen species. The only 

 venomotis one of these, the rattle snake, once common in Western 

 Ontario, is now practically extinct there, and as far as I know, 

 never lived in the Ottawa district at all. Without exception, 

 the other species are perfectly harmless. Some of them, such 

 as the milk snake, live almost exclusively on rats and mice. 

 Others are largely insectivorous, and all of them serve a very 

 useful purpose in helping to maintain that balance of wild life 

 that man sometimes disturbs with such dire consequences to 

 himself. One must then deplore the wanton cruelty and gross 

 superstition that prompt so many people to kill these harmless 

 and beautiful creatures at sight. 



The catalogue of mammals of Eastern Canada recites such 

 formidable names as the coug^ar, the wild cat, the lynx, the bear, 

 the wolf. But it is not among these that our "dangerous" 

 animals are to be found. The cougar, which reached the ex- 

 treme northern limit of its range in Southern Ontario, has long 

 been extinct in these regions, and while a powerful animal and 

 very destructive of deer and domestic live stock, was never 



