1904] A Visitor from the South. 177 



shown at parts near the southern edge is over 20 feet and farther 

 in ov^er 30 feet. 



The submerged parts of these bogs consist of the dead and 

 decaying portions on which flourish many growing mosses, sphag- 

 nums. and moisture-loving shrubs. Many of these peat bogs are 

 found to be floating masses of vegetation from the bottom ot 

 which the disintegrated fibres as they lose their structure through 

 decay slowly deposit over the bottom, layer on layer of a struc- 

 tureless mass of cells which form a brown material not unlike 

 gelatine or soft celluloid. In the bog at Newington the surface 

 does not seem to be floating but resting on the decayed mass 

 beneath. The lack of drainage is shown in the filling up by water 

 of trenches cut in the peat, thus allowing of the extraction of 

 the peat from the bog only in a thoroughly saturated condition. 



A VISITOR FROiM THE SOUTH. 



A fine specimen of the magnificent noctuid moth Erebus odora, 

 Linn., was taken " at sugar" by the writer at Meech Lake, P Q-, 

 on the 2nd August last. This is a rare insect in the Ottawa dis- 

 trict. The species is a native of the West Indies and Mexico, but 

 isolated specimens have been taken right across the Dominion, 

 at St. John, N.B. (Mcintosh); Montreal, Que. (Bowles); Ottavva 

 (Fletcher); Toronto (Geddes); Orillia (Grant); Winnipeg, Man. 

 (Hanham); Beulah, Man. (Dennis); Calgarry (Miss Moodie); 

 Vancouver, B C. (Bush). 



Erebus odorti, which bears the popular name of the Black 

 Witch, is a strong flyer, and, as no instances are known of its 

 breeding in Canada, all the specimens taken are supposed to have 

 migrated from the south. It is one of the largest moths in the 

 North American fauna, sometimes expanding nearly seven inches; 

 the specimen here referred to is a female and measures 5 Vs 

 inches across the wings, but a male taken by Dr. Fletcher in 

 1876 expands 6j8 inches. This grand moth is figured in Com- 

 stock's " Manual for the Study of Insects" at page 297. 



Chas. H. Young. 



