I goo] Smith — Extinction of Elk. 97 



antlers were still fast to a part of the skull, it was evident that 

 the animal to which they belong-ed died there. 



How this Elk skeleton came there would be a question for 

 thinking- naturalists to solve. Mr. Wilson is of the opinion that 

 it might have been driven by wolves and have mired there. Per- 

 haps the most reasonable theory is that it either died a natural 

 death or was killed on that spot by a pack of these blood-thirsty 

 brutes. 



How these great deer became extinct here will, perhaps, ever 

 remain, to naturalists, a hidden secret. The Indian did not anni- 

 hilate it because they never killed to extermination. If disease 

 overtook them, as it sometimes does the great white hare of the 

 far north, it is only reasonable to think that others would have 

 come to replace the dead, or the few, if any, left would have in- 

 creased again. We are quite in the dark concerning them. What 

 we do know, is that this grandest of North American deer once 

 roamed here, but it was before the white man came. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTE. 



The Painted Lady Butterfly. — An interesting occurrence 

 of a butterfly suddenly appearing in numbers sufficient to attract 

 general attention has taken place this spring throughout Manitoba 

 and the Northwest Territories, where this insect, Parameis Cardiii, 

 has been extremely abundant. Caterpillars produced from eggs 

 laid by the females have appeared in thousands, and natur2lly 

 have caused much anxiety among those growing crops of any 

 kind. The food plant of this butterfly in Canada is chiefly the 

 Canada Thistle, but it also feeds on other plants. Owing to the 

 scarcity of their natural food, the larvae had to take to a new 

 plant, viz., the Blue Bur {EcJiinospcrvmm Lapyula). A. G. 



LI iiARYl^ 





