THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 283 



'Tiny the stream, yet this broad valley has it carved," p. 87. 



"The writing off mv mind, squirrels and marmots do I seek," 

 p. 167. 



One passage, at least, in Woodland Idyls, will be of interest to 

 entomologists. It is that in which the author tells that he saw an 

 ichneumon light upon a spider, which a wasp was carrying off, and 

 deposit an egg in it (pp. 206 — 9). Does not this afford us a glimpse 

 into the life-histories of such insects as Zabriskie's prœdator, in 

 Ashmead's genus, Sphecophagns? 



A few brief quotations from the book under consideration will 

 set the author's style and trend of ideas fairly before the readers of 

 the Canadian Entomologist. 



The author's descriptive powers: — ■ 



"I saw a skeedoodlum of a wren, his feathers half gone from 

 moulting, his body not bigger than thirty seconds, yet with his head 

 in air he was rolling forth sound enough for a cardinal or other bird 

 ten times his size. *Cher-whitty — cher-whitty'." * * * *"A 

 cheery Httle cuss is he, who would sing were his tail on fire." (p. 42). 



''Fuzzy gnats dance in rhythmic mazes before my eyes, while 

 their cousin, a slender reddish-gray mosquito, probes my flesh, I 

 do not feel him until his body is red and gored with my blood. After 

 swatting him the itch begins. Niches they fill in the great scheme 

 of nature. Organs they have for performing all the duties of life. 

 Those duties are but few — to eat, grow and reproduce their kind. 

 Lowly creatures we call them, yet "lowly" only because we esteem 

 ourselves "high." (p. 79). 



The author as a botanist : — 



"The densely flowered spikes of the vervain before me, some of 

 them two feet in length, have but an inch or two in blossom at a 

 time. The seed pods or fruit of the past are below, the unopened 

 buds of the future above. The flowers are now close to the top, the 

 fruiting portion long, the budding part short, for its season is near 

 the close. Life, present work, is now in the flowering part; duty 

 performed, finished work, in the seed part; promises or hopes for the 

 future in the buds. Only the present blooming part, that which 

 is active, is beautiful. That is the part attractive to the human 

 eye, in the plant as well as in the human. What are you doing? 

 Be up and at work. Live not upon a past reputation. Chance not 

 your happiness upon the budding unlived future, which may be 

 seared by a night's hoar frost into something dull and dead." (pp. 

 46-7). 



