34 THE REPORT OF THE No. 19 



As the Summer advances, on niglits when the weather is calm, the whole 

 atmosphere seems to palpitate with the multitudinous calls, shrillings, chir- 

 rupings and sibillations of various orthopterous insects. The Naturalist 

 with a good ear who will take Scudder for his guide,* and endeavor to dis- 

 tinguish between the notes of the different serenaders will have set himself 

 an interesting task. 



Day and night the Naturalist finds entertainment and food for reflec- 

 tion. It must be said though that the pursuit of Natural History is not 

 always free from danger. 



It is the custom, you know, for Entomologists to spread a mixture of 

 molasses and rum upon the bolls of trees at nightfall, to attract Noctuids 

 and then, at intervals, to visit the baits, carrying a dark lantern and the 

 useful cyanide bottle. 



A party of Montreal gentlemen were engaged in this "sugaring" — as it 

 is called, in the outskirts of their city, when the sound of a pistol-shot broke 

 the silence, and the ping of a bullet sounded unpleasantly near them. I 

 need hardly say that their sugaring operations were abandoned for that 

 night. 



And this story reminds me of an experience of my own, in the long ago, 

 when I was young and enthusiastic. 



There was a wood about three miles from the town where I was living, 

 and about the same distance from any other place — it was a lonely wood, I 

 was accustomed to resort to it for Entomological researches. It was a grand 

 hunting-ground; and I knew every part of it thoroughly. I was never dis- 

 turbed nor molested there by anyone. I became very bold; and one night 

 I determined to go there for sugaring purposes. I took a jar of prepared 

 sweets, a dark lantern, and a supply of chip boxes; and I reached the wood 

 about eleven o'clock. I had fairly entered and was preparing for work, 

 when hang ! hang ! hang ! broke upon my ear. I was startled you may well 

 believe; but I understood the position in a moment; there were poachers in 

 the wood shooting the pheasants at roost in the trees ; and the men were but 

 a few rods away. I said to myself, "If these men come upon me they will 

 take me for a game-keeper; and if the game-keepers, hearing the guns, should 

 hasten to the wood and find me here, they wall take me for a poacher. In 

 either case I shall fare badly." So I thought discretion the better part of 

 valor, and made for my home as quickly and as quietly as I could. 



It may be asked, of what interest to Entomologists are the Loon, the 

 Fox, and the other creatures you have spoken of? To come to an answer 

 you mUvSt follow a concatenation, such as that which connected the "priest 

 all shaven and shorn" with "the malt that lay in the house that Jack built" 

 and say : — 



This is the Loon This is the Fox 



That swallowed the Frog That killed the Hen 



That fed on the Gnats That ate the urigs 



That troubled the Folk That leapt in the grass 



That lived in the house that Jack built That grew round the house that Jack built. 



I remember a conversation that I had with the late Sir William Dawson. 

 We were speaking of the Entomological Society of Ontario. He said. "I 

 see that you have Geological, Ornithological, and Botanical Sections of your 

 Society. We have regarded the studies that these pursue as of more import- 

 ance than that which you make your chief consideration. The whole is 

 greater than its part. But your proceedings show how one branch of Science 

 intertwines with others." 



* (See "Songs of our Grasshoppers and CricketB," by Samuel H. Scudder, Twenty-third 

 Eeport Ent. Soc. of Ontario, 1892, page 62) . 



3a EN 



