1910 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 23 



It was considered that there is a v;eakness in the clause which authorizes a 

 Council to appoint an inspector, chiefly because the local man, from the very fact 

 that he is a local man, does not inspire confidence. The fruit-growers and farmers, 

 with whom, in the performance of his duty, he comes in contact, ask one another 

 the questions : " What does he know about the scale ?" " Does he know the scale 

 better than we d'o?" And further, the local inspector does not wish to risk 

 disputes and wrangles and loss of his popularity by condemning a neighbor's 

 orchard. On this account it would seem better to appoint as inspectors outside 

 men, and that the Government should assume entire control of the work. ,, 



The following resolution was then unanimously adopted : ' 



Moved by Dr. C. Gordon Hewitt^ Dominion Entomologist, seconded by Mr. 

 A. F. Winn (Province of Quebec), "that this Society, having heard from Mr. 

 Treherne an account of the methods and work being done by the inspectors, wishes 

 to express its great appreciation of the Ontario Government's arrangements for the 

 inspection of nursery stock this season, and hopes that this important work will be 

 continued with equal, or even greater, zeal in the future." 



SOME GUESTS AT THE BANQUET OF BLOSSOMS. 

 By F. J. A. Morris, Trinity College School, Port Hope. 



In 1905, my first season of collecting, I went over to England at the end of 

 June on a botany trip. I had already begun to watch for beetles on blossoms before 

 leaving Canada, though my chief hunting ground had b'een the bark of trees. In 

 England I knew that the latter game-preserve was practically out of the question, 

 as timber is far more scarce, and nearly all the woods are kept too clean for fallen 

 timber to lie or wood to rot. If I meant to do any beetle-hunting, it must be 

 by some other method, and I naturally made up my mind to combine hobbies by 

 carrying a collecting-bottle out with me on my daily botanical rounds. 



My first stay was on a small estate in Chislehurst, Kent. Here, in this garden 

 within a garden, while wandering through a wood of hazel and oak, I came on a 

 large clump of tall umbellifers in full bloom. I knew already from Fowler's and 

 other books that such blossoms were a favourite haunt of certain beetles, and I 

 made my way cautiously along a hedge of rhododendrons towards the clump. As 

 I did so, there rose from between my feet a dark brown hawk-like bird, that flew 

 up into my face and hovered for some moments in^ front of me; it was a nightjar, 

 the famous goat-sucker of popular superstitton, menacing, but powerless to fulfil a 

 threat, being, indeed, cousin-german to our night-hawk and whip-poor-will, with 

 all the furtive movements and ghostly silence of the creatures that fly abroad by 

 night and, hawk beneath the light of the moon. Like the nighthawk, it builds no 

 nest, but there among the round flint pebbles by an oak lay its pair of eggs. 



When first I got to the clump of flowering plants and scanned their broad 

 white discs of blossom, among^ numerous diptera and hymenoptera, nothing was to 

 be seen except a few butterflies, but presently I saw a large black and yellow 

 Longicorn settle on an umbel some distance off. On approaching I found two 

 of the beetles feeding and succeeded in catching one in my hand. They were very 

 active, as quick as sunflies and almost as wary, so that capture was far from easy, 

 I managed, however, to get a second specimen some time after. They proved to 



