100 THE KNTOMOLOGIST's RECORD. 



Tlie niglit was thinning, drawing back its mantle to let us see how it 

 had been labouring with the promise of the year. In the saffron- 

 coloured east the bud of morning lay ready to unclose ; but all about 

 me the spring was bringing out loaf and blossom. The blue-bird was 

 already on the wing, a bit of heaven on its back. A kingfisher sat 

 watching by the brook, and an early chipmunk eyed me curiously to 

 see what manner of man had ventured into his realms. Afterwards 

 he and his kind were to become my friends, and eat crumbs from my 

 table at the door of the tent. Thus I set up my housekeeping when 

 the trees were budding, commencing with the new year as proclaimed 

 by the season itself, having left my almanack and newspaper behind, 

 and resolving to live by the weather and the sun. 



The first day in camp there was enough to do in getting m}'- traps 

 in order. My setting boards were made after a pattern suggested ])y 

 my friend Mr. W. W. Hill, fixed in Avooden boxes with a high cover, so 

 that the specimens, while still on the board, could be safel}' transported. 

 Here was my large cyanide " store jar," and three or four smaller 

 " collecting bottles." I liad some trouble at first with the wide corks, 

 often dropping them in the dark, when trapping my moths. But I 

 surmounted this difticulty at last, by fastening the cork to the neck of 

 the bottle with a longish string. The old story of Columbus and the egg ! 

 I prepared my " bait" of beer and molasses with a care quite thrown 

 awa}^ for I afterwards found, the dirtier looking the mixture, the more 

 the moths seemed to like it. ' Sweet and strong ' seemed to be their motto. 

 And then I walked down the ridge prospecting for trees. In a camp 

 in the woods one has to consider the direction of the wind, the situation 

 of the tree in a partial clearing, its general accessibility, and freedom 

 from surrounding bushes. The kind of tree does not seem to matter 

 much. I avoided hemlock and pine, whether rightly 1 did not discover. 

 I awaited that first night with the nervousness of an artist on his first 

 appearance. I commenced to " sugar " before the time, and I had to 

 repeat the operation. The mixture was rather thin, and after a little 

 while 1 could not be sure 1 had " brushed " the trees at all. Impatiently 

 1 awaited tlie droi)ping of night's curtains, smoking my cigar before the 

 tent door. At length the right moment seemed to have arrived. I 

 stole cautiously along the route which I had so often traversed during 

 the day, taking the trees in a certain succession, one " collecting bottle " 

 in my hand, another in my pocket, a bull's eye strapped to my waist. 

 And there they were, Agrotts, L/ihophane, Scopelosoma, looking a bit 

 shabby from their wintering. The first specimen I successfully induced 

 to enter my bottle was a Scopelotioma walker i, reminding me of my old 

 friend of the British Museum Lists. I took one after another, on the 

 different trees that night, several species of Scopelosoma — tcalkeri, 

 tristiymata and luorrisoni, the latter plentifully. We have in North 

 America nine species of this geni;s. Of these, three belong to different 

 groups from the Englisli satelUtia, but six, viz. : ceroniatica, tristlginata, 

 tcalkeri, morrisoni, .s/dw.s and devia, " I'epresent " more or less nearly with 

 us the single European, to which latter species our tristigniata perhaps 

 bears most resemblance. 1 wish to interest the English collector in our 

 Scopelosomas. Are they not Noctuids and '• brothers " ? Of a truth ; 

 and they well illustrate the preponderance of Pala^arctic forms among 

 our North American Noctuidm, and the greater number of species that 

 we possess. Probably all nine occur in Canada ; but so far we know 



