58 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



of the vine-gmb and other normal enemies, it has been pre- 

 disposed to succumb before the ravages of its new enemies. 



[Dr. Turrel's paper is thus reported in ' Nature,' of Nov. 19. 

 I could have desired nothing better than to know that the 

 rapid increase of Phylloxera is due to the destruction of small 

 birds ; but Dr. Turrel only suggests this : he does not kill a 

 linnet and find a hundred thousand specimens of Phylloxera 

 in what is commonly called its " crop ; " nor does he show how 

 the linnet is to get at the roots of the vine where the Phyl- 

 loxera is at work. A month previously I observed the fumes of 

 carbolic acid were announced as an infallible cure of Phyl- 

 loxera, but it was not said how they were to be applied. Before 

 crude hypotheses are given to the public, with the sanction 

 or through the instrumentality of Science, the subject should 

 be thought over, and the feasibility of the cure considered. 

 I cannot say that linnets do not feed on Phylloxera ; but I 

 consider it extremely improbable. Again, I am quite unable 

 to show that carbolic acid is not efficacious ; but 1 think it is 

 obvious that the infected roots must be exposed to its fumes, 

 and when exposed it would be much easier to burn them. 

 Nothing would delight me more than to arrest the insane 

 desire to exterminate small birds ; but we must be careful 

 not to ground our protection on hypotheses obviously unten- 

 able; and I think, moreover, it is injudicious (to say the 

 least) to place an insect and a fungus in the same category, 

 as possibly to be kept in check by birds. — E. Newry^an.] 



Fossil Insects in Canada. — Where the excavations for 

 laying the water-pipes are being made, near Rideau Hall, on 

 the grounds of the Governor-General of Canada, the workmen 

 have made a strange geological "discovery. It is a stratum of 

 fossil-rock several feet thick, containing the most accurate 

 and beautiful petrified winged insects : there are some like 

 butterflies, with the delicate fibre of the wings in a most 

 perfect state of preservation. — ' Times' 



Answer to Correspondent. 



Charles Clifton. — Sugaring for Moths. — Can you tell me, 

 in the 'Entomologist,' what is the time for going out to look 

 at your sugar for moths? as I was in the country the other 

 day and went out at eight, nine and ten o'clock, but was 



