326 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 



always associated together : wherever the lice were, there 

 was the ladybird. He was quite astonished when I in- 

 formed him that the aphides constitute the regular and sole 

 food of the ladybird, which seeks them out and devours 

 them continually ; and that he had been promoting the breed 

 of a pernicious insect, by blindly destroying another race, 

 which God had appointed to keep them down. 



C. Our friendly little winter visitants, the Crossbills 

 (Curvirostra Americana), are come. I observed a flock of 

 them yesterday, hopping about, behind the house, where the 

 washings of the kitchen are thrown. They were all in 

 mottled plumage. 



F. They are northern birds : I do not conceive that 

 they breed even in this latitude, but retire to their native 

 regions of snow and ice, the solitudes of Hudson's Bay, in 

 summer. Perhaps we may consider, with respect to all 

 birds that seek cold latitudes in summer, that those are their 

 natural regions, from whence they are driven by the incle- 

 mencies of winter to seek a temporary shelter with us, but 

 return to those countries again as their homes ; which may 

 be as delightful to their feelings as the tropical islands to the 

 Birds of Paradise. 



C. Here are some little flies flitting along : I have 

 caught one, and find it to be a delicate Day-fly (Epheme- 

 ra). Flies of this genus appear early in spring, and con- 

 tinue all the summer through ; that is, a succession of them ; 

 for they are proverbially short-lived. The Caddis-flies (Phry- 

 ganea), however, seem to have a much longer range; per- 

 haps the longest of all insects, except some of the Muscidce, 

 and a few beetles ; for they flit to and fro in the woods, be- 

 fore the earth has put off its mantle of snow, and withstand 

 the approaches of winter for some time, if I may judge from 

 last fall, when I used to observe Phryganece in the evenings 

 until November was considerably advanced. 



