The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



[Vol. XXXIU 



fishermen, who recognize the Caspian Tern to be a 

 new bird on the lake, to date within the last few 

 years. Indeed the earliest definite information re- 

 garding it was their report that three years previous 

 to our visit, a wolf crossed to Pelican Island from 

 Swampy Bay and destroyed all eggs and young 

 birds in the colony. The species was net found by 

 Dunlop when he visited the island in 1914 and it is 

 hardly possible that he could have missed it had it 

 been there. Capt. Goodman stated that, on Rein- 

 deer Island, Dunlop found the Caspian Terns breed- 

 ing as late as mid-August. 



REFEREXCES. 

 1 American Ornithologists' Union, 1910, Check 

 List of North American Birds, Third Edition, New 

 York 



2. Atkinson, George B., 1904. Rare Bird Re- 

 cords of Manitoba. Transaction 65, The Historical 

 and Scientific Society of Manitoba. Winnipeg. 



3. Bell, Robert, 1879. Report on Expeditions on 

 the Churchill and Nelson rivers, etc. Report Prog. 



Can. Geol. Society, 1878-79. Ottawa. Birds, pp. 67c 

 to 70c. 



4. Cooke. Wells W.. 1913. Bird Migration. U. 

 S. Dept. Agricul. Bulletin No. 185. Washington. 



5. Macoun, John, and Macoun, James :M., 1909. 

 Catalogue of Canadian Birds. Department of Mines, 

 Ottawa. 



6. Nutting, C. C, 1893. Rep. on Zoological Ex- 

 plorations on the Lower Saskatchewan river. Bui. 

 from the Laboratorie.'^ of the State L^niversity of 

 Iowa. Vol. n. No. 3. Article IV, pp. 235-293. 

 January. 1893. 



7. Preble, E. A., 1902. A Biological Investiga- 

 tion of the Hudson Bay Region. N.A. Fauna. No. 

 22. Wash. Birds, pp. 75-131. 



8. Rowan, William, 1915. The Blakeney Point 

 Ternery. Blakeney Point Publication No. 13. 



9. Rowan. William, no date. The Little Tern, 

 Blakeney Point Publication No. 17. 



10. Rowan, William, Parker, K. M., and Bell, 

 Julia, 1914. On Homotyposis and allied characters 

 in the egg of the Common Tern. Biometrika, Vol. 

 X. No. i. 



11. Seton, E. T., 1909. The Birds of Manitoba. 

 A Handbook to Winnipeg. Pub. by the local com- 

 mittee Brit. Ass. Adv. Sci., Winnipeg. 



12. Thompson. E. E. (— E. T. Seton), 1891. The 

 Birds of Manitoba. Proc. L'. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. 

 xiii. pp. 457-643, Wash. 



DOUGLAS FIR SUGAR 



By J. Davidson, F.L.S., F.B.S.F., Instructor in Botany, 

 Unuersity of British Columbia. 



Much interest has recently been aroused over what 

 appears to be phenomenal deposits of sugar on the 

 leaves of Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga taxifoUa) in cer- 

 tain areas of British Columbia. Although Douglas 

 fir sugar has been known to the Indians of the dry- 

 belt for many years, its occurrence seems to have 

 been overlooked by the numerous surveyors and 

 others who have travelled in the province; at least, 

 in-so-far as the writer is aware, no record has been 

 made of its occurrence previous to 1915, when an 

 illustration appeared in the British Columbia Botan- 

 ical Office Report for the year 1914, showing a 

 branch of Douglas fir laden with white masses of 

 sugar. This photograph was prepared from speci- 

 mens received from Mr. Jas. Teit, of Spence's 

 Bridge, B.C., who, in connection with his ethnol- 

 ogical work on the plants used as food by the 

 British Columbia Indians, wished to have an ex- 

 planation of the deposits; Mr. Teit also forwarded 

 samples of Douglas fir sugar to Dr. E. Sapir of the 

 Geological Survey of Canada, who had the samples 

 analyzed. 



During the summer of 1917, when the European 

 conflict caused an increase in the cost of living and 

 the introduction of measures to economize sugar, m- 

 terest in this phenomenon was renewed and m- 

 Icnsified by the appearance of a glowing account 

 lupplied to one of the Vancouver newspapers by 

 some irresponsible contributor. As a result, a num- 

 ber of people became quite enthusiastic regarding 



this "new" discovery and hastened to ascertain its 

 commercial possibilities. 



In view of the fact that many people in Canada 

 are interested in the phenomenon, and at the request 

 of Mr. Teit, the writer consented to give a summary 

 of what is known regarding Douglas fir sugar and 

 the factors influencing its exudation as deposits on 

 the leaves. All the information relating to the dis- 

 tribution and habitats of sugar-bearing Douglas firs 

 was supplied by Mr. Teit who, being resident in 

 the heart of the dry-belt and having an intimate 

 knowledge of the Indians of the interior, was best 

 able to secure the necessary data. 



It appears that Douglas fir sugar cannot be relied 

 on as an annual crop. Some years it is abundant, 

 other years little or none is found. It is therefore 

 regarded by Indians as an extra, rather than a 

 necessary part of their food supplies, but when avail- 

 able in quantity it is collected and may be kept for 

 future use. 



NOT THE WORK OF INSECTS. 



Previous to having seen the specimens, the writer 

 suspected that the sugar had been produced as an 

 exudation on the leaves through punctures made by 

 insects possibly aphides ; such as is said to occur on 

 Tamarix mannifera which, when attacked by a 

 Coccus, yields a kind of mucilaginous sugar — -the 

 manna of Mt. Sinai; but information to the effect 

 that only healthy trees produced the sugar and 

 that such trees were practically free from insecis. 



