May, 1921. 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist. 



99 



(Irinkiiia: from the surface of the water. 

 W. A. Liiikletter' writin<>: in Rod and Gun 

 records some interestinjr notes wliicli show 

 that t;ie Passenger Pij^eon also drank from 

 the surface of the M^ater. 



Tiie apjxjsite portion of liis artii-le is 

 quoted below : 



"I wish to mention several peculiar- 

 ities whicli 1 deem no other variety of 

 birds have. Having lived with them for 

 thirty years I had an opportunity to 

 learn things about them which few people 

 ever enjoyed. And of the numerous art- 

 icles which I have seen in print in re- 

 gard to them, none of the writers men- 

 tioned any of the peculiar capers which 

 the pigeons cut. AIt;iough they were 

 not water-fowl, if tihere was no other 

 way to get to the water they would 

 light on the water with their wings half 

 spread and after drinking they would 

 clear the water at one flap of the wings. ' ' 

 This observer notes an important point 

 — the wings were "half spread", doubt- 

 less to keep them dry. His evidence is 

 t/iat this species also alighted on the sur- 

 face and did not drink while hovering over 

 it, for he says: "After drinking they 

 would clear the water with one flap of the 

 wings. ' ' 



To sum up, the domestic pigeon (which 

 is descended from the Rock Dove of Eu- 

 rope) and the Wood Pigeon of Europe, 

 exhibit, and the Passenger Pigeon of North 

 America e»hibited, even if rarely, the /labit 

 of alighting upon water to drink. 



Perhaps observation will show that many 

 other species of the great Order Coluinbae 

 have similar habits. 



The occurrence of this habit in the gen- 

 ei-a Ectopisfes and Columba shows that it 

 is wide-spread. Have these different spe- 

 cies all acquired suc^h a curious habit inde- 

 pendently or has it an ancient foundation? 

 Habits may l)e more or less transi(Mit and 

 the habit of the pigeons under discussion 

 is too rare to warrant specific conclusions, 

 but it should not be forgotten that many 

 groups of birds which are considered as 

 related to the Pigeons are aquatic. 



Pycraff- shows the following groups 

 allied with the Pigeons in the Charadrii- 



formcs (Plover-like birds;. The groups 

 may be separated as follows : — 



Terrestrial. 

 Tuiiiix ( Euro])ean and Australian Quail ». 

 Columbi (Pigeons), Pterocles (Sand 

 Grouse). 



Aquatic. 

 T/iinocorys (8eed-Plovers), Glareoli (Cour- 

 sers>, Chionis (Sheath-bills), Dromas 

 (Crab-Plovers), Alcidae (Auks), Lari 

 (Gulls), Oedicnemidae (Stone-Curlews). 

 Charadrii (Plovers). 



HoYEs Lloyd. 



' Rod and Gun in Canada, December, 1920, 

 p. 754. 



2A History of Birds, Chap. III. p. 41. 



Freshwater Crustacea from Canada. 

 Additional specimens of Gammarus lim- 

 iiaeus from British Columbia (see Vol. 

 XXXIV, p. 130), have been received from 

 Mr. and Mrs. T. L. Thacker, of Little 

 Mountain, Hope, B. C. They comprise 

 very young and half-gfown individuals 

 from the following localities: 



Little -Mountain, Hope, B.C., March- 

 April, 1918. 

 Sucker Creek, Hope, B. C, Julv 30. 



1921. ^ 



Xicomecal River, and two small creeks 

 running into it, about one-half mile 

 south of Langlev Prairie Station. 

 B. C, August o, 1921. 

 In the article referred to above, p. 128. 

 I stated that anotjier amphii)od, Pontopo- 

 rria of finis, fiad so far only been found 

 in the sea. Dr. Chancey Juday, of the 

 University of Wisconsin, Madisoii, tells 

 me in a letter that the species (identified 

 by Prof. G. 0. Sars of Christiania^ Is 

 common in Green Lake, Wisconsin, and 

 has been found also in certain lakes in .New 

 York State. Equally interesting is its oc- 

 currence in the (leei)er parts of certain 

 large lakes in the Scandinavian countries ■ 

 (Denmark, Norway, Sweden), and in Rus- 

 sia, where it is generally considered (see 

 e.g. Wesenberg-Lund, in Kgl. Dan.^ke Vi- 

 denskah. Selsk. Skrift., 1902 and 1917) 

 a tyjncal, glacial relict-form, in the same 

 way as the schizopod. Mifsis rrllcfa Ijoven, 

 also occurring there aud in certain lakes 

 upon this continent (see H. L. Schmitt, in 

 Rep. Can. Arctic E.rped. 1913-18, V<1. 

 VTI, Part B, p. 3). Some recent autjhors 

 think it more jjrobable that neither Pon- 

 toporeia af finis nor Mysis relicia are "rel- 



