58 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



[Vol. XXXVI 



White Gyrfalcon in Alberta: — A fine spe- 

 cimen of the White GjTfalcon was shot by Mr. 

 Waghorn on his farm at Blackfalds, Alberta, 

 in the act of attacking one of his turkeys in De- 

 cember, 1920. It had been noticed for a fortnight 

 previous to being shot. I saw this rare falcon 

 in Mr. J. H. Grant's taxidermist store in Red Deer 

 in the spring of 1921, and am indebted to him 

 for the above data. The bird is now in the 

 possession of Mr. Waghorn. I believe this is a 

 record for Alberta. 



Elsie Cassels. 



isolated position of the fauna of the province, 

 or to some other cause, I do not know. 



Harrison F. Lewis. 



REMARKS ON THE POISON IVY. 



When reading Dr. H. T. Gussow's interesting and 

 instructive article on "The Treatment of Skin 

 Irritations due to Poison Ivy"*, I was struck by 

 his remark that "Nobody, of course, ever comes 

 knowingly into contact with poison ivy", because 

 it is not in agreement with my personal experience. 

 I have never avoided poison iv^y, have often come 

 knowingly into contact with it, and have never 

 been poisoned by it. Most of my boyhood was 

 spent on Long Island, in the State of New York, 

 where the poison i-vy often grows as a large creep- 

 ing plant, climbing to the tops of trees of moderate 

 size, and where persons are frequently poisoned 

 by it. I distinctly remember that, on one oc- 

 casion, my brother and I cut a branchless "rope" 

 of poison ivy stem, about an inch in diameter, 

 and perhaps ten or twelve feet long, which we 

 at once used in a "tug-of-war", thus smearing 

 our hands freely with the sap which exuded 

 from the freshly cut ends of the piece of stem, 

 but that neither of us suffered any ill effects as 

 a result. I was not in the range of the poison 

 ivy during the unusually hot weather of the 

 summer of 1921, and I have, of course, no means 

 of knowing whether or not I shall be immune to 

 poison ivy poisoning all my life. I may add 

 that my mother, although she has often come 

 into contact with poison ivy, has never been 

 poisoned by it, but that my father was readily 

 poisoned by contact with it on Long Island. 



Poison ivy is widely distributed in Nova Scotia, 

 although it does not grow to a large size in that 

 area. Most Nova Scotians do not realize that 

 poison ivy grows in their vicinity, because it 

 seldom or never causes poisoning in their pro- 

 vince. Although I resided in Nova Scotia for 

 more than seven years, I cannot recall that a 

 case of poison ivy poisoning came to my attention 

 during that time. Whether this is due to the 

 northern climate and the dwarfed growth of 

 poison ivy in Nova Scotia, or to the comparatively 



FOUNDING OF A NEW CLUB. 

 On November 22nd, 1921, a number of Toronto 

 naturalists met at the Royal Ontario Museum 

 where they organized the Toronto Naturalists' 

 Club. Their purpose was to found an organiza- 

 tion which would bring together the men interest- 

 ed in Natural History, and, in so doing, make 

 co-operation possible along various lines of study. 

 Another important purpose was to create a circle 

 of congenial men with mutual interests so that 

 they might enjoy the pleasures resultant from 

 such an association. 



The Club is, so far, unique in that it has no 

 officers, the object being to set aside all formality 

 and to place on each man a share of the respon- 

 sibility for the Club's activities and success. 

 The meetings are led by members, voluntarily 

 and by rotation. The Museum's collections are 

 being used for study, and the resulting discus- 

 sions bring out many interesting observations and 

 reviews. (It will be here noted that the Museum 

 is rendering a valuable service as well as giving 

 naturalists an incentive to augment its collections.) 

 It is necessary to restrict the membership of the 

 Club to a small number because an open organiza- 

 tion would necessarily lose the original idea of 

 informality and close acquaintance. The follow- 

 ing are the founding members: — 



J. L. Baillie 



N. K. Biglow 



J. R. Dymond 



T. B. Kurata 



Wm. LaRay 



Shelly Logier 



Chas. Richards 



L. L. Snyder 



L. Sternberg 



Stuart Thompson 



Victor Thomson 

 The Toronto Naturalists* Club solicits the 

 friendship and acquaintance of naturalists and 

 will be pleased to co-operate with them in any 

 way possible. Address any correspondence to 

 the Toronto Naturalists' Club, The Royal Ontario 

 Museum of Zoology, Toronto, Ont. 



L. L. Snyder. 



*Tke Canadian Pield-Naluraliat, Vol. XXXV., No. 

 6, pp. 116-118, Septeml^r 1921. 



AN INTERESTING FAMILY OF EIDERS 



Some thirty years ago the late Mr. Simon F. 



Cheney lived on Cheney's Island, a small island 



of the Grandmanan Group in the Province of 



New Brunswick. He was a very remarkable 



