October, 1922.] 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



129 



small bird was hidden somewhere among their 

 tops. Suddenly he came into full view, and the 

 morning sun flashed upon the gorgeous orange 

 throat patch of the Blackburnian Warbler. A 

 meeting with this animate gem is about worth a 

 journey to the north woods. 



Farther up the road by a clump of hackmatacks 

 we were stopped one day by a low sweet song 

 resembling that of the Purple Finch, but more 

 Robin-like. Investigation revealed our old red- 

 coated friend of the white winter landscape, the 

 Pine Grosbeak. 'Tis true the books tell us he 

 breeds in the far north; but here in the cool Nova 

 Scotia woods we met him and his sober-colored 

 mate, and day after day we listened to his dreamy 

 love song. 



By the green alder thicket near the brook we 

 paused to hear the ringing cadence of the Veery; 

 while farther on, where the road wound by open 

 pasture lands, the mellow golden notes of the 

 Hermit Thrush vied with the clear sweet whistle 

 of the White-throat. 



But now the chill nights of late summer were 



beginning to weave white mist veils over the 

 sleeping bosom of the lake. The clematis and 

 fire-weed were donning their soft down, and in the 

 open the roadsides were becoming gorgeous in 

 golden-rod and aster. The Warblers and Vireos 

 had ceased their songs of love and were joining 

 the ranks of Chickadees, Kinglets and Sparrows. 

 Already faint voices floating down f^om the starlit 

 sky told that the great southward movement had 

 begun. 



For us, too, came the parting from our summer 

 home, and thoughtfully we looked into that last 

 evening's camp fire. The lake lay like a mirror. 

 Three Black Ducks, circling over the islands, 

 settled above our camp, and swimming down by 

 us left long ripples in its glassy surface. A Blue 

 Heron arose from his fishing in the cove above and 

 flapped lazily away toward the setting sun. 

 Gradually the red in the sky and lake changed to 

 gray; and as the stars came out one by one all 

 was still, save the voice of the distant river and 

 deep, deep bass of the old green frog down among 

 his pickerel weeds. 



MYXOMYCETES OF THE LAKE NIPIGON DISTRICT 



By F. B. Adamstone, B.A. 



DURING July and August of the past- 

 summer (1921), while engaged in lim- 

 nobiological research on Lake Nipigon 

 the writer spent odd moments making a collection 

 of Myxomycetes or slime molds in the surrounding 

 district. 



The region about Lake Nipigon is a very rugged 

 hilly country, most of which is quite densely 

 wooded. Among the hills there are numerous 

 small lakes and streams. The forest is composed 

 largely of balsam, spruce, poplar and birch. It is 

 the last of these, in the form of old stumps and 

 rotting logs, which seems to be the favorite sub- 

 stratum for Myxomycetes, but almost any organic 

 material will serve the purpose. No specimens of 

 slime molds were seen until after the middle of 

 July when the prolonged hot weather was inter- 

 rupted by rainstorms. Thereafter, when rambling 

 through the woods turning over logs and examin- 

 ing stumps, one was almost certain to come upon 

 some, either in the gelatinous plasmodial stage, 

 or in the form of delicate lacy fruiting bodies. 

 The extraordinary life history of these organisms 

 makes them particularly interesting from a biolo- 

 gical point of view. 



When the ripe fruiting body is shaken or dis- 

 turbed, a minute cloud of dust-like particles 

 floats away from it. This consists of the spores of 



the Myxomycete. Should the spores fall upon a 

 suitable medium, they germinate, and from each 

 a small naked droplet of protoplasm escapes. 

 These droplets are usually provided with one or 

 more delicate cilia, by the motions of which they 

 are propelled about in the liquids of the substra- 

 tum. By growth and subsequent division, a whole 

 host of similar droplets is formed. Eventually a 

 time comes when these fuse in pairs, then the pairs 

 coalesce so that a large jelly-like mass of proto- 

 plasm results. The Plasmodium, as this structure 

 is called, resembles an enormous amoeba, not only 

 in its appearance, but also in its streaming move- 

 ments and in the manner in which it ingests food 

 material. It is very sensitive to external stimuli 

 at this stage, and usually avoids strong light, living 

 beneath logs or other forest debris. Finally a 

 time comes when its sensitiveness to light dis- 

 appears, and it comes out into the open sunlight, 

 sometimes being seen as a brightly coloured, 

 gelatinous substance on the side of a stump. At 

 this stage peculiar processes go on within the Plas- 

 modium, and as a result small masses of proto- 

 plasm are heaped up iB rounded globules. The 

 fruiting bodies or sporangia are ultimately formed 

 from these little heaps of protoplasm. 



Among the forms collected there are three 

 general types of sporangia which are easily recog 



