REPLY TO MR. THOMPSON'S NOTE. 281 



REPLY TO MR THOMPSON'S CRITICAL NOTE. 



By J. B. Tyrrell. 



In the last number of the Proceedings, which was I'eceived about 

 the middle of December, 1889, there is what purports to be a 

 ■" Critical Note," by Mr. E. E. Thompson, on my " Catalogue of the 

 Mammalia of Canada," and, as the statements there made may be 

 misleading to some of the i-eaders of The Proceedings, I must ask to 

 be allowed the privilege of a short reply, though I am surprised that 

 i;he courtesy was not extended me of allowing me to make this reply 

 in the same number in which the " Critical Note " appeared. 



The first of the three pages of the " Note " is almost 

 entirely occupied with a general vilification of the " Catalogue," and . 

 this diatribe may very well go unanswered. In the following two 

 pages my statements regarding seven species of mammals ai-e 

 impiigned, these statements, doubtless, being considered my most 

 glaring errors : — 



I. On the occuri-ence of Felis concolor in Southern Quebec. That 

 the Cougar does, or did until very recently, occur in Southern Quebec 

 is very well known, and at the present time there are two mounted 

 specimens in the Museum of the Natural History Society in 

 Montreal, both of which are stated to have been shot in the adjoin- 

 ing countiy. 



II. On the occurrence of Cervus Canadensis in Eastern Canada. 

 It is a well-known tradition that in recent times the elk was an 

 inhabitant of the Ottawa valley, and my friend Mr. W. P. Lett, in 

 .a paper read before the Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club on March 

 13th, 1884, and published on pp. 101-116 of No. 5 of its Transactions, 

 .gives authority for the statement that within the last seventy years it 



