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THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN AND NATURALIST. 



Province of Quebec. If the Club can only 

 arrive at a proper way to remedy the present 

 defects in the laws affecting our game, they 

 will certainly benefit all honest sportsmen. 

 Our animals, from which the hunter derives 

 pleasure, should be properly defined ; their 

 historic names ought to appear in the law in 

 order to conjoin a proper nomenclature of the 

 game fauna throughout the Dominion. The 

 animal called an elk in the west, is not the elk 

 of the Province of Quebec ; in fact the animals 

 belong to two distinct genera, and as different 

 in form as a buffalo is from a deer. We know 

 that when a number of intelligent sportsmen 

 meet to form laws of this nature, their decision 

 will be generally correct ; in fact, more so than 

 *he poor attempts so far made by any party in 

 a Provincial Parliament. The proceedings of 

 the Michigan Sportsman's Association have 

 shown this to be the case, and we trust that 

 the above combined Clubs will follow their 

 example. — C. 



The ruffed grouse commonly known as par- 

 tridge, are not reported abundant near Montreal 

 this fall. A person must now go to the Lau- 

 rentian Mountains, otherwise the chance of 

 obtaining the ruffed beauties on the low wood- 

 lands, will be poor indeed. The few birds 

 noticed on the island, may have been breed 

 on Mount Royal, where all birds, even hawks 

 and owls are protected. To our knowledge, 

 about a dozen brace have brought up their 

 broods on the three conjoined mountains 

 this past summer. On the morning of the 

 14th ult., a young male ruffed grouse flew 

 against one of the windows of Mr. Walter 

 Paul's grocery in this city ; it was killed by the 

 concussion. We conjecture where this bird 

 came from, and, moreover, believe that all 

 the birds bred there, when strong enough, 

 leave for other localities where they winter 

 without being so much molested. 



month of October. The grey variety were 

 abundant throughout the Eastern Townships 

 this fall. The species (black and grey being 

 the same) migrate, and they, doubtless, took 

 advantage of the late beautiful October to reach 

 new localities. The specimens which we ob- 

 tained from the townships, were fat and excel- 

 lent eating. 



A fine specimen x>f the Snow Owl was shot 

 near the Grand Ligne Depot on the 20th ult., 

 and a Pine Grosbeak was taken near Montreal 

 on the same date. The arrival of these birds 

 from the far north indicates the approach of 

 cold weather. 



Thousands of black squirrels have been 

 killed near^ Hornellsville, N.Y., during the 



The attention of Entomologists is called to 

 the fact that the collection of Thysanoptera 

 (Thrips) of this country have been neglected. 

 Mr. Theo. Pergande, of Washington, writes to 

 say that " there seems to be nobody among the 

 entomologists in this country who takes an 

 interest in this group of insects." Mr. Per- 

 gande is now studying Thysanoptera, and he 

 will be pleased to receive specimens from all 

 parts of America. His address is 614 Seventh 

 street, S.W., Washington, D.C., U.S. 



KEVIE VV. 

 " The Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club " Tran- 

 sactions No. 3, for 1881-2, are full of interest 

 to the general student of Canadian Natural 

 History. The success of this institution is 

 doubtless due to Mr. James Fletcher, its 

 worthy president, who, in his genial way, 

 manages to keep the Ottawa naturalists con- 

 stantly at work. We have reports from the 

 Leaders of the different branches of Natural 

 History. In a list of birds said to have been 

 shot in the vicinity of Ottawa, I notice Har- 

 porliynchvs cinereus, Bd. (The St. Lucas 

 Thrasher), which may be a var. of the com- 

 mon Brown Thrush, (H. rufus) ; Polioptila 

 ccerulea, Sclater, (the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher); 

 Parus rufescens, Towns, (the Chesnut-backed 

 Chickadee); Coccyzus Americanus, Baird (the 



