230 



THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN AND NATURALIST. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL. 



Sir. — In justice to yourself, I desire to make 

 in your columns a brief statement regarding 

 the beetle which I mentioned under the name 

 of Hylobius stupidus, in a paper on some 

 " Coleoptera injurious to pine," which was 

 published in Transactions No. 2 of the Ottawa 

 Field Naturalists' Club. On page 83 of The 

 Canadian Sportsman and Naturalist, you 

 stated that : — " We have no knowledge of this 

 insect, and never met it under the name of 

 stupidus in Canadian collections." My defence 

 (page 101) was to the effect that the name was 

 given in the lists of the Entomological Society 

 of Ontario, and that there was a specimen so 

 labelled in the collections of the late Mr. 

 Billings. I have recently been able to have 

 many of my beetles determined and in regard 

 to the species in question am informed by Mr. 

 J. B. Smith that it is only a variety of II. pales, 

 being, " the form going in Canada under the 

 name of H. stupidus." He adds that he has 

 been able to make up a full series from one 

 form to the other, and I shall endeavor this 

 season to make up a similar series, if the 

 intermediate forms are to be obtained here. 



A couple of- words have apparently been 

 dropped from my paper on " Causes of rarity 

 in some species of insects" in your last number. 

 On page 225, in line 21 of second column 

 " man " should be inserted before " now" and 

 in the last line of the same column "been" 

 should be inserted after "already." 



W. II. Harrington. 

 Ottawa, 25th April, 1883. 



Note. — The insertion of II. stupidus in the 

 Canadian list of Coleoptera, may have arisen 

 from correspondence between the Entomologi- 

 cal Society of Ontario and the late Mr. Billings, 

 who probably supplied the name. If. pales 

 varies in size ; I remarked it in Toronto years 

 ago, but as I noticed similar deviations among 

 other genera of Coleoptei'a, it did not occur to 

 me to prepare a series of the variable species. 

 II. pinicola, Couper, is our most northern form 

 ot Hylobius and may not be found south of the 

 latitude ol Quebec. The word " man" appears 

 in your copy, but " been" does not. We will 

 be more carelul in future. — C. 



THE SAMSON FOX. 



Sir, — I would 

 could give any 



Montreal, April 16th, 1883. 

 feel greatly obliged if you 

 iulormation respecting the 



" Samson "„ Fox. Why so called? What 

 causes its peculiar difference from other 

 Foxes ? How long has the name been known ? 

 Yours truly, 



Horace T. Martin. 

 Note. — Messrs. Martin & Co., furriers of 

 this city, have lately purchased a number 

 of skins of adult foxes, known in the town- 

 ships as the " Samson Fox." This peculiar 

 variety is minus the long glossy hair of the 

 common fox, but it is abundant]}' covered with 

 soft hair, having a peculiar singy appearance, 

 which is generally seen in young foxes. It is 

 said to occur in one locality, where it is called 

 by the above name ; but we are not prepared 

 to say that it is a descendant of one of the 

 three hundred foxes mentioned in the xv. 

 chapter of Judges, which Samson caught and 

 " took firebrands and turned tail to tail, and 

 put a firebrand in the midst between the tails, 

 And when he had set the brands on fire, he let 

 them go into the standing corn of the Philis- 

 tines, and burnt up both the shocks and the 

 standing corn, &c." Perhaps some of onr 

 correspondents may throw some light on the 

 " Samson Fox." We are aware that the 

 common Bed Fox has permanent varieties in 

 North America ; the silver-grey and dark-grey 

 animals are merely fur changes of the 

 common species. The result is said to occur 

 through seggregation, for instance, the Island 

 ofAnticosti, where the silver variety is more 

 abundant than in any other locality in the 

 North where the common fox is found. All 

 our wild American quadrupeds are, however, 

 subject to variation in fur; we have grey 

 and black varieties in the Ground Hog or 

 Woodchuck, and, in' the neighbourhood of 

 Quebec, muskrats are' sometimes found per- 

 fectly white ; but they are noi albinos, the 

 eyes are hazel like the ordinary rat. Oc- 

 casional white specimens of the common 

 Virginian deer are shot in Canada, and, during 

 some seasons piebald varieties of the Black 

 Squirrel have been caught in Ontario. Re- 

 garding the Black and Grey Squirrels, Can- 



