The Canadian Sportsman Ai\d Naturalist. 



No. 9. 



MONTREAL, SEPTEMBER, i! 



voi.. in. 



WILLIAM COUPER, Editor. 



THE SOLITARY WASPS. 

 The Editor wishes to correspond with 

 students ol the Odynerites of Canada. 



OUR MAGAZINE. 

 It is gratifying to state that this magazine is 

 being appreciated by our Canadian readers, 

 and furthermore encouraging to notice that, 

 during the last year, it has been in demand by 

 American writers on Natural History. Some 

 of our readers doubtless anticipated that the 

 serial would be more devoted to sporting 

 matters, but. we have discovered that it was 

 impossible to devote much of our monthly 

 space to this kind of news-, as the daily papers 

 generally contain reports on almost all oc- 

 curences of this nature. Occasionally some 

 interesting original incidents are sent to us, 

 which we publish because such matters are not 

 within the ken of a newspaper reporter. 

 Henceforth our pages are to be taken up by 

 original subjects, relative to the Natural His- 

 tory of the Dominion of Canada, together with 

 contributions on biological research. Our 

 columns will, however, be open to those who 

 love the use of the Rod and Gun. — C. 



feeding on caterpillar.-. Nbtodonta concinna 

 are very general feeders; they occur in clusters 



on the lea\<-.- of the apple, plum, pear, cherry, 

 rose and thorn. — C. 



INSECTIVOROUS GROUSE. 

 A male specimen of the Ruffed Grouse, 

 (Bonasa umbellus), sent to me from Lennox- 

 ville, P.Q., had its crop lull of caterpillars of 

 Notodonta concinna, commonly known as the 

 Red-humped apple tree caterpillar. The bird 

 contained about fifty full-grown caterpillars of 

 this destructive moth. On opening the crop, 

 I could not detect the strong acid smell that 

 those caterpillars possess when living. Per- 

 haps the bird (the body of which 1 ate with a 

 relish), may have been provided with a coun- 

 teracting fluid. This is the first instance 

 coming to my notice, of our native grouse 



THE INSECTS OF CANAI'A. 

 1 have received a " Label List " and a 

 " Check- Li.-t *' ut' the insects of Canada, com- 

 piled by W. Brodie, L.D.S. and J. E. White, 

 M.B., lor the Natural History Society of 

 Toronto. The label list contain the names 

 of all insects known to <><-cur in Canada, up to 

 July of this year. The matter i> Carefully 

 read and neatly printed, but I think that 

 there should be some regard lor system, as any 

 Entomologist may notice that all the Diurnes 

 and a portion of Walker's species ol Diptera 

 have capita] letters, while species under the 

 other Orders begin with lower ease letters. 

 The whole of the list should be uniform like 

 the Hymenoptera, but the names of persons 

 and places ought, in my opinion, to be 

 capitalized. Ti.ese lists are very useful to 

 the entomologist. Copies are sold by the So- 

 ciety at one dollar each. — C. 



ORNITHOLOGISTS CONVENTION. 



Since the publication of the works of 

 Wilson, Audubon and Bonaparte, no large 

 popular work on the birds of America has 

 been brought before the public, yet the subject 

 has by no means been dormant. Roth pro- 

 fessional men and amateurs have been steadily 

 at work, and have not only added new species 

 lo the list, but have brought to light so many 

 new facts relating to the history vl' the birds 

 already described, as to necessitate their being 

 classed in different groups from those in which 

 they had at first been placed. These changes 

 have become of late years so numerous, and 

 having been published by different authorities, 

 that it became a necessity to have the whole 

 of the nomenclature and classification revised, 

 and, it possible, placed on a permanent basis. 

 For this purpose the ornithological depart- 



