43 



with parasites, when once introduced, can be cleared by the same method, only that the 

 drawer or box, before pinning back the specimens, also has to be exposed to the heat of 

 the oven. 



AN INSECT-EATING BIRD. 



, BY W. W. HILL, ALBANY, N. Y. 



Some two or three years ago I reared from the egg several hundred caterpillars of 

 the Promethea moth. They were feeding finely upon the common lilac (Syringa vulgaris), 

 the leaves of which they ate readily. The third moult had been reached and they had 

 attained to an inch or more in length, and there seemed every prospect of their reaching 

 maturity, when in an evil hour an oriole discovered their whereabouts. The bird was 

 soon joined by a companion, and the pair proceeded to kill and eat with the greatest pos- 

 sible avidity. Discovered in their work by persons in the house, they were several times 

 driven off, but quickly returned with increased zest to the work of destruction. On my 

 arrival an hour later there remained but a few of the smallest specimens, which had either 

 been overlooked or left to grow fatter. 



STRANGE MOVEMENT OF CATERPILLARS. 



BY EUGENE L. KEEN, PHILADELPHIA, PA. 



While walking along the New Jersey shore of the Delaware River, near the village 

 of Delanes, last July, I was startled by hearing some small bodies falling through the 

 foliage of an oak tree, and as they struck the leaves it sounded as if it were raining, but 

 as the sky was perfectly clear, my curiosity was aroused. I turned around to see what 

 the noise was, and saw some black larvae falling to the ground, and further investigations 

 showed that quite a number of these larvse had fallen to the ground from the tree, and 

 here and there I saw several Tachina flies, I believe a species of Exorista, hovering around 

 the larvae trying to deposit their eggs. From this I suppose that these Tachina flies had 

 flown to the tree in search of victims, and most probably the larva? had dropped from the 

 tree to escape their enemies. Perhaps many larva? take this method of trying to escape 

 from their Hymenopterous and Dipterous parasites. 



THE CROTON BUG IN QUEBEC PROVINCE. 



BY REV. THOMAS W. PYLES, SOUTH QUEBEC. 



One morning last November I went to the Chaudiere Curve, to meet the train from 

 Halifax, which had been delayed for some hours. I found two men in the waiting-room 

 who had spent the night there. They complained that swarms of black beetles had 

 troubled them all night so that they could not sleep. Upon my questioning the correct- 

 ness of the statement, they said, " Well, here they are in all the cracks," and they forth- 

 with commenced to poke the creatures out. The insects were numerous enough, but they 

 were not beetles, nor were they black. They were specimens of the German Cockroach, 

 Ectobia Germanica. I afterwards enquired of one of the railway employes as to the time 

 of the first appearance of the insects. The man told me that he first noticed them in 

 1882. I asked if they had appeared anywhere else in the neighbourhood. " Yes," he 

 answered, "in my own house last winter ; " but," he added, " I am not there in the day 

 time, so I left the windows open and froze them out." 



