NATURAL HISTORY. 
The dermatobiahaverepresentatives bet- 
ter known, notably the ox bot. Others work 
occasionally on the dog, various antelopes 
and deer, the elephant and rarely on man. 
With the exception of the oxbot fly, the 
perfect insects of all the others have been 
---ely taken. Could. or would not some 
o. the thousands of hunters who read 
RECREATION obtain some of the larvae 
working on chipmunks and squirrels or 
rabbits, and either rear or send them to 
some active entomologically inclined 
friend, or to me? I would do my best to 
rear them and forward the creatures, if 
successful, as desired? 
May not the accused squirrels have been 
really endeavoring to do a service to the 
persecuted victim, only at too late a 
period, when the insect having arrived at 
the first complete stage of its existence 
was about to emerge and was much more 
in evidence? 
Percy Selous. 

CANADA’S WILD BUFFALOES. 
There are 2 factors which, taken to- 
gether, may preserve for a century the 
scattered bands of wild buffaloes which 
to-day inhabit the desolate waste of bogs 
and rolling prairie Southwestward of 
Great Slave lake. One is the fact that that 
region is at all times difficult to penetrate, 
and the buffaloes exceedingly difficult to 
find. A number of bold and determined 
white hunters, both American and Eng- 
lish, have entered it in search of buffalo, 
only to return empty-handed and “heap 
hungry.” 
The other is the fact that the Canadian 
government has determined to protect 
those buffaloes. Three years ago the first 
law of that nature was enacted, and al- 
though it expires at the end of this year, 
a Toronto correspondent reports that its 
reenactment is reasonably certain. 
It is to be hoped that Canada will do for 
her last wild buffaloes what our govern- 
ment did not do for ours,—protect them. 
With a herd of 300 head in our National 
Park, which a very minimum of intelligent 
effort and expenditure could have pre- 
served, the lousy poachers were allowed to 
slaughter them at will. Beyond all ques- 
tion, a republican government is a poor 
machine for the preservation of wild crea- 
tures. In the matter of adequate laws and 
their proper enforcement on our public 
domain, and in Alaska, this nation is yet 
in its infancy. The Yellowstone Park 
buffaloes were murdered because our na- 
tional lawmakers either did not know how 
to govern the park, or did not know 
enough to care about it. . 
I wish Canada abundant success in the 
preservation of her last remnant of the 
bison millions. There is no reason why 
383 
any man, white or red, should be per- 
mitted to kill a single one of the I50 
head that remain, and I hope she will be 
as rigid in her protective measures as we 
have been lax. If Canada once makes up 
her mind that all her valuable game ani- 
mals shall be protected by law, and pre- 
served from extermination, beyond a 
doubt they will be protected “to the 
queen’s taste.” 
W. T. Hornaday, New York City. 

SQUIRRELS, CUCKOOS. AND ORIOLES, 
The common _§ striped squirrel, or 
chickaree, carries about with it the larva 
of a parasite beetle, which deposits its egg 
in the testicle of its victim, where it grows 
to a large size. It is jet black, and ringed 
with coarse segments. No doubt gray 
squirrels are as frequent sufferers from the 
same cause, though I have no positive evi- 
dence to that effect. Evidence, however, 
can be easily had; and the ‘‘wolves,” as 
Northern hunters call the parasite grubs. 
are plenty enough. A house cat, fond o! 
squirrels, threw off an overloaded stom- 
ach the half-digested remains of 3 or 4, 
in which I counted 8 “wolves,” 5 still 
alive. If those who admire red squirrels 
could live nearer to them they would 
know them for mischievous, omnivorous 
pests that should be classed with vermin. 
People in the country are having an 
object lesson this summer, but good as 
the school is for fools, they refuse to be 
taught. The crows, that would have fat- 
tened on the forest caterpillar and other 
worms, are nearly all killed, and worms 
make life a burden. 
Not all bird nests are robbed by cats, 
snakes, or squirrels. The cuckoo carries 
off all the young birds it can find. One 
pair cleaned out 3 robins’ nests in my yard 
within a week, in spite of the efforts of 
the parent birds and all their friends. But 
in my experience the meanest egg sucker 
of all birds’ is the orchard oriole. | lf 
you find a nest of crushed eggs you will 
perhaps recall the day you heard an oriole 
whistling in the vicinity, and maybe you 
wished he lived a little nearer. He lived 
near enough to use your trees for his bird 
nesting expeditions. Watch him a little, 
and see if it 1s not so. 
Lawrence Shanny, New Russia, N. Y. 

In the August issue of your valuable 
magazine I see a request by F. S. Tufts, 
Winchester, Mass., for a method of ‘“‘lin- 
ing’ bees. If Mr. Tufts will cut a piece of 
broom handle about 12 inches long, nail a 
small piece of board about 3 inches square 
on one end and sharpen the other end he 
will have the only implement nexessary. 
He should-then mix a sticky mass cf sugar 
