256 



refers to it under the name D. longipennis. Tlie species which I have 

 referred to as quercus and which was found in St. Louis County, Mo., 

 in 1877, feeding on Oak, is considered specifically distinct by Mr, 

 Bruner. Six females and two males are before me, and, while they 

 show average smaller size and paler coloring and no long- winged speci- 

 mens have yet been found, I should hesitate to consider this Missouri 

 form more than a variety; so that I would designate it JD. longipennis^ 

 var. quercus. 



EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE. 



Color of a Host and its Relation to Parasitism. 



I have coiiYersed Avith a number of intelligent stock-raisers, who declare that 

 color has nothing to do primarily with the attacks of flies of various kinds on cattle^ 

 and explain the curious fact by saying that animals with Tery thin skins are at once 

 chosen by flies. We have two yokes of dark red oxen. One of these will be cov- 

 ered with flies, owing to his extremely thin skin, while his " yoke fellow " will be 

 comparatively free. Second, some animals' nervous systems are more highly devel- 

 oped, therefore they are more susceptible to annoyance. Horsemen are all aware 

 that sorrel horses are ^'higher strung" than any other color, and are much annoyed 

 by insects. Third, wounds and abrasions at once attract hordes of flies. Horsemen 

 have always told me that gray or white horses were, in jockey parlance, '^tougher," 

 than any other color. Still I have heard that white horses alone were subject to a 

 kind of cancer called Melanosis. As to white chickens being more subject to gapes, 

 I have never been troubled with diseases among my fowls. I have never raised 

 many white chickens, but my neighbor, Mrs. Cosky, has raised white Leghorns for 

 years, thousands of them, and finds them peculiarly hardy and healthy; not trou- 

 bled with gapes at all. — [Mrs. M. E. Rice, Pennsylvania. 



Fowls and Toads vs. Garden Insects. 



I see in Insect Life, vol. iv, p. 76, a note concerning ducks and the Colorado Potato- 

 beetle. Permit me to add my experience concerning fowls as insect exterminators. 

 While it is true that ducks, under some circumstances, will acquire a taste for the 

 beetle, still you can not "bet on it." They are just as apt to destroy produce to 

 more than balance the account. My aunt having read in the Rural Xew Torler a 

 similar account, she placed about a dozen in her garden. Hearing her complain of 

 something destroying her cucumbers, a careful examination proved that the ducks- 

 were the culprits. 



In my own case, they destroyed all my water-cress, and pulled down a great deal 

 of grain, wheat, oats, and buckwheat; were always soiling the spring and springrun 

 and spoiling our neighbors' tempers ; they will follow a run for two miles. This sum- 

 mer a neighbor's ducks, twelve in number, destroyed a good deal of buckwheat for 

 us. There were plenty of potato-beetles handy, but they did not touch them. I 

 have given up raising ducks unless I can have a good-sized fenced pasture for them 

 near water. When the potato-beetles first appeared my husband scattered buck- 

 wheat between the rows and called the chickens after him as he shook down the 

 beetles and tiny larvfB among the buckwheat on the ground, soon the fowls would 

 pick off the insects for themselves. 



As to chickens, one year we put our Early Rose potatoes near the barn. For fear of 

 hurting the chickens we did not use Paris green, as usual. My husband soon dis- 

 covered that our chickens kept the beetles in check (see note). I did not believe- 

 this, so I made careful examination of plot (an acre in extent) ; I did not find a 



