THE CANADIAN NATUllALIST. 
covered with dusky hair^ crawling on the snow; and yester- 
day I found in the same situation, a great many specimens of 
a small Carrion Beetle, about one-sixth of an inch long, with 
antennae slightly clubbed {Omalium — they gave out 
k rank smell. These are the first beetles I have yet seen 
abroad. A few small brown spiders were likewise straggling 
over the melting snow. 
F, — The larvae of the Ox Gad-fly (^Oestrus Bovis), com- 
monly called wormuls, (originally worm-holes,) are now to 
be found in the bodies of oxen and cows. They make large 
lumps chiefly in the backs of these cattle, in the middle of 
which is a hole large enough to admit a quill : if you press 
the lump, a quantity of pus comes through the orifice, and 
if the pressure be increased, the large, fat, white maggot him- 
self is squeezed out. I forced out two from one of our oxen 
this morning. They will not go into the pupa state, after 
having been thus violently ejected. ■ — Let us walk on 
the ice of the river: here are some large Muscles (Anadonta?), 
and a number of their empty shells lying on the mud at the 
bottom of the VN^ater. I can see them through the open space 
between the ice and the bank of the river : as the water is 
shallow we may reach them with our hands. I have occa- 
sionally eaten them, and could not perceive any difference in 
taste between them and marine muscles. 
C. — What trumpet-like note is that ? 
F, — It is the honk" of the Wild Goose {Anas Cana- 
densis') : yonder is the bird, standing on the frozen river ; 
some stray individual out of the many flocks which at this 
season are pursuing their aerial course to the desolate regions 
around Hudson's Bay, or perhaps yet farther north. 
C. — Has the Canada Goose been domesticated ? 
F. — Yes ; it is extensively kept as a domestic fowl 
in Europe, and is not the least important addition which 
