326 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 
always associated together : wherever the lice were^, there 
was the ladybird- He was quite astonished when I in- 
formed him that the aphides constitute the regular and sole 
food of the ladybird^ which seeks them out and devours 
them continually ; and that he had been promoting the breed 
of a pernicious insect, by blindly destroying another race^ 
which God had appointed to keep them down. 
C. — Our friendly little winter visitants, the Crossbills 
( CurviroBtra Americana ), are come. I observed a flock of 
them 3^esterday, hopping about, behind the house, where the 
washings of the kitchen are thrown. They were all in 
mottled plumage. 
F. — They are northern birds : I do not conceive that 
they breed even in this latitude, but retire to their native 
regions of snow and ice^, the solitudes of Hudson's Bay, in 
summer. Perhaps we may consider, with respect to all 
birds that seek cold latitudes in summer, that those are their 
natural regions, from whence they are driven by the incle- 
mencies of winter to seek a temporary shelter with us, but 
return to those countries again as their homes ; which may 
be as delightful to their feelings as the tropical islands to the 
Birds of Paradise. 
C — Here are some little flies flitting along : I have 
caught one, and find it to be a delicate Day-fly ( Epheme- 
ra ), Flies of this genus appear early in spring, and con- 
tinue all the summer through ; that is, a succession of them ; 
for they are proverbially short-lived. The Caddis-flies ( Vhry- 
ganea)^ however, seem to have a much longer range; per- 
haps the longest of all insects, except some of the Muscidce, 
and a few beetles ; for they flit to and fro in the woods, be- 
fore the earth has put ofl* its mantle of snow, and withstand 
the approaches of winter for some time, if I may judge from 
last fall, when I used to observe Phri/ganem in the evenings 
until November was considerably advanced. 
