During the years 1882-4, large branches of young pear trees in Cambridge, Mass., were killed by pear-blight. The next year other branches were affected and killed, and finally the whole tree succumbed. All trees had been in good and healthy condition. The branches were more or less densely covered by a Coccid, determined by Prof. J. H. Comstock as Chionaspis furfurus (A. Fitch), described and figured in his Report for 1880, p. 315, pl. 17, f. 1. The Professor thinks it much more probable that the branches were killed by the Scolytid (directly to be mentioned) than by the Coccids, and I believe this opinion is justified by the fact that other pear trees and apple trees near by are also covered by the same Coccid and are nevertheless in a healthy condition.

EGG.—Sub-conic, truncated, the top convex, the upper part from one fourth to one third the length marked by low vertical ribs, about 24 in number; below these the surface is shallowly and irregularly indented; top similarly indented, convex; color when laid yellow green. Duration of this stage about five days.

For several seasons past, along in the latter part of summer (August and September) I have noticed certain peculiar actions on the part of the large flying locust, Œdipoda carolina Linn. I have always suspected that these actions have something to do with the union of the sexes. In the warm parts of the days at this time of the year individuals of this species may frequently be seen rising from the ground, and, hovering several feet in the air, rapidly vibrating their wings and making a peculiar flapping or beating sound, the while keeping nearly the same relative position in space. Although my notes on this subject are rather imperfect, I think they may be of use. I can not find that the subject has ever been touched upon before; such may be the case, but I have not been able to discover record of it in any reports, periodicals or works on insects. Still these actions must have been noticed by observers, as they are of common occurrence.

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 oi black beetles had troubled them all night so that they courld not sleep. Upon my questioning the correctness of the statement, they said, “Well, here they are in all the cracks,” and they forthwith 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 neighborhood. “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.”