PRELIMINARY LIST OF THE MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA OF ALBERTA, N.-W. T.

Extract

Calgary (altitude 3,400 ft.) is strictly a prairie city, situate at the junction of the Bow and Elbow rivers, about 40 or 50 miles from the true base of the Rocky Mountains. For several hundred miles to the east, the prairie is, with the exception of a few spots on river bottoms, absolutely void of either timber or scrub. A very few miles to the west the country becomes decidedly hilly, and in places densely covered witli dwarf willows. Still further west the hills increase in height, shrubs become proportionately more abundant, and several species of poplars make their appearance, the north and west sides of the hills being usually densely wooded. By far the greater portion of the material from which this list has been compiled has been taken by myself and Mr. A. Hudson during the past seven seasons amongst these hills (3,600-4,000 ft.) near the head of Pine Creek, about sixteen miles to the south-west of Calgary. This “hill-prairie,” as I will call it, and which may be looked upon as the boundary between the prairie and the foothills, is well watered by numerous creeks, and the valleys and hillsides—where not too steep—are largely grazed and cultivated, but otherwise splendid hunting grounds for the entomologist.