THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. LONDON: PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY; Bangor House, Soe Lane. THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. A SERIES OF CONVERSATIONS ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF LOWER CANADA. BY P. H. GOSSE. COR. MEM. OF THE NAT. HIST. SOC. OF MONTREAL, AWD OF THE LIT. AND HIST. SOC. OF aUEBEC. Every kingdom, every province, should have its own monographer." GILBERT WHITE. ILLUSTRATED BY FORTY-FOUR ENGRAVINGS. LONDON: JOHN VAN VOORST, l, PATERNOSTER ROW. M.DCCC.XL. THOMAS BELL, ESQ. F.R.S. F.L.S. &c. PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY IN KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON, THIS LITTLE VOLUME, AS A SMALL TOKEN OF ESTEEM FOR HIS VIRTUES, AND OF ADMIRATION OF HIS TALENTS, IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED, BY HIS GRATEFUL RELATIVE, THE AUTHOR. 383457 PREFACE. CANADA having become, of late, a very prominent and engrossing object of attention, it is hoped that it may not be altogether uninteresting to the public, to consider it in a new point of view. It is here presented in a light on which there can be no clashing of opinion, no discordancy of senti- ment : the smiling face of Nature, the harmony and beauty of the works of God, may be turned to by men of all parties as a refreshing relief from the stern conflict of political war- fare. During a residence of some years in the Lower Pro- vince, the Author has felt it to be no common privilege to be able to solace himself by these simple but enchanting studies, amidst the fatigues of labour, and the stormy politics and martial alarms of the times ; and even now, the recollection of those pleasant scenes sheds forth a lustre which gilds the Vlll PREFACE. edge of many a dark cloud. He does not expect by written words to be able to communicate the vividness of those impressions which are produced by actual observation ; it will suffice, if an additional source of innocent gratification be pointed out, or an additional testimony borne to the wisdom and goodness of our beneficent Creator. The plan of the Work consists of a series of conversations on the subject of natural history, supposed to pass between a father and son, during successive walks, taken at the various seasons of the year : so that it may be considered as in some degree a kind of Canadian " Naturalist's Calen- dar." As the form of dialogue has of late become somewhat " out of fashion," the Author feels it to be due to the public to explain the reasons which induced him to throw the Work into such a shape. He thought that by taking the reader, as it were, and transporting him into the midst of the very scenes and objects represented, a life and a vigour might be preserved, which would be wanting in a formal narrative. And many little trifles might be thus touched, which could be noticed in no other form, but which, nevertheless, all help to make up a true picture. Thus, too, we may ramble from one subject to another (as the humming-bird way- wardly shoots from flower to flower), often by a transition more abrupt than could be permitted in a systematic dis- course. If these transitions in any case appear to be too PREFACE. IX abrupt, the reader is at liberty to suppose the lapse of what interval he pleases between the former and latter subjects ; or the notice of any passing occurrence, which has changed the current of conversation. Of course, the subject is very far from being exhausted : the Author has confined his re- marks, with very few exceptions, to those phenomena which have passed under his personal observation : and every one acquainted with out-of-door natural history, knows that each recurring season presents to the admiring observer facts that were before hidden and unknown. A word respecting the character of the Work. The Author is fully aware how very limited is his acquaintance with this boundless science ; having lived in the far-off wilds of the west, where systems, books, and museums are almost un- known, he has been compelled to draw water from Nature's own well, and his knowledge of her is almost confined to her appearance in the forest and the field. With the sys- tems, which men of enlarged minds have, with patient perseverance and studious research, arranged, the most laborious, but not the least useful part of the science, he has had little opportunity of making himself familiar. It may be asked, " why, then, under these disadvantages, has he written at all?" Not to instruct the learned, at whose feet he is willing to sit as a learner; but partly to set forth the praise of the great and glorious God, who X PREFACE. made all these things, and partly because, having himself tasted the calm delights flowing from an observation of His works, he would fain make known to others the source of the same sweet and soothing pleasures. Of the illustrations, three are from the pencil of Mr. Dickes ; the remainder are from original drawings by the Author, transferred to the wood partly by himself, and partly by Mr. James de Carl Sowerby. It merely remains to add, that the village of Compton, in the immediate neighbourhood of which these observa- tions were made, is situated on the river Coatacook, a tributary of the St. Francis, in the county of Sherbrooke, in what are called the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada ; very near the angle formed by a line drawn south from Quebec, and one drawn east from Montreal. It is thir- teen miles distant from the town of Sherbrooke, and about twenty from the border of the State of Vermont. London, Jan. 1840. ILLUSTRATIONS. Vignette View of the Author's Farm at Compton . . . Title Spruce (Pinus Nigra) PAGE 8 Young Hemlock (Pinus Canadensis) 9 Old Hemlock ..... 9 Balsam (Pinus Balsamea) ....... 10 White Cedar (Thuja Ocddentalis) 13 Elm (Ulmus Americana) in a clearing . . . . . 14 Elm in the forest 15 A Hair of the Deer, magnified 23 Crystals of Snow . . . . . . . . .27 Black Wolf (Canis NuUlus) ...... 37 Canadian Lynx (Felis Canadensis) 41 Moose (Cervus Alces) 56 Singular Elm . . .101 Woodchuck (Arctomys Monax) 121 Spotted Fanwing (Acrydium Ornatum) 122 Copper-spot Carab (Calosoma Calidum) . . . ... 123 Yellow Dog-tooth Violet (Erytlironium Americanum) . . .124 Scarlet Tanager (Tanagra Rubra) . . . . . . 134 White Death-flower (Trillium Pictum) . . . . 160 Breeches Flower (Corydalis Cucullaria) . . . . 161 Horned Owl (Stria; Virginiana) 176 Red Squirrel (Sciurus Hudsonius) . . . . . . 178 Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly ( Papilio Turnus) . . . .183 Xll ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Imago and Pupa-skin of Cocnomyia Pallida . . . . 199 Barred Owl (Strix Nebulosa) . . . . . . .204 Maple (Acer Saccharinum) in a clearing . . . . 215 Maple in the forest 216 Larva, Pupa, and Imago of the Banded Purple Butterfly (Limenitis Arthemis) 220 Baltimore Fritillary (Melitcea Phaeton) 227 Giant Waterfly (Pteronarcys Regalis) 232 Pearly-eye Butterfly ( Hipparchia Andromacha) .... 246 Pink Arches Moth ( Thyatira Scripta) 249 Skunk (Mephitis Americana) ....... 254 Royal Tiger-moth (Arctia Virgo) 260 Archippus Butterfly ( Danais Arcliippus) 262 Canadian Pearl-fly (Cliauliodes Pectinicornis) . . . . 263 Deer-mouse (Gerbillus Canadensis) . . . . . .267 Touch-me-not ( Impatiens noli-tangere) 274 Indian Hen (Ardea Minor) ....... 275 Thorax and Abdomen of a Hymenopterous Pupa . . . 277 Gold-belted Hawkmoth (Mgeria, ?) 279 Needle Ichneumon (Pelednus Polycerator) .... 290 Pitcher-plant (Sarracenia Purpurea) 301 Larva of Saturnia Polyphemus . . , . . . 309 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. i. JANTTARV ERRATA. Paae 122, line 30, for " Cur-culio," read " Curculio." ' 144, line, 25, for stiking," read " striking." 212, line 11, for "basis," read ** bases." 226, line 7, for " Buprsetis," read " Buprestis. 1 238, line 11, omit the word "have." 285, line 3, for " Andecote," read " Anecdote. uau as ^uui limy mill 1 ^ IM age of understanding has been spent in England, your personal acquaintance with our natural history must of necessity be slight and limited. I mean your out-of-door researches ; which have been confined to the desultory observations you have made during the few months that have elapsed since your arrival in this country. An attentive eye, it is true, cannot fail to acquire information, ever new, among the countless objects of creation, at all times, and under all circumstances ; but the more fully to avail ourselves of our B Xll ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Imago and Pupa-skin of Cocnomyia Pallida . . . . 199 Barred Owl (Stria; Nebulosa) . . . . . . . 204 Maple (Acer Saccharinum) in a clearing . . . . 215 Maple in the forest 216 Larva, Pupa, and Imago of the Banded Purple Butterfly (Limenitis Artemis) . 220 Baltimore Fritillary (Melitaa Phaeton) 227 Giant Waterfly (Pteronarcys Regalis) 232 Pearly-eye Butterfly ( Hipparchia Andromacha) .... 246 Pink Arches Moth ( Thyatira Scripta) 249 Skunk (Mephitis Americana) 254 Royal Tiger-moth (Arctia Virgo) 260 Archippus Butterfly ( Danais Archippus J . . . . .262 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. i. JANUARY IST. Pleasures of Natural History. Plan of investigation. Aerial Spiculse. Expansive power of Frost in Trees. Opacity of Snow Blue Tint. Hairy Woodpecker Food, Manners, Services. Other Species of Picus their Conformation. Black- timbered Land. White Pine. Spruce. Hairy Lichen. Hemlock. Balsam its height. Tamarack. Strobiles. White Cedar Rails. Variety in Forms of Trees In- stances : Rock Maple. Beech Bass wood Elm Ash Butternut Birch Cherry Poplar Balm of Gilead. Variety in all created Objects. FATHER. My son, you have begun to taste the delights of the study of Nature, and have found it a pleasant and a flowery path to pursue ; but as your time since the age of understanding has been spent in England, your personal acquaintance with our natural history must of necessity be slight and limited. I mean your out-of-door researches; which have been confined to the desultory observations you have made during the few months that have elapsed since your arrival in this country. An attentive eye, it is true, cannot fail to acquire information, ever new, among the countless objects of creation, at all times, and under all circumstances ; but the more fully to avail ourselves of our . B 2 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. opportunities, I would propose to you a more regular and definite course of investigation. Let us from time to time, as circumstances permit, make excursions in forest or in field, to watch the progress of Nature through the changing seasons, to mark the half-hidden, half-apparent phenomena that occur, and to trace the guiding and sustaining hand of God, who " ruleth over all." CHARLES. Few things would give me greater pleasure. I have often felt the want of a companion in my walks, who, by his superior judgment, information, and experience, might remove my doubts, gratify my curiosity, and direct my at- tention to those subjects which are instructive as well as amusing ; for I anticipate both instruction and amusement from our inquiries, and enter into your proposal with de- light. F. Let us then begin with the year : it is not so cold as to be unpleasant, and a few miles' walk will promote health. We will go down to the North bridge, if you please, then after tracing the hard-frozen river until we reach Spafford's bridge, we will return by the village road. C. I have never followed the Coatacook up as far as that, and I should like it much : the morning is delightfully fine, and the air feels quite exhilarating. I notice that the air is full of minute dancing atoms, like the motes of sum- mer ; but these sparkle and flash in the sun, and reflect the tiny beams that fall on them, with a radiance unknown to the motes of dust. F. It is a -common phenomenon on all bright cold days in winter. I conceive them to be either small particles of frozen moisture floating in the air, or, more probably, minute fragments of the fine powdery snow, which have been taken up by the wind, and continue to float by their lightness. They give a brilliancy to the air, which it would not other- wise possess. JANUARY. 3 C. What loud noise is that in the forest? It sounds like the report of a large gun. I heard it too, while you were speaking. F. It was the expansion of a tree. Old trees, when cut down,, are often found to have the heart-wood so separated from the sap-wood, as to fall apart when a log is split through the centre ; and we find that the crevice or interme- diate space has been occupied by a film of ice. This explains those loud reports which we heard just now, and which so often occur in the forest in frosty weather. Some water has lodged in the tree perhaps in some maggot's or wood- pecker's hole, which, freezing, rends the wood by its irresist- ible force of expansion ; into the rent so formed, the water percolates as soon as a thaw comes, and freezing again, ex- tends the crevice downwards, each rent attended with these sudden and startling sounds. Sometimes we may observe a long crack in the trunk of a tree, extending through the sap- wood and bark ; and often an old bough is found to be nearly torn from the trunk ; both of which, I suppose, are caused by the same occurrence, the freezing of water. C. How dazzling the snow is in the sunshine ! Why is it opaque and white, instead of being transparent and co- lourless as ice ? Is there any difference in the formation of the two ? F. I believe not. The reason of the opacity and white- ness of snow is, that it is composed of very minute films of ice, which in falling rest in every possible angle, and reflect the light in every possible direction : if you take a single crystal of snow, you will see that it is perfectly transparent ; and if all the particles rested on each other in the same plane, the whole mass would be transparent as a similar mass of B 2 4 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. ice. But here is another phenomenon, no less curious : if you make a hole obliquely in a heap of snow, so that the light shall not shine directly into it, you will see that the light which is transmitted through the snow is of a brilliant blue colour, varying in depth of tint, according to the thick- ness of the mass. C. I perceive it is so. What is the cause of it ? F. The cause I cannot with certainty make known. That blue is the natural colour of the purest water is proved by two facts ; the first of which is however very little known to landsmen ; namely, that the sea, when out of soundings, is of a bright deep blue, (although a tumbler-full taken up is as clear as pure spring- water,) the green tint of the sea near shore, being caused by the nearness of the bottom. The other fact is, that the blueness of the sky, distant mountains, &c. depends on the particles of water held in vapour in the atmosphere ; the tint of these objects being deepened in intensity by an increase of moisture in the air. I have thought that possibly the phenomenon we have just noticed, may be but another exemplification of the same law; the medium through which the light is transmitted being but water frozen ; and that the continual breaking of the rays of light through such a multitude of particles may have the same effect as the loss of light in passing through a large mass of water. But this is only a conjecture. C. There is a woodpecker in the act of boring that de- cayed tree ; he makes the hollow woods echo with his loud and rapid taps. By his grey back, scarlet poll, and spotted wings, I know him to be the Hairy Woodpecker (Picus Villosm). What can he find in that old tree ? F. The grubs of some insects. Many species of beetles, JANUARY. 5 such as Buprestis, Elater, and Cerambyx ; the Sirexes ; some of the larger Tipulce, &c., inhabit the wood of trees in the larva state j and pupae of moths, with many perfect insects, are often concealed beneath the bark. C. He appears to have some success : for see how he renews his exertions : how he scales off the pieces of bark, and makes the rotten wood fly about. Ha ! there he goes, with his harsh laughing cry ; he has alighted on yonder dead spruce. He appears to prefer dead trees for his re- searches. F. Yes ; he knows that insects are not to be found in sound healthy trees, and they are all that he seeks. His instinct, however, discovers the incipient decay long before it is manifest to our senses, and eagerly probes for the hidden author of the mischief. C. Some of the old apple-trees in the orchard have their trunks almost covered with holes ,* in as regular rows as they could have been drilled by a carpenter. F. Perhaps, at every one of those holes, the useful woodpecker dragged forth a grub ; so rendering an essential service by keeping down the race of these destructive insects ; not by assisting the tree, for I suppose its doom is sealed before the bird attacks it. C. How many of the woodpeckers are indigenous ? F. It is probable that nearly all the American species are found in Canada. The Gold- winged (P. Auratus}, the Red-headed (P. Erythrocephalus), the Hairy (P. Villosus), are abundant, and I have seen the noble Pileated ( P. Pile- atusj, with his high pointed scarlet cap, and the Downy (P. Pubescens), the smallest of all the woodpeckers. Wil- son speaks of P. Varius and P. Carolinus, also, as inhabit- ing Canada. I have likewise seen the Northern three-toed Woodpecker (P. Tridactylus ) > so very common in New- foundland, known by its bright yellow crown. There are, 6 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. perhaps, no "birds more admirably calculated to prove design and intelligence in their formation than the woodpeckers ; whether we consider their large feet for grasping the inequa- lities of the bark, the rigid, sharp-pointed tail to support the body against the tree, the wedge-shaped beak, almost as strong and sharp as steel, the barbed tongue for bringing out the worm from the hole when bored, or the curious me- chanism for lengthening the tongue, by carrying its bone, the os hyoides, round the back of the skull to the nostril, so that it shall be sufficient to probe to the inmost recesses of the holes, and bring the insidious inhabitant to the light of day. All manifest infinite wisdom and skill. C. The land here on both sides is " black-timbered." What a sombre and even gloomy appearance such a forest has, when compared with the hard- woods. jP. That is partly owing to the black-wood or ever- green trees being in thick foliage, while the hard-wood or deciduous trees are leafless and open to the light ; but it is so in a degree even in summer, and arises from the fact, that the foliage is opaque, or at least not so pellucid as the deci- duous leaves ; besides, that the timber on such land is usually much more close and dense. C. The evergreens appear in winter of a much brighter hue than in summer. F. That is merely a deception : the hue is the same, a dark green ; which shows to advantage contrasted with the brown twigs and grey trunks of winter ; but in summer, when compared with the rich and massive green of the beech or maple, seems almost black. In spring, the tops of the evergreens assume a more verdant appearance, as the young leaf-buds then open ; but amidst the greater change which is JANUARY. 7 then taking place in all the trees of the wood, the alteration in these is scarcely observable. C. Will you mention the principal of our resinous ever- greens ? F. The white Pine (Pinus Strobus), usually called by way of eminence, Pine ; the Hemlock ( P. Canadensis ) , the Spruce (P. Nigra, and P. Alba), the Balsam or Fir (P. Balsamea), and the Tamarack (P. Pendula). There are others, but little known except to botanists. Of these the pine is the most valuable, as from the ease and smooth- ness with which it is worked, added to its large and straight growth, it is in great request for sawing into boards. C. There is not much pine growing in our neighbour- hood ; but I have seen some very large logs drawn out to Smith's mill. Moore told me the other day that he was then going in for a pine-log six feet in diameter : he had three yoke of oxen attached to his sled. F. That must have been one of unusual size. C. The pine makes a prettier appearance than the other species ; the diverging fascicles of leaves give it more the appearance of a deciduous tree, by making the surface more irregular : and it is not so conical as the others. F. Tastes differ : you do not then admire the conical form of the evergreens ? C. Perhaps a prejudice against the whole genus, on account of the general barrenness of the land where they grow, has prevented my seeing the beauty which they really possess ; though a tall and slender balsam is certainly a very beautiful object. The inspired prophet considers the fir an emblem of beauty ; " instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree ;" but of course it is not the same species as ours. F. The spruce is the most valuable after the pine, for THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. which it is in some degree a substitute, though spruce boards do not possess the good qualities of pine in the same degree. It is much used in building. The hemlock, as you are aware, is a majestic tree, though of very little use ; and as it grows on the poorest and most swampy land, it is generally regarded as an incumbrance, not worth the labour of felling. Yet it is some- times sawn into board and plank; the former, though rough-grain- ed, answers for under-covering of roofs, and for fencing ; and the latter, from its solidity, is well enough adapted for the flooring of barns. But as many good- looking trees prove unsound at heart, it is not much sought for, and is often burnt on the land when cut down, after having been first stripped of its bark, which is bought at a good price by the tanners. C. What is that yellow hair-like substance, which de- pends in long ragged masses from the hemlock and other trees, but most abundantly from the spruce ? F. A friend of mine gave it the name of " Absalom's Hair." It is a Lichen, but I do not know its name. It chiefly entwines about the upper branches of the tree, to which I should suppose it is very prejudicial, as those trees which are covered with it seem almost in a dying state. It SPRUCE. Pinus Nigra. JANUARY. 9 resembles the Tillandsia Usneoides of the Southern States, but only in appearance : it is probably an Usnea. C. How different is the appearance of a young hem- lock from that of an old one ! the former has a feathery and graceful lightness, bending to the slightest breeze ; but when old it has become sturdy, the bark rough and deeply fur- rowed, full of gnarled snags, and broken limbs, the top generally blighted and dead, and the foliage almost deprived of that pencilled grace which gave such a charm to its youthful days. OLD HEMLOCK. Pinus Canadensis. 10 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. F. Like nobler creatures, it often survives its beauty. The fir or balsam is the most elegant of the pine family : it usually grows very straight ; the branches project all at the same angle, and grow to a length which diminishes with great regularity as they approach the top ; giving to the tree the form of a slender but very regular cone. The foliage is dense, and of a greener tint than that of the others, which gives it additional beauty, and the bark is very smooth and fair. Its surface is covered with bladders full of a fluid resin, which hardens by long exposure : this is the Canada Balsam of the apothecaries, and gives the spe- cific name. C. Does the fir grow to a great height ? F. Not perhaps to the gigantic altitude of the hemlock or pine, but it is by no means a dwarf. It is quite a common thing, on looking from an elevation, to see the dark, conical, spear- like tops of the firs rising here and there, above the general mass of foliage. A circumstance recently led me to inquire into this. I had read in a work of scientific authority, that "the Balsam (Abies Ealsamea) rarely grows above the height of forty feet :" this remark struck me at once as incorrect, as I had often seen them much higher. To satisfy myself, I went into the woods, and felled almost the first I saw, one of by no means extraordinary stature, and found the height, by BALSAM. Pinus Balsamea. JANUARY. 11 careful measurement, seventy-six and a half feet : it was in full and vigorous growth, bearing no marks of age : the dia- meter at the base was about eighteen inches. Mr. Bill in- forms me that he has taken two mill-logs of fourteen feet each, fit for sawing, from the butt of a balsam, leaving of course a good length of " top." This must have been a large tree, as the part which would be suitable for boards, could not probably have been more than one-third of the whole, which would make the height eighty-four feet. C. The wood of the fir is not often used for sawing, I believe. F. No : it does not make good board : the timber, however, is valuable for staves of casks and buckets, and is likewise made into sap-troughs for the sugary. These are very simply manufactured : a log of balsam, two feet long, is split through the centre, the middle of each half is then hollowed out with the axe, and two troughs are finished. The larch or tamarack, though I mentioned it among the evergreens, from its belonging to the same family, is really deciduous ; losing its leaves in October, and resuming them in May. Its wood is very little used j some- times, however, it is hewn for building, or applied to other more trivial purposes : it is close-grained and hard, when seasoned. C. We do not use any of these woods for fuel. F. When green they burn, notwithstanding their resi- nous nature, with difficulty ; and even when dry, they con- sume so quickly, and so continually throw out lighted frag- ments, "flankers," as they are called, that they are confined to our close stoves. You are aware that the seeds are pro- duced in strobiles, or cones, with imbricated woody scales, which are very closely pressed together, to protect the seeds, one of which is beneath each scale. The strobiles open in THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. spring, and the seed is scattered. After I had felled the balsam I spoke of, I was surprised to see near the top, great numbers of upright pointed stalks, like thorns, about an inch and a half long ; but found on examination that these were the axes or centres of the cones, which had been stripped of their scales in falling, by the shock ; for from the cones that were still perfect, (it was in March,) the scales, which were standing loosely out at right angles to the axis, came off on the slightest touch ; and the snow for many feet round the top of the fallen tree was thickly strewn with those which had been shaken off. C. I have observed in all trees of this family, that the cones are congregated at the extreme summit of the tree. Have you mentioned all the resinous trees ? -F, No : there is one of majestic size, and of no little importance, which I have omitted : the White Cedar, which belongs, notwithstanding its general resemblance to the pines, to a different genus. It is the Thuja Occidentalis of botanists. The leaves are small, and curiously imbricated or lapped over each other ; the branches slender, and usually pendent; the bark fibrous and stringy: from the facility with which it is split, but chiefly from its great durability, almost incorruptibility, it is in great request for the rails that compose those unsightly zigzag fences, so offensive to the eye of one accustomed to the verdant and blooming hedge- rows of England. Cedar rails may be exposed to every vicissitude of weather for a man's lifetime, without manifest- ing any symptom of decay, except the separation of the bark. It chiefly grows in marshes, and so densely as to render them almost impenetrable. A cedar swamp is a valuable addition to a Canadian farm ; and with us they are already getting scarce, and no providence seems to be ma- nifested for the future. JANUARY. 13 WHITE CEDAR. Thuja Occidental. C. How great a variety is displayed in the form, or manner of growth, of the different trees. F. So much, that even when divested of their leaves, it is quite easy to name any tree, by a view of the trunk and limbs alone. The Rock Maple (Acer Saccharinum), sends up a straight trunk, disfigured with hard and gnarled protuberances, shooting out its branches nearly at right angles, which are bent and contorted in every possible di- u THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. rection. The Beech (Fagus Ferruginea), has a straight trunk, but it is remarkably smooth, of a bluish-grey, with white and dark patches : its branches are longer and straighter, and the twigs come to a finer point, than those of the maple. The Bass wood (Tilia Glabra), is much like the maple, but the trunk is usually rounder, and more pillar-like, and though fissured like it, yet the fissures are more regular, and it is free from those knobs which cha- racterize the sugar-maple. The Elm (Ulmus Americana), growing in the open clearing, with a full supply of light ELM ( Ulmus Americana) IN A CLEARING. JANUARY. J> and air, divides near the bottom, into several leading branches, which continue to grow upward to a great length, dividing and subdividing into many smaller ramifications, which pursue the same upward direction, gradually spread- ing outwards, which gives the tree a broad and some- what flattened top, while all the other trees are conical or rounded. In the forest, the elm is the most lofty of ELM (Ulmus Americana) IN THE FOREST. 16 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. trees, with a remarkably straight round trunk, deeply fur- rowed, and almost white, without a branch till the top, which is small for the height and size of the tree, and much contorted. C. In the clearing, the elm is marked by having the trunk and limbs covered with branches of little ragged twigs, as if clothed with tufts of hair. F. The White and Brown Ash (Fraxinus Acumi- nata and F, Sambucifolia), growing in the clearing, are graceful trees ; the branches diverge from the central stem, with a double curve, like the branches of a chandelier, di- minishing in length with great regularity as they proceed upward. The twigs are thick, and do not taper to a point, but end abruptly, the terminal buds being large. In the forest the size of the twigs is the chief difference between the large ashes and elms, the twigs of the latter being very fine ; the brown ash, however, is more liable to be crooked, and the bark is more smooth and scaly : the white rarely grows so large, its trunk is not so light coloured, and its fur- rows not perpendicular, but somewhat lozenge- shaped. The Butternut (Juglans Cinerea), can with difficulty be dis- tinguished from the white ash without close examination of the buds: it is, however, a more spreading tree, the lower limbs being longer. The Birch (Betula Papyracea) is easily known by its bark, which, when young, has a satiny glossiness, that is always retained on the limbs : when old the bark becomes ragged, and peels off in thin paper-like rolls, many of which, half-separated, are always to be seen on an old birch. The bark of the Cherry (Prunus Virgi- niana), has somewhat of the same peeling property, but in a much less degree ; it is not so silky nor so flexible, and is more of a scaly nature : it generally has a purplish tinge. The Poplar (Populus Tremuloides ) , is remarkable for the JANUARY. 17 colour of its bark ; a smooth greenish white, which comes off on being touched, as if it were whitewashed. The Balm of Gilead (Populus Balsamifera ) , has a similar ap- pearance, but the trunk is furrowed, and the terminal buds are much larger. C. In fact, every species of tree seems to have an individuality stamped on it, which, amidst all its accidental contortions, is sufficient to distinguish it from others. The variety is indeed remarkable. F. It is not, however, confined to trees ; it pervades all the works of God. Indeed, I doubt if there were ever two objects created, of whatever kind, between which there was not some difference, if our senses were acute enough to appreciate it. It is a fact worthy to be noted, that even where the materials and component parts are uniform, the same variety exists. Who has not observed this, in the "human face divine ?" Though the same features, and maintaining the same relative position, exist in all, yet what two countenances were ever so much alike as not to be at once distinguished on familiar acquaintance ? This fact gives me an exalted conception of the Divine wisdom, of the inexhaustible resources of the mind of God. " How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out ! " This amazing diversity in all the realms of Nature of which we have any cognizance, has in- duced me to think, that if, as is most reasonable to con- clude, other worlds are peopled by intellectual beings, they probably possess forms, senses, and powers, of which we have not the slightest conception. We find the plants and animals of England differing from those of France ; still more from those of Africa or Asia : in America or New Holland we find an almost total change of form. A far greater differ- ence is found between the organic remains of this globe 18 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. prior lo the Adamic creation, and the inhabitants of the present state.* Where are now the mastodons, the mega- theriums, the saurian giants of those days ? But surely if we make so vast a leap as from one world to another, the very forms of terrestrial things would be obliterated, and a corresponding difference appear, which nothing but infinite Wisdom could devise. This we may never know till we become denizens of that changeless state to which time and space are nothing : when we shall know as we are known. But we have completed our circumambulation, and are just at home. * It is scarcely necessary to remark, that there is nothing in the Word of God, which opposes the commonly received opinion, that this world had an existence in a habitable state, previous to the chaos which prevailed at the commencement of the Sacred narrative. 19 II. FEBRUARY 1st. Silver Thaw. Brilliance of the Meteor its fragility. Youthful Pros- pects. Love of Nature. Cause of the Phenomenon. Virginian Deer. Rackets. Hair of the Deer. Black-capped Titmouse its Food Song. Anecdote. Flakes of Snow their beauty, variety, and regu- larity difficulty of viewing and delineating them. Perfection of the Divine Work. Frosted Windows. Uses of Snow. Notes of the Winter of 1837-8. FATHER. A rain has fallen during the night, which has touched the face of Nature with a magician's wand. Come, and I will show you such a scene of splendour, as you will not see every day. Observe the woods : every little twig of every tree, every bush, every blade of grass, is enshrined in crystal : here is a whole forest of sparkling, transparent glass, even to the minute needle-like leaves of the pines and firs. What are the candle-light lustres and chandeliers of the ball-room, compared with this ? Now the sun shines out ; see, what a glitter of light ! how the beams, broken as it were, into ten thousand fragments, sparkle and dance as they are reflected from the trees. CHARLES. It is very beautiful. It reminds me of some of the fairy scenes in the Arabian Nights. F. Yes ; it is a scene of brilliance ; but beautiful as it is, it is no less fragile : a slight touch from a rude hand is sufficient to destroy it : on my striking the trunk of this tree, see ! the air is filled with a descending shower of the glittering fragments, and the potent spell is broken at once ; THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. the splendour has vanished; the crystal pageant has re- turned to its old sober appearance, and is now nothing more than a brown leafless tree. What a figure of youthful hopes and prospects ! when we first enter into life how buoyant are our feelings, how flattering our expectations ! everything promises enjoyment : life seems to be but another word for joy : every object appears clothed with crystal, and tinged with the colour of the rose. But years pass on, " Time, the churl, he beckons, And we must away, away !" the rush of years shivers the crystal tree ; years of toil, struggles for the means of existence, blighted hopes, inter- course with a cold world, destroy the illusion, and rob life of its poetry and romance. " There was a time, when meadow, grove, and stream, The earth, and every common sight, To me did seem Apparell'd in celestial light, The glory and the freshness of a dream. It is not now as it hath been of yore ; Turn wheresoe'er I may, By night or day, The things which I have seen, I now can see no more." Yet to a well-constituted mind, a mind whose peace is made with God, this life is not without many unalloyed pleasures : though the freshness of early days is passed away, other joys, of a more sober character, it is true, are still of- fered to our grasp. Among these, not the least is the power of seeing God in his works, " the habit of wishing to discover the good and the beautiful in all that meet and surround us ;" even in the minutest and humblest objects of creation. This taste I have long cultivated in myself, and I would wish to awaken it in you, that you may still have sources of FEBRUARY. 1 pleasure, wide and deep, after the rapture of youth is felt only in memory. C. Dear father, I already love the study of natural history ; I scarcely know a greater delight than to bury myself in the woods, and watch the habits of the birds and insects, or inquire into the hidden causes of the phenomena which present themselves to my observation. What is the cause of the brilliant appearance we are now observing ? Is it common ? .F. I have not often observed it here, but in Newfound- land it is by no means rare, where it is known by the name of " silver thaw." It is caused by rain descending when the stratum of air nearest the earth is below the temperature of 32, and consequently freezing the instant it touches any object : the ice accumulates with every drop, until a thick transparent coating is formed. I was once exposed to a shower of this kind; the rain fell fast "on my coat, and I wondered that the drops did not soak into the cloth ; on feeling them with my finger, I found, to my surprise, that they were hard frozen, and that my clothes were covered with little glassy buttons of ice. It would then change to a hail shower, then rain again, and so on ; hail, and freezing rain alternating at intervals of a minute or two, for about half-an-hour, when it terminated in a heavy snow-storm. I infer from these circumstances, that there is a close resem- blance between the phenomenon we now observe, and hail ; that the silver thaw would be hail if the freezing drops had a few yards farther to fall. C, Is not this a favourable time for hunting the deer ? F. Yes : the freezing rain has covered the snow with a slight crust, which is not sufficient to sustain the weight of the deer, but an which a man on snow-shoes can travel XX, THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. with considerable rapidity. You have seen snow-shoes or rackets ? C. Richardson showed me a pair : he is an experienced hunter, and is provided with all such things. They are made of a piece of white-ash, or other tough wood, bent and secured in an oval form, and a network of interlaced thongs of deer-skin is stretched across, on which the foot rests, and two straps of leather fasten it on. I tried them on, but I could not walk with them, the rims struck my ankles at every step. F. Like most other things, they require practice to be of much service. The deer seem to be aware of their inferi- ority on these occasions, for I have been told that sometimes they will not attempt to run, nor make the slightest effort to escape, until the hunters come up, and pass the knife across their throats. C. Is not our common deer the Cervus Virginianm of naturalists ? F. Yes : we have only the Virginian deer and the Moose (C.Alces), that I am aware of; though the Caribou, or Reindeer (C, Tarandus), is, I believe, found north of the St. Lawrence. This last is common in Newfoundland. The Moose is the Elk of Europe ; but the " Elk " of the Americans is a much smaller species, though still a very fine animal; it is the Wapiti (C. Wapiti), which is confined to the Western States. There is a remarkable peculiarity which is said to belong to that curious animal, the Prong- horned Antelope of the Rocky Mountains (Antilope Furci- ferj, which I have observed in our common deer. (C. Virg.) It is the singular form and texture of the hair. In winter the hair is very tubular, like a bird's quill, and so inelastic as to crumple on the slightest pressure ; when bent, it crushes into a sharp angle, in which shape it remains : it is ex- FEBRUARY. ceedingly soft and brittle ; its colour is mostly white, tinged with red,, but some of it is dark brown just at the tip : the root of every hair is more slender than the other part, the transition being abrupt ; and this part looks exactly like the barrel of a quill in minia- ture : the extremity is gene- rally waved. I believe this conformation is peculiar to this northern climate, and to winter, even here ; in sum- mer, the hair resembles that of other animals. Its coat is then of an uniform reddish brown, but in winter its co- lour is a greyish russet, not easily to be described. The venison is very juicy, and of delicious flavour ; but to an American palate, a piece of fat pork has far greater charms. A HAIR OF THE DEER MAGNIFIED. C. Here is our constant merry little friend, the Black- capped Titmouse (Parus Atricapillus). The coldest wea- ther he seems to regard with indifference : though the mer- cury a day or two ago stood more than 30 below zero, yet enveloped in his warm feathery coat, he has weathered it all, THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. and is now tumbling and twisting around the branches, and chirping as gleefully as if it were " the glorious summer time." F. It is emphatically a winter bird ; or at least it is then more seen : during the whole year we may find it, if we go into the dark and sombre recesses of the cedar swamps, but as winter approaches, it comes out to the edges of the woods and road-sides. What the cause of this visit to the clearings may be, I know not ; I should think it would be more protected from the inclemency of the winter's storms in the woods, and it does not appear that food is its object, as this seems to be confined to the trees ; on which, indeed, it always seeks it, for I do not remember ever having seen a Titmouse on the ground. C. Its food, I suppose, consists of the numberless mi- nute insects which are concealed during winter in the crevices of the bark, and among the twigs of the trees, with seeds of evergreens occasionally, though from its bill it is evidently, insectivorous. F. We may form some idea of its success by examining carefully some old tree. Let us look among the curled and ragged bark of this old birch. Here are two Ichneumonidce to begin with ; three minute Chrysomelina, an Elater, two species of Carabus, a pupa of a small moth, three or four flies, and several spiders. No bad meal for a little bird ; and as he is a most restless little fellow, all day long engaged in the search, with the twofold advantage of instinct and experience, no doubt he fares well. C. Its song, without being very musical, is cheerful ; and there is considerable variety in the two or three notes which compose it. F. In spring, it is fond of a chirp which much resem- bles the words "sweet weather." I recollect a rather laughable incident connected with this note. In Newfound- FEBRUARY. 25 land, in the latter part of May, after the sealing voyage is closed, among other preparations for the cod-fishery, the crews are sent into the woods to cut rinds. A rind is the whole bark, for about five feet in length, of a young fir, or spruce, which, (an incision all round at each end, and a longitudinal division, having been made,) is at that season easily stripped off: when pressed flat, they are used as a covering for piles of fish in wet weather. A crew were thus engaged one bright morning, after a light fall of snow j the heat of the sun made the snow run in a continual dripping from the trees ; and the little tomtits were hopping round them, saying " sweet weather," in a tone that seemed to indicate the highest enjoyment. One poor fellow, of a some- what testy disposition, annoyed by the dripping, and almost blinded by the perspiration running into his eyes, took it into his head that the bird was taunting him with the peculiar appropriateness of the weather to his occupation ; or perhaps was vexed that the bird should show so much enjoyment at what was to him so uncomfortable. However, he presently flew into a violent passion, flung his little hatchet at the tomtit, and pursued him in a rage from tree to tree, crying " Sweet weather ! is it ? I'll tell ye what sort o' weather 'tis ; " and so on, till fairly exhausted with his silly exer- tions, he returned somewhat crest-fallen, to his jeering com- rades, leaving the bird to enjoy its own opinion respecting the weather, or any other subject of its meditations. C. A particularly amiable disposition, which could find sources of vexation in the bright sun of spring, and the song of an innocent bird ! But perhaps there was some excuse. F. The clouds are gathering to windward, and from their blackness I fear a snow-storm : we ha/1 better return homeward. C. A few scattered flakes are already falling. F. It is a good opportunity to direct your attention to c 26 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. the very great beauty which is shown in the forms of flakes of snow : a beauty and regularity that is as little seen or sus- pected by people in general, as if it had no existence. Take this pocket magnifier, and examine with it some of those on your sleeve. C. They are elegant and beautiful indeed : thin and flat stars of transparent crystal, resembling in beauty and variety of shape the forms produced by the kaleidoscope. Scarcely two are found agreeing in shape. F. Can you find no point in which they all agree ? C. On closer examination, I perceive that all have exactly six rays or points, and no more. F. That circumstance reveals the secret of their regu- larity : all crystallizing substances shoot out needles or points at a certain definite angle ; which never varies in the same substances, but has an almost infinite variety in different substances. This is called the angle of crystallization : in the freezing of water, this angle is one of sixty degrees, exactly a sixth part of a circle : whatever part of a flake of snow we examine, however complex it may be, we shall always find the needle forming with the line from which it shoots, an angle of 60. We sometimes find fragments of stars, but if there are two rays still attached, they bear this unvarying relation to each other. C. It would be a pleasing amusement to observe and delineate the various forms of the flakes. F. - J It is attended with difficulty : only in the open air can they be examined ; for so frail is their nature, that the slightest elevation of temperature above the freezing point instantly destroys them. Even out of doors, unless the wea- ther be very cold, the close proximity to the eye to which they must be brought for microscopic examination is suffi- cient to obliterate their form ; and the open air, at a tempera- ture far below freezing, during a snow-storm, is by no means FEBRUARY. a favourable scene for the occupation of, drawing. I have, however, copied a few crystals, which attracted my observa- tion, and which I will show you. Captain Scoresby, in his CRYSTALS OF SNOW. very interesting work on the whale fishery, has, if I recollect right, a considerable number represented : but it is many years since I saw that work, and I have no opportunity of referring to it. C. I am surprised that I never observed them before. F. Several circumstances must combine to produce a favourable occasion for viewing them : if there is any current of mild air, through which they pass, they become soft and c 2 28 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. adhere to each other, making those shapeless masses which we call large flakes, and which we justly consider a sign that the snow will end in rain, as indicating a temperature high enough to melt the falling snow. If the air near the earth is warmer than that above, the crystals melt as soon as they are deposited : if there is any wind, the crystals are blown about, and so beaten against each other as to be broken into minute fragments, forming small snow, which never falls except during wind. They must be received on a dark substance to display them properly, and even at the best, their minuteness, rarely exceeding an eighth of an inch in diameter, is sufficient to cause them to be overlooked by any eye, but one accustomed to pry into the minutiae of creation. C. How brilliant is their polish, even when highly magnified ; and how perfect and well-defined their outline ! F. Oh, yes ! the works of God alone will bear a close examination. If we take the most delicate production of hu- man workmanship, and subject its parts to the power of a high magnifier, we shall see that however fair it appeared as a whole, it was composed of ragged and shapeless parts, and that its beauties were only produced by the defective nature of our senses. Look at a fine miniature painting : it is made up of minute dots, which, when magnified, are seen to be uncouth blotches, coarse and without form. But examine the Divine handiwork ; take a minute animal ; a house-fly from the window ; its head appears little more than an atom, yet it contains various organs of sensation as elaborate as ours : bring one of its eyes beneath a micro- scope, it is composed of a vast multitude of convex lenses, hexagonal in shape, polished, and transparent, and each one endowed with all the parts requisite for perfect and inde- pendent vision. Nothing coarse or shapeless is there ; and FEBRUARY. 29 it is so in every case : the most minute crystal or point on your sleeve is of faultless regularity and beauty. C. How are the crystals on windows formed ? those which are called frosted flowers, and which are so often seen in our bedrooms on cold mornings. F. By the shooting out of radiating needles in the man- ner I have described ; but why these crystals take the fan- tastic forms of leaves and flowers, instead of regular angles, I cannot explain. Perhaps, if our instruments were of suffi- cient power, we should find that the individual crystals do shoot in the usual direction, but are so minute that we lose them in the whole.' As an apparent circle may be formed of very short right lines. C. When these leaf-like figures are large, they possess considerable elegance. Why are they smaller in very cold weather ? F. Probably, because then the freezing or crystallization begins at more points at once, each point being the centre of its own radiation, and the needles meet each other at shorter distances. But in milder weather, the surface not being cooled so rapidly, the crystals have more time and longer space to shoot in, and so make larger figures ; as there are fewer centres of radiation. I have sometimes seen the hoar frost stand up perpendicularly from the glass to the height of half an inch, and 'nearly as thick as snow : but this has been when the room has been much charged with vapour, and the exterior air at a very low temperature. C. It is well we have gained the shelter of home : how thickly and how fast the flakes of snow descend : they coalesce, and are become quite large. F. And how noiselessly they descend : it bids fair to be a heavy fall : probably by the morning light a dense coat of many inches will have covered the earth; yet not the slightest SO THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. sound will have given us warning of such an event. It is a pretty sight to take a candle to the window : the feeble light can penetrate but a little way into the deep pitchy darkness, but every foot of that blackness is thickly studded with the white descending flakes, which the light makes prominent. C. I know that nothing is created in vain, or without an end : but I should like to be informed, what are the uses of the winter's snow. F. From the lightness of snow, it is a poor conductor of caloric : that is, the matter of heat does not readily pass through it, or into it frojm. contiguous substances. C. I recollect reading of a woman who was lost in a storm, and lay for several days buried up in an immense snow-drift ; and who declared that she had not suffered from cold, the snow having kept her warm like a blanket. F. Just such a purpose does the snow serve to the earth : the grand scene of Nature's operations during winter is below the surface of the ground, where she is preparing the germs and roots soon to shoot forth ; elaborating juices and consolidating parts, previous to the active vegetation of spring. But if the ground were left bare, in cold climates, it would be hard frozen to a great depth, and the vegetative life would be either destroyed or suspended ; and the spring would be very far advanced before the earth could be thawed. To prevent these ill effects, God has mercifully ordained that a soft and warm covering shall be provided, the offspring of that very cold which is to be guarded against, thus making the evil work its own remedy. Among the subordinate uses, may be reckoned the advantage of having good roads made by it, for the conveying of produce to markets, drawing wood, manure, &c. : a benefit by no means small, and one which the farmer well knows how to appreciate. This was mani- fest in the winter of 1837-38, a winter remarkable for the FEBRUARY. '31 extreme mildness of the greater portion of it. Here are some notes I thought worth taking at the time. December had been rather cold with a little snow, sufficient to facilitate travelling. At the commencement of the year 1838, we had mild weather, with little snow on the ground, but the roads were still in excellent condition. From the third to the eighth of January we had a thaw with heavy rains, which took away all the snow: the state of nature exactly resembled spring : sheep and cattle feeding in the fields, streams and brooks flooded, roads filled with deep mud, travelling per- formed wholly on wheels or on horseback, instead of sleighs ; and I read that in Upper Canada even some trees had burst their leaf-buds. The roads continued bare, with some slight frosts, until the nineteenth, when about four inches of snow falling, a new life was put into every kind of business ; the roads were thronged with sleds loaded with hay, grain, car- casses of meat, and all other necessaries, which had been so long prevented from travelling by the state of the roads, as to cause great inconvenience, and in some cases even distress. To the end of January, the weather continued mild, but the whole of February was very severe, and this month, with the latter part of December, was in fact all that we could really call winter; for as early as the first of March, the snow began rapidly to disappear from the roads and fields ; by the tenth, the sap of the sugar maple was flowing freely ; the catkins of the poplars and willows opened about the middle of the month ; the spring birds and insects appeared, and all things promised a very early season, which was, however, much retarded by continued cold weather in April. It was followed by an unusually wet and warm summer. III. FEBRUARY 15th. Masses of Snow on the Evergreens. Foot-marks of Field Mouse. Squirrel. Wolf. Anecdotes. Description of Black Wolf. Fero- city of Carnivorous Animals. Puma. Lynx. Otter. Beaver. Musk-rat. Equalization of Blessings of Providence. Tokens of ex- treme Cold. Sunset. Northern Lights. CHARLES. How clear and cloudless is the sky, and how exhilarating is the atmosphere after last night's snow ! There is not a breath of air even to stir the hemlocks and spruces, whose flat branches are clothed with a thick mantle of pure unsullied snow. FATHER. I much admire the soft-woods after a heavy fall of snow : the form of the boughs causes it to appear like hanging drapery, and the great contrast between the sombre foliage and the brilliant whiteness of the masses of snow, has a fine effect. C. Here are some tiny tracks in the snow ; little feet- must have made these : their path is not more than half an inch wide. F. They are probably made by the Field Mouse ( Ar- vicola Pennsylvanicus ) , though I have once seen the domes- tic mouse in the snow at a considerable distance from a house. But here our well-known nimble little friend, the Red Squirrel ( Sciurus Hudsonius), has crossed the road: he makes a very singular trail ; his two fore feet being so short, make their marks close to each other, while the hind footsteps are quite FEBRUARY. 33 wide apart, and now and then there is a little sweep from his brush of a tail. C. Oh ! the rogue ! see, he has come direct from the barn ; I warrant with some grains of wheat in his mouth, to be deposited in his hole beneath the gnarled root of some tree. F. The squirrel is particularly assiduous in his atten- tions to the barn as long as the wheat remains in it ; nor does he altogether treat the oats with contempt. But if we want tracks, let us seek the woods. We will go a little way into the swamp. What do you suppose are these ? C. A fox's tracks. F. Oh, no ! they are much too large : a wolf has passed here since last evening. C Had we not better return ? I hardly like to be so near him. F. You need not fear : he is before this time snugly concealed in some hollow log, far in the gloomiest and densest part of the swamp : he would not trust himself abroad by daylight. C. Would he not attack a man, however, if he met him abroad ? F. I think not, even under any circumstances, except when so hemmed up as to render escape difficult, or made desperate by hunger. C. I suppose they are dangerous when they do attack a man. F. Yes : they are stronger than a dog of the same size, and their mode of biting is very different from that of a dog : instead of retaining his hold as a dog does, when he seizes his enemy, the wolf bites by repeated snaps, given, however, with great force. As illustrative of this habit, I may men- tion a farmer in New Hampshire, not very far from this 84 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. place, who was one night awakened by a noise in his hog- pen ; on looking out he saw what he supposed to be a fox on the low sloping roof of the sty. He immediately ran cut- in his shirt, but found that the animal was a Grey Wolf, which, instead of making off, fiercely attacked him, rushing down the roof towards him, and before the man had time to move back, the wolf had bitten his arm three times, with these quick and repeated snaps, lacerating it from the elbow to the wrist : then, however, he leaped from the roof to the ground, and by so doing lost his advantage : for the man succeeded in seizing him on each side of the neck, with his hands, and held him firmly in that position till his wife, whom he called out, came up with a large butcher's knife, and cut the beast's throat. It was three' months before the man's arm was healed : every incision, it was said, piercing to the bone. C. The woman must have had some courage, to cut the animal's throat. Is any bounty given for the destruction of the wolf? F. Ten dollars are given in this province j but I believe double that amount is paid in the state of New Hampshire, where this encounter took place. The ears of the wolf are considered in law as the representative of the animal : these being burnt in the presence of any justice of the peace, the bounty is claimed. C. Is there more than one species of wolf found in this country ? F. There are two, the Black (Canis Nubilm), and the Grey (Canis Lupus, var. Borealis). The former is considered the more ferocious and dangerous, but is rather less common. Both kinds have within a few years become alarmingly numerous, after having been for a considerable time almost unknown in the settlements. Last fall we used to hear their dismal howlings in the adjacent woods almost FEBRUARY. 35 every evening; and many of the neighbours. lost their sheep, when left in the field : sometimes I have known as many as ten sheep killed out of a flock in one night. C. What means are used for destroying them ? F. Sometimes, when considerable havoc has been made among the sheep, a general assembly of the neighbourhood is called, who proceed to the swamp where the wolves are supposed to harbour by day, armed with guns, pitchforks, or clubs : they then separate, to surround the swamp, and travel towards the centre, lessening the circle as they pro- ceed. Whatever animals are in the swamp are of course roused, and are generally killed. One of these hunts I attended last fall, but we had not a sufficient number of men to be close to each other: we put up a Black Wolf, but he broke through the ring, and escaped, though shot at. But the more ordinary methods of taking them are by traps or poison, which are chiefly set in winter. When caught in a trap, the wolf is generally so cowed as to allow a man to go up to him and handle him like a dog ; though it is a dan- gerous experiment. A very large grey wolf was poisoned a few weeks ago by J. Hughes ; I went to his house to see it, but was disappointed, as he had sent it to Sherbrooke. He told me that it measured six feet in length, including the tail, and that it stood about three feet high : though very poor, it was as large round as a good-sized sheep: and probably would weigh about seventy pounds. The mode of setting poison is this : the kernels or seeds of nux vomica are grated or pounded, then mixed up with three or four times their bulk of fat or grease, and honey wolves are very fond of the latter and made into balls about as large as a hen's egg. These are placed in the woods, covered with a piece of flesh or tripe, and some offal is hung on a tree near the spot to attract the wolves by its scent. Hughes says, that a large space round the tree was beaten hard, by the 36 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. wolfs walking round, and leaping up, in endeavouring to reach the offal. He had not run above eight rods from the poisoning place before he died. I was afterwards more suc- cessful : hearing that Captain Sleeper had poisoned one, I called to see it, and made a careful examination of it ; that is, of the stuffed skin. It was a black wolf: it had not been opened at the belly, but the carcass had been drawn out at the mouth, which of course had to be enlarged, so that I could form little idea of the shape of the head, or size of the mouth. The length of the animal was four feet from the nose to the insertion of the tail ; the tail one foot eight inches ; from the nose to the eye, four and a half inches ; from the nose to the ear, ten inches ; distance between the ears, three and a half inches ; (the ears had been cut off for the bounty, so that I could not ascertain their length;) the height at fore shoulder, two feet three inches : length of fore legs, one foot four inches ; girth of body, about two feet seven inches. The general colour of the body was brownish black, somewhat mottled with darker ; the belly was much lighter, but a broad stripe of black, undefined at the edges, ran from the breast down the middle of the belly : the back was blackish, very slightly mottled with white, caused by the intermixture of different hairs ; the body was covered with a soft thick down, light grey at the root and brownish grey at the end ; besides this fur there was likewise a longer hair, which gave the colour of the animal ; this hair on the back was white at the root, then black, then pure white, then black at the tip ; this gave a speckled appearance to the back. The tail was large and bushy ; the hair long, loose, and nearly black : the throat and breast were nearly black ; the feet and legs black ; the hair on the front of the legs close, shining, and bristly : the head was black, the face covered with short close hair ; the nose pointed, small, and black : the ears were said to be short, pointed, and upright. It was a female, and was with young at the time. FEBRUARY. 37 BLACK WOLF. Canis Nubttus. C. Have you never seen a living one ? F. Soon after I had seen the skin I have just described, I saw at Sherbrooke, in the possession of Mr. Robert Armour, a full grown black wolf, which had been caught in a trap by one of the fore feet, and had received by it a severe wound ; this was then healing, by the animal's being in the habit of continually licking it. It was kept in a dark closet, fastened by a chain round the neck, but quite unmuzzled. The wo- man who showed it to me, on opening the closet, which stank abominably, seized the chain, and dragged him, maugre his efforts to remain concealed, into daylight. While in the room, he showed no sign of ferocity, except the wild fiery glare of his eye, but extreme timidity, darting from side to side, as far as his chain would allow him, huddling into a corner, and when disturbed, rushing into another. He could 00 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. not be made to stand on his feet, but when pulled out of the corners, would lie down, shrinking together as much as possible. The woman, a stout Irish girl, made no scruple of going up to him and handling him, which he did not attempt to resent ; but when his chain, was slackened, gladly rushed back to his odoriferous closet. His tail was bushy, much like a fox's ; his nose very sharp ; and his ears short, erect, pointed, and black : the general colour and appearance were similar 4o those of Sleeper's. C. Does the wolf attain to a great age ? F. We have very limited means of arriving at any satisfactory conclusion respecting the period of life of wild, animals, especially the Carnivora. As they live by violence and rapine, and as the supply of their wants necessarily be- comes more and more precarious as the vigour of youth de- parts, it is probable they do not often nearly complete the period of life allotted to their respective species. Some in- stances, however, no doubt occur, in which the animal attains the utmost verge of existence. A few years ago, some men were going up Lee's Pond, a lake about six miles long, near Stan stead, which was frozen at the time, when they saw before them a party of wolves crossing the pond. One in the centre appeared sick, and was surrounded by the rest in the manner of a body-guard. One of the men, who had a gun, pursued them, when some of the wolves took to flight, leav- ing others with the supposed sick one, which, however, dropped off one by one as the pursuit grew hotter, leaving at last only two with it : the man then fired at one of these two, but without killing it, and they both then fled. On coming up to the remaining one, they found it was an old she-wolf, completely blind, as was supposed from age alone, as her teeth were almost worn down. After her last attend- ants had left her, she attempted to continue her course, but in a very uncertain manner, sometimes turning on her steps, FEBRUARY. 39 or going in a circle. The men put a rope round her, and led her to the town. In the woods they found her den, strewed with a vast number of deer's bones, fragments of flesh, &c. all around which, the snow, though three feet deep, was trodden hard and smooth, and from the number of paths leading to this spot, it appeared evident that this aged wolf had for a long time been supplied with prey by the assiduous attentions of others. C. This story raises the wolf in my estimation : I had always had a very bad opinion of his moral character. F. All carnivorous animals are on a par in this respect : it is absurd to say that any animal is " fierce without pro- vocation, and cruel without necessity ;" or that " it scarcely finds time to appease its appetite, while intent upon satisfy- ing the malignity of its nature." Their thirst for blood is an irresistible instinct implanted in them by an allwise God, and the tiger or the wolf could no more exist without slaughter, than the sheep without cropping the herbage. That they often kill without devouring the carcasses, is not by any means the effect of a blind and aimless ferocity, but a proof that to their palates the blood is the most agreeable part of their victim ; and of course it is ridiculous to expect that they should manifest any moral scruples of indulging their appetite, whenever they have the power or opportunity. Some are more sluggish, or more timid, or less desirous of blood than others, but surely no praise is due to them for superior virtue. C. Is the wolf the most formidable of our beasts of prey ? F. I suppose he may be esteemed such ; though there is reason to believe that a much nobler animal, the Couguar, or Puma, has, formerly at least, been seen in this province. I have heard both Nathan and Amos Merrill speak of a large cat, which was killed in the township of Bolton, about 40 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. fifteen years ago, and which they call a Catamount, but which from the description they give of it, I believe to have been no other than the Puma (Felis Concolor of Linnaeus). A man was going into the woods with his axe, when he was met by another man, who having just been alarmed by the sight of the animal in question, advised him not to go on. He however proceeded, and soon discovered the puma under the root of a fallen tree : having cut a stout club for himself, he threw his axe with his utmost force at the beast, but missed his aim, and it slowly walked away. The man re- turned to the settlement, and having procured guns and assistance, again proceeded to the woods, and found the animal near the place where he had been before seen. They fired and killed him, carried him home in triumph, and stuffed the skin ; this trophy was preserved many years at the house of Captain Copps, in Georgeville, in whose hall, I am told, it presented to a stranger entering, a very startling object. Both of the Merrills have seen it many times, Amos having resided within three miles of the house : they describe it as being four or five feet in length, exclusive of the tail, which was two and a half or three feet ; that it stood near three feet high, was in all respects a cat, with a round flattened face, large round paws, &c. ; the colour was a dull red, without marks or spots. Supposing the dimensions given to be ex- aggerated, through defective memory, there can be no doubt that the animal in question was a puma, as there is no other of the large cats to which the description will at all apply. Both of them are well acquainted with the lynx, of which they gave me a very correct general description, noticing particularly the black ear tufts, and the blue colour. The length of the tail too, as well as the hue, is a sufficient proof that it was not the Canadian Lynx. The species may pos- sibly even yet be found, though rarely, in our almost inter- minable forests. FEBRUARY. 41 C. I have seen a specimen of the Lynx (Felis Canaden- sis) in the museum of the Literary and Historical Society at Quebec : it is stoutly built, and has a very fierce look, so that I should think it a somewhat formidable adversary. F. I do not believe that it would face a man ; at least I have never heard of an instance: its attacks appear to be confined to birds, and the smaller quadrupeds, which it pur- sues chiefly on trees : its colour is elegant, and its eye is said to have peculiar brilliancy. I have never seen a living spe- cimen, though they are numerous in the northern part of the province, and are much hunted for their skins. CANADIAN LYNX. Felis Canadensis. C. Yonder is the river: what is that black thing swim- ming in that small space of open water ? F. It is the head of an Otter (Lutra Canadensis) : he THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. is fishing ; and by his diving he appears to be successful. It is a curious fact, that the otter will not eat the hind part of a fish, rejecting all but the head and shoulders. This is the only brute animal that appears to enjoy play for its own sake, merely for amusement, in adult age. Some years ago, I was travelling on foot in Newfoundland, from St. Mary's on the southern coast, to Trinity Bay. It was in the month of January, and there was a considerable depth of snow on the ground. The old furrier, who acted as my guide, showed me many " otter slides." These were always on a steep sloping bank of a pond or stream, where the water remained unfrozen. They were as smooth and slippery as glass, caused by the otters sliding on them in play, in the following manner: Several of these animals seek a suitable place, and then each in succession, lying flat on his belly, at the top of the bank, slides swiftly down over the snow, and plunges into the water. The others follow, while he crawls up the bank at some distance, and running round to the sliding place, takes his turn again, to perform the same evo- lution as before. The -wetness running from their bodies freezes on the surface of the slide, and so the snow becomes a smooth glitter of ice. This sport, I was assured, is fre- quently continued with the utmost eagerness, and with every demonstration of delight, for hours together. C. Is not the otter a slow-moving animal on land ? the shortness of its legs seems to adapt it but poorly for running. F. On the contrary, it is said to run with considerable speed : but if I am rightly informed, it occasionally aids its velocity in a very ridiculous manner. A neighbour, on whose word I could rely, told me that he once saw an otter on a pond in these townships, which he pursued. It was winter, and the snow was about knee-deep, but had a slight crust. The otter would run a few yards, then rearing himself up, and FEBRUARY. 43 throwing his hind legs forward, would slide on his haunches for about two feet ; then he would again run a few yards, rear up, and slide as before. Notwithstanding the apparent awkwardness of this manner of progression, he managed to make way faster than his pursuer, who, observing this, and perceiving whither he was tending, endeavoured to cut off his retreat, by heading him in his course ; but before he had reached him, the otter had gained his hole, and had disap- peared within the pond. C. Is the otter of any value ? F. In some countries they are so far tamed as to be used in catching fish ; but with us they are procured wholly for the sake of their fur, which is much prized. The hair is very smooth and shining, somewhat bristly, of a brownish black; but there is a sort of thick, soft down, which lies next the skin, and is not seen ; it is of a greyish colour. In taking off the pelt, the skin is not cut open at the belly, but at the head, and is drawn off the body inverted, as we pull off a stocking. A long board is then thrust into the pelt, so as to make it quite flat, the fur being inwards ; this board is drawn out when the skin is dry. Otter fur is examined by thrusting the arm up the inside of the pelt ; if, on withdrawing it, hairs stick to the sleeve of the coat, the skin is not merchantable ; but if it is quite clean, the fur is in prime condition. The price of an otter skin in Newfoundland is usually about the same as that of a beaver. C. The Beaver is, I believe, a Canadian animal. Can you give me any information respecting it ? F. None but what I have gained from books, to which you also have access. Though abundant in some parts of Canada, I do not know that they are found within many miles of this place. I have seen their houses in Newfound- land; but have never had an opportunity of opening one. 44 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. I once partook of the hind-quarters of this animal roasted, which I thought more delicious than any meat I had ever tasted. The tail is a particular delicacy ; it is almost wholly composed of fat. Beaver skins are usually sold by weight. C. The Musk-rat (Arvicola Zibethicus) is much like the beaver ; is it not ? F. So much that Linnaeus, in one of his editions of Systema Naturae, placed it in the same genus. Its skin has a very pleasant smell of musk, which it retains long after death ; the fur is so much like that of the beaver, as scarcely to be distinguished from it. It may often be seen in our rivers in summer, in the banks of which it burrows. We perceive that the most valuable furs are the productions of the colder climates : and this is but one instance of the beneficence of God, in giving to every habitable country some compensation in itself for its peculiar inconveniences. While we find no spot on earth to be a paradise, a place of unmixed repose and pleasure, no land is altogether cheerless and desolate ; and this dis- tribution of gifts is made with a far more equal hand than we at first suppose. Some countries which are eminent for fertility, for luxuriance of vegetation, or beauty of scenery, are balanced by political restrictions, unhealthi- ness, or the languor and inactivity caused by heat. Others are cold and sterile, but have a pure and salubrious air, and are possessed by a free and industrious people. In some, where the inhabitants have a liberal government, and the comforts of a high state of civilization, the many find a difficulty in obtaining an honest livelihood, and al- most an impossibility of gaining independence : in others, the loss of home-comforts, and the privations of the forest, are rewarded by increasing wealth and a certain prospect of competence. FEBRUARY. 45 C. We have wandered far ; and shall scarcely be at home before nightfall. The temperature of the air is falling rapidly, as indicated by the crispness of the snow, which crunches beneath our feet. F. Yes ; we shall have a cold night : we must walk fast to keep a rapid circulation, or we shall run the risk of having our noses or cheeks frozen. C. My eyelashes freeze together, for an instant, when I wink, already : and your whiskers are as white, with your frozen breath, as if they were silvered with age. The severe cold makes the cheeks tingle, as if the points of needles were running into them. It is pleasant to think that we have a comfortable home, and a cheerful fire to look forward to. F. The sun has set : we are apt to associate a glowing sunset with summer, and warm weather; but here is one which is not often surpassed. Observe how rich the crim- son near the horizon ; in what bold relief the shaggy hem- locks of yonder mountain stand out against the fiery sky ; mark, too, the beautiful gradation of colour as it approaches the zenith ! the glowing, furnace-like red becomes orange, then changes to bright flame-colour, deep yellow, pale straw- yellow, diluting till at length every warm tinge is lost in the cool and soft blue of the general sky the yellow lost in the blue without the least hue of greenness where they unite. C. The black hills, and dark masses of cloud make the clear sky seem more rich and brilliant by their contrast. .F. The most brilliant sunsets I have ever seen were at sea, in June and July ; there the sky is often bathed in the most gorgeous tints, glowing in crimson and gold, and the clouds take the form of a beautiful country, interspersed with groves and thickets, and bright lawns ; with calm lakes, studded with little islets; and these so accurately imaged 46 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. forth, as to need no stretch of imagination in the sea- worn mariner, to convey to him the idea of land. I used to look upon the scene, till I could scarcely persuade myself it was unreal ; it reminded me of that bright and beautiful land, which the Indian hopes for " beyond the mountains," the land of the blessed, the land of spirits. It was in the same voyage, that I observed a more singular, though not a more lovely sunset. The sun, as he approached the horizon, gra- dually became laterally elongated, until the form of the disk was a perfect oval. The atmosphere was clearer than I recol- lect to have ever seen it, and the appearance of the sun, like burning gold, without a cloud or mist to intercept his rays, as he sunk slowly beneath the waves, was very beautiful. When about half hidden, he appeared like a hemispherical island of fire in the sea ; and as the light diminished to a thin line, it was tinged distinctly green by the blueness of the waves. The total absence of those fleecy clouds, generally visible at sunset, and which reflect a brilliant glow, even after the sun has disappeared, contributed not a little to the singularity of the spectacle. C. The northern lights are beginning to play : can you tell me the origin of that splendid phenomenon ? F. Its cause and nature, notwithstanding the observa- tions and researches of the most acute philosophers of the present age, are still, I believe, a mystery. That hypothe- sis which attributes it to the agency of electricity appears to be most reasonable ; it is true the officers and savans of the North-west expeditions, who had excellent opportunities for observing the Aurora, could never detect the slightest influence on their electrical and magnetical instruments ; but this may be accounted for by the fact that its usual elevation is very far above the atmosphere. FEBRUARY. 47 C. How can this be ascertained ? F. By the same Aurora being visible from distant parts of the world at the same moment. C. But if I rightly recollect, Captain Parry records an instance in which he saw a beam of the Aurora Borealis shoot down between him and an opposite hill, not more than a mile or two distant. F. I suppose that to have been a very uncommon case. C. Have you ever heard any sound accompanying it ? F. Never : though I have seen very many, and some very splendid ones ; and though I have often eagerly and intently listened : yet I cannot doubt the fact j for I have been assured by persons of undoubted veracity, that they have distinctly heard an accompanying sound, though ex- ceeding rarely. Some of these individuals could not be sus- pected of having taken the idea from books, yet the charac- ter of the sound attributed to the Aurora exactly agrees in all the recorded instances in which it has been heard- It was described to me as being like the rustling of a silk flag in a smart breeze. These were all heard in Newfoundland, where it is much more common than in this country. For two or three years past we have had a very brilliant coloured Aurora about this time: in February, 1837, the whole of the sky appeared of a splendid crimson, which was reflected from the surface of the snow beneath, and had almost an awful, though very beautiful appearance. I saw a fine one, though inferior to this, on the evening of the 2 1 st of Feb- ruary, 1838, of which I recorded some particulars. I first observed it about half past eight o'clock ; a long, low, irregu- lar arch of bright yellow light extended from the north-east to the north-west, the lower edge of which was well defined ; the sky beneath this arch was clear and appeared black, but it was only by contrast with the light, for on examination, I 48 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. could not find that it was really darker than the other parts of the clear sky. The upper edge of the arch was not denned, shooting out rays of light towards the zenith : one or two points in the arch were very brilliant, which were varying in their position. Over head, and towards the south, east, and west, flashings of light were darting from side to side : sometimes the sky was dark, then instantly lighted up with these fitful flashes, vanishing and changing as rapidly; some- times, a kind of crown would form around a point south of the zenith, consisting of short converging pencils. At a quarter before nine, I looked at it again : the arch was as be- fore, but slightly changed in form j the zenith, too, much the same. About nine, the upper and southern sky was filled with clouds or undefined patches of light nearly stationary ; the eastern part, near the top, being deep crimson, which speedily spread over the upper part of the northern sky ; a series of long converging pencils was now arranged around a blank space about 15 south of the zenith, the northern and eastern rays blood-red, the southern and western pale yellow ; the redness would flash about as did the white light before, still not breaking the general form of the corona. In a few minutes all the red hue had vanished, leaving the upper sky nearly unoccupied. The arch also was now totally gone, arid in its place there were only irregular patches of yellow light, of varying radiance. At a quarter past nine, the upper sky was again filled with pale flashes ; in the north were perpendicular pillars of light comparatively sta- tionary. At half past nine, no material change : at ten, all had assumed a very ordinary appearance, merely large clouds of pale light were visible ; after which I took no farther notice of it. I listened, as on other occasions, with great attention, but could not hear the slightest sound proceeding from the meteor. The southern sky, near the horizon, was unoccupied during the whole of the continuance of the Au- rora. FEBRUARY. 49 C. The brightness of the meteor,, and the rapid and sudden changes of position among the beams, resembling the evolutions of an army, are calculated to strike awe into the minds of the vulgar and ignorant, especially where its appear- ance is an unusual occurrence ; but even here, where it is so common, when an Aurora of unwonted splendour occurs, I have often heard people, sagely shaking their heads, prophesy that " something " is going to happen. F. No doubt some of the accounts of armies fighting in the air, of which we read in profane history, may safely be supposed to be nothing more than the Aurora Borealis : but I am very far from thinking with many of the philosophers of our day, that all the portents and wonders of ancient days are to be reduced to the effects of natural causes. Do not these men, endeavouring to be ' ' wise above that which is written," forget that the " immutable laws of nature," so called, are but the laws which God has been pleased to im- pose upon" the objects of His creation, and which he has undoubted right to suspend at His pleasure ? Still farther am I from believing that the clashing hosts, and fiery fal- chions suspended in the air, over devoted Jerusalem, during her last struggle, were, as some would persuade us, but a bright Aurora. Oh ! no : they were foretold by our Lord : " fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven ;" and were no doubt contrived by the skill of the " Prince of the power of the air," who, it was said, should, with his lying wonders, deceive almost the very elect : the reprobate Jews, for their unparalleled sin, being given up to judicial blind- ness, to strong delusion, that they might believe a lie. * But yonder is a light more cheering, if less splendid, than the Aurora, the rays from our own cottage windows. 50 IV. MARCH 1st. " Sundog." Insects. Pine Grosbeak. White-winged Crossbill. Com- mon Crossbill. Pine Finch. Tree Sparrow. Golden Eye. Snow Owl. Masuippi River. American Hare. Operation of "Twisting." Moose. Anecdote. CHARLES. A few evenings ago, I observed a curious phenomenon : about half an hour before sunset, the sun being about 4 above the horizon, at the distance of about 22 on each side was a fragment of a halo, marked with the prismatic colours ; each arc resting on the horizon, somewhat like a pillar of coloured light : the red rays were next the sun, the green, blue, violet, and indigo were very faint, yet perceptible : the height to which the arcs extended from the horizon was about 6, but they were not quite uniform in this respect. The sky was bright and cloudless, except a slight haze in the west, near the horizon, sufficient to cast a dimness over the distant mountains. The day had been very cold, the thermometer in the morning soon after sunrise standing at 1 7 below zero. As the sun ap- proached the horizon, the meteor became fainter ; and gra- dually disappeared, when the sun was sunk. FATHER. The phenomenon is not uncommon : I have seen it about sunrise as well as in the evening : the common people call it a "sundog." I do not know that it differs from a common halo, except in having the prismatic colours, which I am not meteorologist enough to explain. The tints of a rainbow are caused by each falling drop of rain decom- MARCH. 51 posing the ray that enters it ; but in this case it was far too cold for any rain : if anything was falling between you and the sun it must have been snow, and if anything was floating in the air, it must have been minute spiculae or crystals of ice. The haze you speak of was doubtless the cause, and the reason why the circle was not perfect was, that the mist extended no higher than the point at which the arcs ceased to be visible. C. After the sun was set, the mist was much more distinctly visible, and I observed that it abruptly ended at about that height. F. You have not yet observed any symptoms of activity in the insect tribes, I presume ? C. Few, except such as are to be found throughout the winter, are to be met with : a few tipulidan gnats fly abroad on sunshiny days. I have lately observed in pine-woods in one particular place, several insects crawling about the snow, exactly resembling small Tipulce, even having halteres, but totally destitute of wings. They are about one-fourth of an inch in length : they have been rather numerous ; I took six of them in one evening. F. They are doubtless the Chionea Araneoides : it is singular that I have observed these in company with another very remarkable apterous insect, belonging to a winged fa- mily, (Panorpidce,) in some numbers. I allude to Boreus Hyemalis, an insect much like a flea. I have never seen either but in one spot, the black-woods to the south of the Masuippi, near its junction with the Coatacook ; it was at this season and on the snow. C. That is the same place at which I found them. And what is likewise remarkable, I found, a few days ago, a moth crawling on the snow, a rather large Tortrix ; but D 2 52 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. putting it into a pocket-box, before I had opportunity of examining it, it had quite defaced its wings, by fluttering about. F. The appearance of a living moth at this season is indeed worthy of note. Ah ! there is a flock of those beautiful birds, the Pine Grosbeaks (Loxia Enudeator). They are by far the most splendid of our winter birds ; observe how rich the crimson of the males : the females, as in most instances where the males are red, are of a yel- lowish-olive colour. They delight in the horrors of winter, for even in the desolate region around Hudson's Bay, they are only transient spring visitors, passing on still farther to the north. I have seen the species in Newfoundland, but I believe that there, as here, it is rare. C. Among some of the common little crossbills that were hopping about the house yesterday, I noticed one that differed from them, by having two bands of white across the wing. Was it a distinct species ? F. Yes : it is called the White- winged Crossbill (Cur- mrostra Leucoptera). This is another of our rare birds ; so much so, that the indefatigable Wilson, in his researches over this continent, appears never to have met with more than one specimen. Bonaparte says it is common round Hud- son's Bay, and on the borders of Lake Ontario. I observed a pair last spring, as late as the 29th of April, in a flock of the common species, which I closely and particularly ex- amined. They were fearless, and allowed me to stand within ten feet of them, for some time. I observed in the male, a black mark proceeding from the back of the eye, curving outward, and ending about half an inch below the eye, which Wilson has not noticed: the tips of the quill fea- thers appeared to be edged with white, forming as the wings met across the rump, three or four short white bands. The female had the white bars on the wing narrower than the MARCH. 53 male, and the curved mark near the eye was visible only by a slightly darker shade. C. The common Crossbill (Curvirostra Americana) is a pretty bird, and seems to be a general favourite : probably because, like the Redbreast of our own country, he manifests such a saucy familiarity with us ; hardly making room for us to pass by, and immediately returning to his picking at the dish- washings of the sink, or the scraps of the kitchen. Perhaps too, we prize him more, because birds are now scarce, and he reminds us of brighter and sunnier days. F. When I was in Newfoundland, a friend one winter's day knocked a Crossbill from the summit of a young pine, which proving to be only stunned, we put into a cage. He became immediately very familiar, and much amused us by his tricks, crawling about the inside of his cage, and even from the roof, like a parrot, grasping the wires with his claws, and using his bill as a third foot, to help himself along. After a few days we opened his cage, but he did not ap- pear to have pined much for liberty, for he crawled out and in for some considerable time before he brought himself to bid adieu to his wiry home. The very remarkable conform- ation of the bill in this genus has been, by purblind philoso- phists, stigmatized as a defective organization ; but in reality it is peculiarly adapted, like all the other works of the all- wise and benevolent God, to the purposes for which it is designed ; its mode of obtaining its food being as follows : The seeds of the coniferous trees, on which it principally subsists, are concealed beneath hard, woody scales, lying tightly and closely on each other. The bird, bringing the tips of the mandibles together, inserts the united points be- neath the scale, then separating the points, forces it out- wards, and extracts the seed. C. What other birds are to be met with at this season ? F . I believe I saw the Pine Finch (Fringilla Pinus) 54 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. around our house a few days ago; a plain-coloured, but pretty little bird, The Tree Sparrow (Fringilla Arbor ea), easily known by a brown spot on the breast, is numerous every day,, in cattle yards and around barns. I have ob- served some small flocks of the Golden Eye (Anas Clan- gula), swimming in those parts of the Masuippi River, which are unfrozen : it is a pretty little duck, and when it flies its wings make such a loud whirring as to be heard at a consi- derable distance. Mr. Armour of Sherbrooke showed me a fine specimen of that handsome bird, the Snow Owl (Strix Nyctea), which had been shot in that neighbourhood. It stands about two feet high ; the plumage is soft and beauti- fully white, with crescent- shaped spots of dark brown all over the body. These, beside the Snow-bunting, the Titmice, Woodpeckers, Blue and Canada Jays, are, I believe, all that have lately fallen under my observation. C. What is the reason that the Masuippi is not frozen so solid as the Coatacook ? F. I suppose it is owing to its greater rapidity : it is always open much later, and breaks up much earlier, and there are frequently patches of open water through the winter. C. Yonder goes a rabbit. F. More properly the American Hare (Lepus Ameri- canus), the rabbit being unknown on this continent, though it is, with us, universally called by that name. It is found pretty generally over North America, from this province even to the Gulf of Mexico, where it is more common than it is with us. Here its winter coat is nearly white, as in the one which we have just seen, but in summer it is of a yellowish brown, with a white tail. It makes a nest or bed of moss and leaves in some hollow tree or old log, "whence it issues chiefly by night. Though not so much addicted to gnawing as the squirrels, yet as its teeth are formed in the MARCH. 55 same manner, it probably resembles them in its food, eating various kinds of nuts and seeds, as well as green herbs. It is said also occasionally to peel off the bark from apple and other trees. A singular mode of taking small furred animals out of hollow trees, logs, &c. is practised in the south, called " twisting." I once saw it performed on a rabbit (so called) ; the dogs had tracked him and driven him to his hole in the bottom of a hollow hickory tree. The hole was too small to admit the hunter's hand with convenience, so we made the negroes cut down the tree, which was soon effected. When it fell, we watched the butt, to see that the rabbit did not run out, but he did not make his appearance. The hunter then got some long slender switches, and probing the hollow, found that the rabbit was at the farther end, several feet up the trunk. He now commenced turning the switch round in one direction, a great many times, until the tip of it had become so entangled in the animal's fur, as to bear a strong pull. He then began to pull steadily out, but the rabbit held on as well as he could, and made considerable resistance, crying most piteously, like a child : at last the skin gave way, and a great mass of fur and skin came out attached to the switch, pulled off by main force. He now took a new switch, and commenced twisting again, and this time pulled the little thing down, but the skin was torn almost com- pletely off the loins and thighs of the poor little creature, and so tightly twisted about the end of the stick, that we were obliged to cut the skin to get the animal free. I thought it a curious, but cruel expedient. C. What large cloven-footed animal has made this trail ? F. It is probably nothing more than some stray cow ; but the footmarks have been enlarged by the late thaw, without losing their shape. I was once deceived by a simi- 56 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. lar trail, into the belief that actually a moose had passed ; nor could I easily bring myself to relinquish that opinion. Indeed it would be nothing extraordinary, as a Moose (Cer- vus Alces) was this winter killed near Sherbrooke, of the flesh of which I partook. MOOSE. Cervus Alces. C. What was it like ? F. Much like beef in appearance, but more juicy and tender : I thought it of very delicate flavour. Captain Col- clough kept one at Sherbrooke alive, for some years. Moose are frequently taken in the Indian- stream territory, a kind of neutral ground on the boundary of this province and New Hampshire, claimed by both governments. Paths are worn by the feet of these animals, leading to the brook, whither MARCH. 57 they resort to drink ; and they are caught by traps laid in these paths. I am told that they are almost always dead when found, as they soon kick and worry themselves to death. I saw a stuffed moose at Quebec, but it was not well mount- ed : if I recollect rightly, it was taller than a horse. " There is an opinion prevalent among the Indians, that the moose, among the methods of self-preservation, with which he seems more acquainted than almost any other animal, has the power of remaining under water for a long time. Two credible Indians, after a long day's absence on a hunt, came in and stated that they had chased a moose into a small pond ; that they had seen him go to the middle of it and disappear; and then, choosing positions from which they could see every part of the circumference of the pond, smoked and waited until evening ; during all which time they could see no motion of the water, or other indication of the posi- tion of the moose. At length, being discouraged, they had abandoned all hope of taking him, and returned home. Not long afterwards came a solitary hunter, loaded with meat, who related, that having followed the track of a moose for some distance, he had traced it to the pond before mentioned ; but having also discovered the tracks of two men, made at the same time as those of the moose, he concluded they must have killed it. Nevertheless, approaching cautiously to the margin of the pond, he sat down to rest. Presently, he saw the moose rise slowly in the centre of the pond, which was not very deep, and wade towards the shore where he was sitting. When he came sufficiently near, he shot him in the water. The moose is more shy and difficult to take than any other animal. He is more vigilant, and his senses more acute, than those of the buffalo or caribou. He is fleeter than the elk, and more prudent and crafty than the deer. In the most violent storm, when the wind, and the thunder, and the falling timber are making the loudest and most inces- D 5 58 THE CANADIAN NATUEALIST. sant roar, if a man, either with his foot or his hand, breaks the smallest dry limb in the forest, the moose will hear it : and although he does not always run, he ceases eating, and rouses his attention to all sounds. If in the course of an hour, or thereabouts, the man neither moves nor makes the least noise, the animal may begin to feed again, but does not forget what he has heard, and is for many hours more vigilant than before." I know not whether the moose has ever been tamed, but I think it not improbable, that it could be trained to harness, as well as its congeners the reindeer and the wapiti : and it would, from its size and strength, be more serviceable than either of them. But in a new country, like this, where alone the opportunity for such an experiment is to be found, the inhabitants generally have little time, and less inclina- tion, for innovations. 59 V. MARCH 15th. Red-bellied Nuthatch Voice and Habits Fear of Man. Insects. Torpidity. Power of resisting Cold. Mammals. Birds. Temperature of Cold-blooded Animals. Why polished Surfaces are cold. Laying up of Food by Insects. Chambers of Mining Ants. Mosses and Lichens on Trees. CHARLES. What bird makes that singular noise,, " quank, quank, quank ? " Yonder woods are resounding with it ; I should think it is a large bird from the noise it makes. FATHER. We will go towards it : perhaps we may see it. C. The sound still seems to recede as we advance. There it passes directly over our heads, yet no bird is visible. Hark ! now it proceeds from the right hand, seemingly about two hundred yards distant. F. Look at that old maple, a yard or two on your right : watch the trunk. C. I see nothing. Oh ! yes : there are two little blue- backed birds, crawling up and down, something like mice. Can it be possible that the notes which I supposed so far off proceed from them ? F. Yes : but how faintly they are now uttered ; and even while we look at them we can scarcely believe that the sound does not reach us from a considerable distance. But they have observed that we are watching them : see how warily they keep on the opposite side of the tree. Stand still a few moments, and we shall see them again. 60 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. C. Ah ! there they are, peeping round the edge : how curious they seem respecting us ! how they stretch out their necks to observe us ! F. It is the red-bellied black-capped Nuthatch (Sitta Varia) ; its food is insects, which it finds even at this sea- son, beneath the bark, and in the crevices of the trees. Its feet are large and strong ; fitted to take hold of the projec- tions and roughnesses of the bark, by which it is able to crawl freely on the perpendicular trunk, with the head either upward or downward ; or even on the under surface of the branches. C. Where are they gone? These woods, which just now were full of their notes, are now quite deserted and silent : even the titmice have left us too : all the birds have gradually sneaked off, thinking us disreputable or dangerous neighbours. F. The unvarying effect of the Divine decree : " the fear of you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea." It is not, however, always a subject of gratification to a be- nevolent mind, to find oneself an object of terror and detest- ation ; though it must be confessed it is not a causeless dread ; for man has most tyrannically abused the dominion over the inferior animals, which was given him for better pur- poses. C. See : there are some tokens of returning spring : the small flies, different species of Muscidce, are busy preening their wings, and rubbing their feet together, on the dunghill. They have probably been newly hatched by the heat. F. That is scarcely likely ; for as the manure has all accumulated through the winter, it is not at all pro- MARCH. 61 bable that it would contain pupae : I should rather say, that these are all the insects of last summer, and being now revivified by the increasing warmth of the season from their long torpidity, are at once setting about the business of their lives. For this purpose they resort to the dunghill, as from its genial warmth it is a fit nidus for the deposition of their eggs. Insects have but one object in existence, in the perfect state, the continuation of their race: this is suffi- cient to overcome every other passion, and even almost to conquer death itself; for it is exceedingly difficult in most instances to deprive a female insect of life, before she has de- posited her eggs, except by actual demolition. C. It is strange how animals so small, and with so little vital heat, can survive the severity of a winter like ours. F. It would appear from many experiments and observ- ations, that insects, and perhaps all animals with cold fluids, are able to resist the effects of very low degrees of tempera- ture. I have myself had larvae so hard frozen as to be broken in two like a piece of solid ice, and yet found that on being thawed, those which had not been broken, but had been just as solid as the others, were quite lively and apparently unin- jured. A few days ago, I found a large thick larva of a Chafer (Melolontha ?} in the heart of a birch-tree, surrounded by its ejecta, which, as well as the grub itself, were hard frozen. In this instance too, the insect was found to be alive, when thawed by the warmth of the house. I have had ants (Formicce) inclosed in the midst of a piece of solid ice, having fallen into the water before it had frozen, which, on being melted out, and placed awhile in the sunbeams, gra- dually gave signs of life, and at length crawled about, as if nothing had happened. These and other observations show that insects sustain, without injury, severities of cold which would be fatal to the superior animals ; but it seems that in THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. general those species which survive the winter in the imago state become torpid ; and this negative sort of existence is found in other animals to be a preventive of the ordinary effects of great cold on vitality. C. How is it that animals can remain in a state of torpidity without food, when a few days' fast, in ordinary circumstances, would be fatal ? F. In a state of health, I believe (without knowing much of physiology) the sensible and insensible evacuations continue whether food be supplied or not. But if the supply of nutriment be cut off, the secretions and evacuations going on, with nothing to make up the deficiency, life ceases from absolute exhaustion. In some diseases, in which the secret- ing organs are disordered, though scarce any food be taken, yet hunger is not felt. It is probable that in total torpidity, as in the case of the cold-blooded animals, reptiles and insects, secretion ceases altogether ; while it would seem that in the case of such mammalia as hybernate, as the bear, marmot, dormouse, &c. secretion goes on, but very languidly. To supply the waste occasioned by this secretion, these animals on going into their retreats are very fat ; but on coming out in the spring, they are invariably poor and lean, proving that this superfluous fat has been absorbed into the system, so that it may be considered as a magazine of nutriment. C Do birds ever become torpid ? F. From their superior powers of locomotion, there is not the same necessity in their case, as they can, and most of them do, migrate from one country to another at the ap- proach of winter, yet as some species do remain in the coldest countries, at least as far north as Hudson's Bay, this does not altogether account for the difference. The blood of birds is much warmer than that of any other animals, and their peculiar covering is perhaps the most perfect non-conductor of heat, of all known substances. There have not been MARCH. 03 wanting men, however, and among them some names of the highest rank in natural science, who have believed the reports of swallows having been found during winter in holes and caves, or beneath the mud of ponds, in a state of torpidity. But it does not appear that these reports rest on any evidence of sufficient weight to command belief, and they are now generally exploded. C. Is there no heat at all evolved by cold-blooded ani- mals ? or are they always of exactly the same temperature as the surrounding atmosphere ? F. I have some reason to think that a very small quantity of heat is evolved by their circulation ; sufficient to be quite appreciable by the senses, where many are confined in a small space ; as when a thickly-peopled hive of bees is about to swarm, the temperature within is considerably above that of the external air : this heat can only be produced by the bees themselves. Another proof is, I think, to be found in the fact, that insects seek crevices and corners to hyber- nate, especially during the pupa state ; this may be partly for concealment, but chiefly I conceive for protection from cold. The same end is probably designed in the silken cocoons of many of those moths which pass the winter in pupa, as silk is a non-conductor of heat. But if their tem- perature were not superior to that of the atmosphere, they would need no protection from non-conducting substances, as the air could abstract no heat from them. C. But if you touch a caterpillar or a chrysalis, it seems much colder than the air. F. Our senses are not to be at all depended on, in esti- mating the comparative temperature of different bodies. The feeling cold, or warm, .depends on the greater or less power of abstracting heat from our body, and this power depends in a great measure on the smoothness, as well as texture of the abstracting substance. 64 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. C. Why do polished substances conduct heat with more facility than rough ones ? F. When we ask the reasons of those laws which we find imposed on nature, we are very apt to lose ourselves in the labyrinths of doubt and uncertainty ; yet if I might pre- sume humbly to venture an opinion on this subject, I should conjecture that it may be owing to this fact : polished bodies come into a closer and more general contact with the sub- stance that touches them, and consequently abstract heat from a larger surface, whereas, rough bodies touch only at the minute prominences which cause their roughness, and so abstract heat only from those points with which these promi- nences have contact. C. Do any species of insects lay up a store of food for their consumption in winter ? F. I am not aware that any do, except bees : it is very generally supposed that ants collect grains of corn, and store them up ; and this is believed to be confirmed by the words of Agur ; " The ants are a people not strong, yet they pre- pare their meat in the summer :" and those of Solomon, " Go to the ant, which provideth her meat in the sum- mer, and gathereth her food in the harvest." Prov. xxx. 25. and vi. 6. 8. But in the first place here is nothing said about laying up for winter, but merely that she works while she can, makes the best use of her time ; and in the next place, the Scriptures are not designed to teach us facts in natural history; it is quite sufficient for their purpose if the illustrations of truths, drawn from na- ture, are commonly supposed to be correct. Modern na- turalists have proved that the ant does not feed on corn, but on saccharine or animal substances ; and that what are thought to be grains of corn in their nests, and often in their mouths, are neither more nor less than the pupae, or rather the cocoons containing them. Besides this, in cold climates, MARCH. 65 ants become torpid in winter, and where the climate is not cold enough to suspend their animation, it is probable they can always find food throughout this season. C. I have often found ants in a torpid state, in the trunks of trees, which they have mined into galleries and chambers ; but I have never found any store of grain, or other food. F. The chambers of the wood-mining ants, especially the large species that we often find in the wood of cedar- trees, &c. (Formica Pubescens ?) are very curious : it would seem impossible to construct partitions so thin and so smooth with no other instruments than their jaws. They are often as thin as paper, and without any roughness on the surface, although generally formed in the soft-timbered trees, which do not readily bear a smooth surface. It is effected altoge- ther by the tedious process of abrading minute particles by means of the jaws ; though by what instinct they ascertain when the requisite thinness is attained, we know not. The formation of the thin cells of the honeycomb of bees is said to proceed on nearly the same principle ; a block or mass of wax is first laid down, and the cells are excavated out of it, by the jaws of the bees : the walls or partitions being left, and the remainder abraded away, and redeposited in another place. C. What causes the remarkable variegations, of differ- ent colours, which mark the barks of many forest trees ? F. They are chiefly owing to parasitic plants of the cryptogamous class ; mosses and lichens. The bark of the beech and maple, particularly the soft maple, (Acer Ru- brum ?) is marked with patches of white and yellow, which if we look closely, we shall find to be a thin and papery lichen. The loose scales, of which the external bark of the spruce is composed, are sometimes spotted with a similar substance, perhaps the same species. On the beech and 66 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. maple is likewise found another curious lichen (Jungerman- nia) consisting of a multitude of small, very close, brownish- black ramifications : these black patches are usually small. Ash, elm, leverwood, basswood, and sometimes birch, have their trunks clothed with larger and thicker masses : a branchy moss (Hypnum ?) of a dull green, occurs, mixed with a bright green moss (Hypnum ?), in large loose bunches, covering great portions of the trunk together. With these there is often found a large, broad lichen (Pulmonaria), pale brownish grey, palmated like the horns of a deer : this is usually found on leverwood (Ostrya Virginica.} The first mentioned, and perhaps some of the others, often occurs on rails and boards which have been much exposed to the weather. C. There seems to be great variety in the different lichens. F. Yes ; and their number is very great ; but from the minuteness of many, and the obscurity which exists in the fructification of all, much difficulty is found in arranging them, and they are yet comparatively unknown, even to botanists. Indeed the study of the Cryptogamia may be considered as a science in itself, requiring a close, undivided, and continued attention. C The spring begins to announce its approach by the increasing power of the sun ; the snow melts, and becomes soft and " rotten" as it is called, even when the temperature in the shade is much below 32. The runners of sleighs cut through the snow, and rest on the ground : travelling will soon be over for a while. F We may have heavy snow-storms, and some very cold weather yet. Spring does not come in a day : old Win- ter is loth to give up his dominion, and does not resign it without many struggles. 67 VI. APRIL 1st. Sugaring. Tapping the Maple. Yield. Favourable kind of Weather. Extent of a Sugary. Collecting Sap. Boiling down. Rude Imple- ments. Syrup. Sugaring off. Maple-honey. Cooling. Sugar from other Trees. Sap of the Birch. Cocoon of a Moth. Catkins of Pop- lars and Willows. Lombardy Poplar. Caterpillars. Silpha. Spi- ders. Ox-Gadfly. Muscles. Canada Goose. Bare Ground around Stumps. Resort of Insects. Caterpillar of Buff- Leopard Moth. Clouded Water-fly. Larva of Dragon-fly. Progressive Motion. Sin- gular Organ. Mouth. Mode of taking its Prey. FATHER. Will you accompany me, Charles, on a walk ? The late heavy rains have removed nearly all the snow, and the present fine weather is exhilarating to the spirits. CHARLES. Yes, it is indeed a beautiful morning, and the advances which all nature is making to a renewal of life and animation make it still more cheerful. F. Let us lift our hearts to our beneficent Father, in gratitude for His providential love to His creatures, and for His constant care for the happiness of even the meanest of them. We will go into the Sugary, where the men are collecting the sap from the maple-trees, which has been flowing for two or three days. C. I have a curiosity to see the process, for I cannot understand how sugar can be made of the sap of a tree : I always thought until lately that it was procured only from the sugar-cane of tropical climates. F. The sugar is in itself the same, whether produced 68 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. by the cane, the maple, or the beet ; for from all these it is manufactured for consumption. But few substances are more generally diffused through the vegetable creation than sugar, and it is even found in animal substances. It is true that in many of these it can be detected only by the chemist, but in dried fruits, in germinating grain, especially barley, in many roots, as turnips, parsnips, &c., in the stalks of maize, and even in straw, it can be readily appreciated by the senses. A most singular discovery has been made, that starch and sugar are chemically the same, composed of the same ele- ments, and in the same proportions, and that in certain cir- cumstances, the former becomes changed to the latter in every property. The cereal grains, or corn in general, are prin- cipally composed of starch, which in the process of germina- tion is transformed to sugar ; this is the manner in which malt is made out of barley. C. I suppose these tubs are set at the foot of the trees to receive the flowing sap. F. Yes ; one to every tree, except where two grow so close to each other as to flow into one tub or bucket. You see, a hole is first bored in the trunk with an auger, about an inch deep ; some cut an oblique notch with the axe, but this wounds the tree unnecessarily, and causes premature decay. Beneath the hole or notch a semicircular incision is made with a large iron gouge, called a tapping iron, into which a spout made of pine wood, guttered down the centre, is driven, to catch the sap as it flows from the hole above, and conduct it down to the bucket beneath. This is our custom ; but in the state of Vermont, I have seen a much handier way. A nail is driven into the tree just below the spout, and on this the bucket is hung by a hole in one of the staves ; the advantages are, that a shorter spout serves, and the sap cannot be overturned by hogs or stray cattle, as it frequently is when it stands on the ground. APRIL. 69 C. How much sap does a maple yield in a day ? F. That varies exceedingly, according to the size, age, health, and situation of the tree, and to the weather. Some- times a tree will yield in twenty-four hours, a gallon or two ; at other times not a drop can be collected. A young tree, provided it has attained a growth of about a foot in diameter, yields better than an old one ; and one growing in a clearing, that is, raised there, better than a forest tree. C. What weather is most favourable ? F A warm, sunny day, after a frosty night. In frosty, cold weather, or rainy weather, or when the nights are mild, the sap almost ceases to flow ; but let such a night as we have just had, be succeeded by such a warm day as this, and, as you see, the sap drops rapidly, and keeps the men going. Sometimes, it runs all night. C. How many trees generally compose a sugary ? F. From two to three hundred are as many as can conveniently be attended to, at one boiling place or camp, but sometimes a thousand are tapped, with two or three camps. If the trees generally are near together, more can be tended than if they are scattered ; and when little or no snow lies on the ground, more business can be done than in deep snow, owing to the greater facility of carrying the sap to the camp. I have known the snow more than two feet deep at the sugar season, causing it to be very laborious for the men to move about ; and from the shelter of the forest it continues unmelted there much later than in the fields and roads. C. How can the men carry the sap ? the buckets have no handles. F. These are not nearly full either. They carry a couple of pails suspended from each end of a yoke fitted on their shoulders, as you have seen milkmen carry their pails at home. They go a regular round with these, visiting every 70 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. tree in succession, emptying into their pails the contents of each bucket, and replacing it under the tree, until their pails are filled, when they carry them to the camp, empty them into a large cask called a holder, and proceed again on their round. When this holder is nearly full, it is considered time to begin boiling. Taste this sap, and tell me how you like it. C. It is a pleasant drink, perceptibly sweet, but not cloy- ing : it is like water with a very little sugar dissolved in it. How much sugar will a tree produce in one season, on an average ? F. From two to four pounds, in a favourable season, for as much depends on the season in this, as in any other object of the farmer's attention. Two thousand pounds weight are sometimes made by a farmer in one spring, worth perhaps fivepence per pound, making a sum of upwards of forty pounds currency. C. What are the men engaged in, when not carrying sap, or boiling ? F. Chiefly in felling trees, and cutting and splitting them up for firewood, to be used in boiling down, as this process consumes a large quantity of fuel. They select those hard- wood trees that stand near the camp, such as superan- nuated maples, beeches, birches, &c. C, I see a fire yonder : I suppose that is the camp. F. Yes : we will go thither, as they are boiling ; it may interest you to see it. You perceive here are two forked poles stuck into the ground, across which another strong pole is laid, from which the large boiling kettle is sus- pended by a chain over the fire. In some parts of the pro- cess it is necessary to stop the boiling very suddenly, and we do this by throwing shovelfuls of snow on the fire ; but I have seen it managed in a much neater manner, thus : The APRIL. 71 kettle is suspended over the fire from the short arm of a long lever, which works around a pivot on some stump near : by pushing the long arm of this lever, a man can instantly swing the kettle off the fire with all ease j and these posts and cross-beam are not needed. But we are a very unim- proving people. See the elegance of our utensils ! Here is a tin basin with a long crooked stick for a handle ; this is to bale the sap or sugar in or out ; here is a tin skimmer, with a similar handle, to scum the liquor ; a shovel made with the axe, out of a piece of board ; and a poker, made of a beech sapling. We take as many of our materials as we can, you see, from the surrounding woods, perhaps in compliment to the presiding dryads and satyrs of the place ; or, perhaps, from necessity. C. What is in the pot now ? F, It was filled this morning with sap out of the holder, that large cask that stands beside you, and as the watery part has been evaporated, its place has been supplied by re- peated fillings-up from the same reservoir. If you taste it, you will find that it has become very sweet and much thicker than the sap. A piece of fat pork thrown in, has the effect of refining it, by making all extraneous matters rise in a thick coat of scum, which is carefully taken off from time to time as it accumulates. When it has boiled to a considerable consistence, about that of oil, it is baled out into this other cask, and is called syrup. The first part of the process, the first boiling, is then complete. C, What more remains to be done ? F. The same process is repeated, when they have sap enough ; and the syrup is added to what is already in the cask, until there is a sufficiency collected to " sugar off/' as it is called ; that is, to complete the process, by boiling the syrup over again, until it will granulate or crystallize. This THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. is a delicate operation, and requires constant attention ; they fill the kettle with syrup, adding the indispensable piece of pork for the same purpose as before ; as the syrup wastes away, it is refilled, and kept constantly skimmed ; it is need- ful to keep a regular fire, and towards the close of the busi- ness to watch the sugar attentively, to stop the boiling at the right instant, as a minute's delay may spoil the whole, or at least greatly injure it. When it is about half done, it is called maple-honey, from its resemblance to honey in taste, consistence, and appearance ; it is, however, to some more agreeable, being less cloying. In this state, the good matrons generally come, and take a tribute, and it forms a pleasant addition to the simple fare of our tea-table. C. How is it known when it is time to remove it from the fire ? F. By a very simple, but infallible test. They take a twig, and bend the end of it into a loop or circle, about an inch wide : dipping this into the kettle, and taking it out, a film of the sugar is stretched across the bow ; they gently blow on this with their breath ; if the breath breaks through, it is not done, but if the film is sufficiently glutinous to be blown out into a long bubble, it is ready to granulate ; and out goes the fire. C. Is the sugar then made ? F. Yes : it is immediately baled out of the kettle, and earned home in the buckets : if soft sugar be intended to be made, it is poured, when somewhat cooled, and granulating, into wooden vessels, the bottoms of which are bored with lioles : the surface and sides soon become hard, having crys- tallized first ; this crust is repeatedly broken, and the whole stirred together : the molasses gradually drains through the bottom, and the sugar is left, exactly resembling the cane- sugar ; I have seen some as light-coloured as any from the Mauritius or East Indies. But it is more usual to let the APRIL. 73 sugar cool in vessels, without either disturbing it, or draining off the molasses, so that it becomes a mass, nearly as hard as rock, and very dark in colour. C. The maple is a very useful tree ; does any other species produce sugar ? F. The White Maple (Acer Eriocarpon ?) yields sap more readily than the Rock Maple (A. Saccharinum), and it is said to be more abundant in sugar ; but it is compara- tively rare as a large tree. The Butternut (Juglans Cinerea) likewise will yield sugar from its sap, and probably other trees. The Birch (Betula Papyracea) is often tapped, and the sap, (evaporated by boiling) exposed to the summer's sun, by which it is made into a good vinegar ; whence I conclude it must contain sugar, probably mixed with other matters. The fresh sap of the birch has a pleasant, slightly acid taste. It has a curious property, peculiar to itself, I believe, for I have never observed it in the sap of any tree but the birch j where- ever it flows, it leaves a mass of fungus-like, mucilaginous substance, of a delicate pink hue, which probably has some affinity with what is called " the mother" in vinegar. From the stumps of trees which have been felled during the winter, the sap flows in spring so profusely, that I have seen them covered with this substance, a great resort of insects. C. How large must the maple become before it will yield saccharine juice ? F. The sap contains sugar from the first period of its existence, but it is not usual to tap a tree until it attains about the diameter of a foot at the bottom ; too early tap- ping is injurious to the health of the tree, and causes prema- ture decay ; old trees,. too, produce little or none, and are cut down for fuel. C. Is there never more than one incision made in a tree at one time ? F. With us there is no more ; but in the United States E 74 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. it is not unusual to tap a maple in three or four places at once. Michaux, in his North American Sylva, quotes a curious fact from the Greensburgh Gazette : " Having in- troduced/' says the writer, " twenty tubes into a sugar- maple, I drew from it, the same day, twenty-three gallons and three quarts of sap, which gave seven and a quarter pounds of sugar ; thirty-three pounds have been made this season from the same tree, which supposes one hundred gal- lons of sap." No doubt more sap could be collected by this means, but I conceive it niust be very detrimental to the health of the tree to extract so large a quantity, of its nutri- tive juices. C. How long does the sugar season continue ? F. Generally it lasts about three or four weeks ; but there are many days in this period, during which nothing at all can be done. If the spring is late, it is sometimes neces- sary to close the sugaring prematurely, in order to commence the more important operations of agriculture. As I suppose your curiosity is satisfied, we may as well prolong our walk, and see what is going on in the world of Nature, especially as the weather is so inviting. C. I picked up, some days ago, on the bank of the Coatacook, a cocoon, lying on the snow, resembling in texture those of the large Cimbexes, but much larger, nearly of the size of a pigeon's egg, of a dirty flesh-colour. It had evi- dently been spun in the midst of leaves, (I think those of the beech,) for it showed every fibre of them indented, like the impression of a seal, on every part of the surface. It contained nothing but the brown exuviae of a large caterpil- lar, probably of a Saturnia ; for the skins even of green caterpillars become brown when cast. There was an open- ing in the side. APRIL. 75 F. I know Saturnia Polyphemus is found here, and I think it probable S. Luna too; both of them splendid moths. Here are the first signs of returning spring that I have yet seen in the vegetable creation. The catkins of the Poplar (Populus Tremuloides), and those of some of the Willows (Salix), are just beginning to show their silky heads out of their bursting envelopes. These trees, like many others, blossom before they put forth their leaves ; the catkin, or ament, as it is botanically called, being a spike of close-set, minute flowers. Both of these genera, the poplar and the willow, have the male and female flowers on differ- ent plants, but the catkins resemble each other. Of the ge- nus Salix, Professor Eaton gives, in his excellent " Manual of Botany," no less than forty species as indigenous to North America. They chiefly delight in wet places, but do not abound in the primitive forests. Of all the plants in this class, fertile seeds can be produced only by the proximity of the two sexes, so that the farina from the stamens may im- pregnate the pistils. Common as that graceful species, the Lombardy Poplar (Pop. Dilatata) is, both here, and all over the United States, it is said, that no pistillate or female plant of this species has ever been brought to America, and consequently, being all males, no seed has ever been produced here. C. How have they then been multiplied ? F. By suckers or shoots, which take root very readily ; but as these twigs or suckers, 4f however recently inserted, feel the effects of age in the same degree as the twigs remain- ing on the original tree, the species is becoming enfeebled with age in our country, so that very recent shoots will hardly withstand a severe winter. We see but the feeble limbs of an exile in dotage, though yet sustained in a thou- sand localities." C. I have lately observed several caterpillars, thinly <0 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 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 a 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 water. 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 APRIL. 77 America has made to the domestic ornithology of the old world. Its form and colour are handsome, and its flesh of approved flavour. C. It does not seem much alarmed at the sight of us, for it does not take to flight. F. It is a heavy bird, and rises awkwardly ; and al- though when fairly launched on its course, a bird of power- ful wing, its first flight is low, and appears heavy and labo- rious, as you may yourself observe ; for now it rises. C. He is gone ; probably to join the first flock he meets with, where he may sound his trumpet in concert. Where do they spend the winter ? F. The flocks that pass over us in autumn in a souther- ly direction, probably scatter themselves over the estuaries and inlets of the deeply indented coast of the United States, particularly Chesapeake Bay, that paradise of water-fowl, the resort of uncounted myriads of aquatic birds of almost all species. In spring, the birds collect again in flocks, and their migrations northward are an unfailing indication that " win- ter is over and gone." " When cloud-cleaving geese to the lakes are a-steering ;" as Wilson has it ; though their destination seems far beyond the lakes. C. Why is the ground bare for a considerable distance around trees and stumps, when the snow still lies on the surrounding ground ? F. Partly because the earth is always more elevated in such situations by the roots beneath, and therefore becomes sooner exposed ; but the principal reason is, the radiation of heat from the 'central object ; as we find that even when the snow has fallen to the depth of one or two feet, every weed or stalk of grass which rises above the surface of the snow, 78 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. has, after a day or two's sunshine, melted a space round it of more than an inch from itself, so that it stands in a kind of tube of snow.* Any dark- coloured object lying on the sur- face of snow, will speedily wear a passage for itself to the ground, on account of its power of receiving heat from the solar rays. C. Such situations are the resort of the few insects that are already stirring. See, around this dead maple-stump are several of those serricorn beetles with soft, brown elytra, and pink thorax (Brachynotus Bennettii). They eject from many parts of the body, when handled, a white glutinous fluid, which has a strong smell, and is perhaps intended as a de- fence. Here, too, are little green Cicadellce, hopping about very briskly ; and the Muscidce are as busy as bees, buzzing in the sunshine, and rubbing their feet together, and then off to another place : pioneers of the hosts that in a few weeks will make all nature alive with their gaiety. And here is a caterpillar of the Buff-leopard Moth, covered with thick tufts of short hair, tawny red in the middle, and black at each end of the body. It is one of the last caterpillars that crawl in autumn, and one of the first that appear in spring. F. This insect (Arctia Isabella) is called a rare species by Abbott, (speaking, however of Georgia,) who figures it on the Elephant's foot (Elephantopus Scaber), and mentions wild plantain, corn, and peas, as its food. His figure of the caterpillar is bad, as it does not give the idea of its hairiness. With us, common as it is, I do not know its food ; I have often found it on the raspberry, but could not get it to eat. Yonder is a fly, which, from the peculiar fluttering motion of its wings, I take to be four-winged ; probably it is either a moth or a Phryganea : run and catch it ; it flies so slowly that you will have no difficulty, C. I have it ; it is neuropterous, but it does not appear to be a Phryganea, as the wings are incumbent. APRIL. 79 F. It belongs to a tribe which I call Water-flies, as I have never seen any of the species except in the immediate vicinity of water. The species are numerous in this conti- nent, forming the genus Semblis of Fabricius. This is an early kind, the clouded Water-fly (Perla Clio). C. What is this curious insect at the bottom of this little pond ? It is an awkward, sprawling creature, some- thing like a spider, of a light brown colour. JP. It is the larva of a Dragon-fly, and an animal which, from its curious habits and conformation, may afford you some instruction and amusement. Take him up, and put him into your pocket box, with a little wet moss, that we may examine him at home ; you need not be afraid, it is perfectly harmless. C. Here is another long, semi-transparent worm, with- out feet, with a head retractile into the body. Of what is this the larva ? F. Of some dipterous fly, probably one of the larger Tipulce. I see some small larvae of gnats and flies ; catch them as food for your Libellula grub. We have to- day seen many tokens of approaching spring : Nature is bursting from the icy chains with which she has been bound for so many months, soon again to teem with life and glad- ness. Yet many wintry storms, many bleak days and cold nights must pass, before we can say, spring has actually come. C. Now we are at home, what shall I do with my Dragon-fly grub ? F. Put him into this basin of water. I would first have you notice his very singular mode of progression. C. He goes with a graceful sort of gliding or rather shooting motion, in a straight line, stretching out his legs 80 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. behind close to his sides ; but I do not see how he moves ; he has no fins, and it is not by means of his legs. F. If you look closely, you may observe that previously to every motion the minute floating particles of earth, &c. rush in a current towards its tail, and are then forcibly driven away ; at which moment the insect shoots ahead. The tail of this grub is, in fact, a complete syringe, being furnished with a piston capable of being drawn towards the head, or thrust towards the tail, at will. On drawing it inward, the water rushes in ; then this piston is forcibly thrust downward, ejecting the contained water in a jet or stream, which, by the resistance of the surrounding fluid, throws the insect forward. If you hold it under water in your fingers, so as to see the tail, you may observe the operation. C. The tail is composed of three triangular pieces, which meet exactly together, when shut ; and when open, show another valve opening outwardly when the water is ejected. What a curious contrivance ! F. But you do not yet know the whole use of this sin- gular organ : it is a breathing apparatus as well as a means of locomotion ; and every inspiration of water is an act of respiration. The piston, as we call it, is composed of the trachece or air-vessels, whose office is to extract oxygen from the water, in the same manner as the gills of fishes. Here is additional matter for wonder : but wonder is not the only sentiment which such an organization should awaken in our minds : it surely calls for admiration of the infinite wis- dom of God the Creator, in thus adapting an organ to pur- poses so widely different ; while at the same time so per- fectly is each operation performed, that it would seem, on considering either of the two processes to be effected, as if the organ were created for that express purpose alone. Again, it gives us exalted ideas of the benevolence and all-pervading love of God, to observe such astonishing skill of contrivance displayed for the comfort of so mean a reptile ; a creature APRIL. 81 unknown to ninety-nine out of a hundred of mankind, yet not beneath the care of Him, " who openeth His hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing" But we have not done with our Libellula, the mouth is as singularly formed as the tail ; put in a few of the gnat-worms, and watch his motions. C. He waits until they are at rest ; now he sees one, and creeps slowly towards it : he has got it : but what great flap was that which suddenly flew out from his head and seized the prey ? F. We will let him eat his morsel, and then examine his face. Now, you see he has no apparent mouth, but the whole face is composed of a long flat kind of mask, ending in a rounded point, and divided in the middle (as you see when I separate it with a pin) by serratures, like the teeth of a saw, which fit into each other. These valves it throws open, and darts out to a great length by means of a double fold, as you saw, on the approach of prey, to seize it, and carry it to the mouth which is concealed within, and the serrated teeth are said to hold it firmly while it is being devoured. Altogether it is a very formidable apparatus, and one well worth obser- vation and examination. C. I did not think so ugly a creature could have afford- ed me half so much pleasure ! Concealed among the mud of a pond, its curious formation seems thrown away, and hid- den from our observation. F. Should not this very thing " hide pride from man ?" So much care bestowed upon an animal altogether out of the pale of general observation, and evidently without any refer- ence to him ! It affords us, too, another instance of how admirably every creature is adapted for the situation in which it is placed, and that no situation is so barren but that it may be made to afford life and sustenance to some order of sentient beings. E 5 VII. APRIL 15th. Song of Birds. Song Sparrow. Snow-bird. Crossline Moth. Striped Feather Moth. Powdered Red. Pearlhead. Comma Butterfly. Beetles. Water-beetle. Larvae of Ephemerae. Caddis-flies. Aga- rics. Yellowbird. Crows. Ruffed Grouse. Honey-bees. Plants. Orford Mountain. The Owl's Head. Exhilarating Effect of high Ele- vations. Lesser Red-poll. Hop. Maskilonge. Strange note of Blue Jay. Curious Fact connected with the Barn Swallow. Breaking up of the Coatacook. The Masuippi and the St. Francis. Mysterious Voice of the Saw-whetter. Piping Froga. FATHER. Spring, delightful Spring, has at length opened upon us : ' ' the winter is past, the rain is over and gone j the time of the singing of birds is come." Let us walk forth, and listen to the sweet music. CHARLES. It is the first real song we have heard, and very melodious it is. From what birds does it proceed ? F. From the Song Sparrow (Fringilla Melodia). I have not seen nor heard a single individual before, yet this morning they appear in considerable numbers, in company with another little bird of the same genus, the Snow-bird (Fringilla Nivalis), which likewise makes his appearance all of a sudden. They are both plain little birds, and the latter has no song to recommend it, save a single " chip," but as putting us in mind of brighter days, and as the harbingers of sunny spring, they are trebly welcome. C. Have we not seen the Snow-bird at intervals through the winter ? . r< fe/ww* Ui*V- CUt APRIL. 83 F. No : you are thinking of the Snow Bunting, a bird of a different genus, Emberiza, from which this may be easily distinguished by its colour : it being of a dark slate colour, with a very light, almost white, bill, the contrast of which with the nearly black head, makes it a very marked bird. It is here vulgarly called the Chip-bird. This Frin- gilla does not winter with us ; I believe its name of Snow- bird is derived from its appearing in Pennsylvania about the time of first snow. It is the earliest comer of our spring visitants, usually arriving a day or two before the Song Spar- row. It is of a more elegant shape than most of its tribe. C. How very pleasant it is to listen to the warbling, after the long, dull silence of winter. F. I never hear the song of birds under any circum- stances, without feeling my spirits raised, my heart glad- dened, and filled with delightful emotions. It is not so much the song itself, as the thousand associations of time, place, and circumstances, which are at once conjured up : it brings the verdant meadow, the blossomed hedgerow, or the softened sunbeams playing through the leafy trees, with the happy, gleeful days long gone by. I know not how it is, but on looking back on days past and gone, in which, at the time, sorrow was at least as prominent as joy, they seem stripped of all that was painful, and the pleasing and happy circumstances connected with them seem to stand out in bold relief, and give the prevailing hue to the picture. In this case, too, " 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, And clothes the mountain in its azure hue." C. But independently of association, there is something inherently delightful in the warbling of birds : the sense of hearing is gratified with melody; and it is surely not a little thing to consider it as an instance of the benevolence of God in -rt, \-MrK I i^V*- fcc Aw. W*3 ' 84 THE CANADIAN. NATURALIST. making even His humblest creatures happy ; for no one can look upon a bird pouring out its soul in harmony, without feeling that it is an outburst of gladness and joy. F. That is at least a pleasanter belief than the one which would make the bird a mere machine, and its song the effect of an instinctive impulse, uttered with no more emotion than the ticking of a clock. If this be philosophy, indeed " Tis folly to be wise." C. I have noticed some more insects abroad, and within a few days past I have made some captures for my cabinet. About a week ago, I took the Crossline Moth, a rather pretty little Noctiw, and the first lepidopterous insect that I have observed, except the Tortrix I found in the winter. Yesterday I took two small moths ; one a very little Tinea, the Striped Feather, the other a plain Tortrix, the Powdered Red. To- day I caught in the house a pretty Tinea, the Pearlhead. F. I saw a butterfly in flight several days ago, but was not near enough to distinguish the species : it was probably one of the Commas (Grapta). C. Under stones, in the fields, many beetles may now be found, some nearly torpid, but others quite active. I have found two or three species of Carabida, a little black Chry- somela, with scarlet thorax, (Crioceris Collaris?) very com- mon in autumn, and several minute Staphylini (Poederus Riparius). These last form a very pretty microscopic ob- ject : the head, the tip of the abdomen, and the small wing cases, are black, or rather steel-blue, and the thorax, and most of the abdomen, are bright orange. They are very nimble, and have the same habit of turning up the tail as the larger species, the Rove Beetle, &c. p. Let us look into this little pool, and see if we can APRIL. 85 discover anything stirring. Yonder are two black Water Beetles (Colymbetes) ; see how they hurry to the top of the water, then scuttle down again to the bottom, and hide un- der the mud. C. I have one of them. F. This insect is worth a moment's observation. Ob- serve how smooth its surface is, without any projections, to adapt it for swift progress through so dense a medium as water : the elytra shut very closely, to prevent the wings beneath, which are large and long, from becoming wet and unfit for use : the fore and middle feet are small and weak, but the hindmost pair are very large and strong, and thickly fringed with hair ; they are used as oars to propel the insect through the water, and we may see how admirably they are fitted for this purpose, by observing the effect produced ; for the motion of the aquatic beetles is very swift. There are many species of the tribe, but all agree in these particu- lars : some are of very large size ; this is but a small kind. C. Here are some larvae of the Ephemera. They keep the fin-like appendages at their sides constantly in a waving motion, even when they themselves are at rest : what can be the reason ? F. I believe these fins are connected with the air-pipes, and are in fact breathing organs : and as they extract the oxygen from that portion of the water with which they are immediately in contact, I suppose their constant vibration is necessary to produce a current, and so bring fresh particles of water to be inhaled. But I apprehend these likewise perform a double office, and are also organs of locomotion. C. There is a serpentine motion of the abdomen when they swim, which perhaps aids them in some degree ; but they do not appear to swim with the same facility as most water-insects. I see some of these are in the pupa state, by 86 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. the size and dark colour of the rudimentary wings on each side of the thorax. Caddis Flies (Phryganece) may be seen flying in the marshy woods on almost any fine day. F. I noticed a cluster of Agarics springing from the dunghill, a few days ago : they are an ephemeral race, " that come up in a night, and perish in a night ;" but some of them possess great delicacy of form and beauty of colour : these were, however, of a plain drab hue, but I noticed them as symptoms of vegetative activity. C. What little birds are flocking about that apple-tree ? they seem fond of company, for when one moves, they all accompany it. F. It is the Yellow-bird, or American Goldfinch (Frin- gilla Tristis), in its olive-coloured winter plumage : in this state it is not very easy to distinguish them from others of our finches, unless we approach pretty near them ; but their flight in curves, sinking and rising, and their weak but not unmusical song, are sufficient to identify them. When they twitter all together, as they do now, it has a pleasing effect ; their favourite note resembles the word "babee," the last syllable protracted and much higher than the first. Though this bird leaves our inhospitable climate in autumn, for the sunnier regions of the south, yet I am not sure that indivi- duals do not pass the winter with us. I have observed a flock of them picking up oats and seeds around the homestead as late as the 25th of December, and have noticed small flocks twittering and chasing each other about the trees in the orchard as early as the 19th of March. They will soon begin to change, but it will be the middle of May before they attain their gay summer dress. C. I have noticed Crows (Corvus CoroneJ flying over the woods and fields for some days past ; and the other day I roused a Ruffed Grouse (Tetrao Umbellus) on the borders of the woods. APRIL. 87 % ' F. I think the Grouse winters here, though it is not much seen in winter. They will soon begin to drum, which is the sexual call of the male. It is a curious noise : Wilson compares it to the striking together of two blown bladders, slowly at first, but more and more quickly, until the strokes run into one another, and have the effect of one continued rumbling sound, gradually dying away. He says it is per- formed thus : " The cock, standing on an old prostrate log, generally in a retired and sheltered situation, lowers his wings, erects his expanded tail, contracts his throat, elevates the two tufts of feathers on the neck, and inflates his whole body, something in the manner of the turkey-cock, strutting and wheeling about with great stateliness. After a few manoeuvres of this kind, he begins to strike with his stif- fened wings in short and quick strokes, which become more and more rapid until they run into each other, as has been already described." C. The Honey-bees are busy : how soon they find out the nectar of the poplar and willow catkins! they are throng- ing around those trees in considerable numbers. F The Buttercup (Ranunculus Acris), Clover ( Tri- folium Pratense), and wild Strawberry (Fragaria Virgi- niana), begin to put forth their young leaves ; and I see the grass is sprouting in the woods and sheltered places. C. What very remarkable mountain is that to the west- ward, so elevated above all the neighbouring land ? the snow on its summit and sides shines brightly in the sun, and strongly contrasts with the azure tint of the wooded parts. F. It has often struck my own attention, as being so conspicuous an object from this road, as well as from its evi- dent height, and the singularity of its shape, somewhat resembling that of a couching lion. I have had no opportu- & THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. nity of visiting it myself, which I should much like to do, but feeling much curiosity respecting it, I applied to my friend, Alphonso Wells, Esq. a gentleman whose acquaint- ance with the localities of this province is very extensive, for information respecting it. He says, " this mountain I take to be the highest mountain in all this part of Canada. It rises about two thousand three hundred feet above the level of the head waters of Missisquoi River, which take their rise at the western side of its base. It is called Orford Mountain, and its highest peak is about three-quarters of a mile from the south and west limits of the township of Orford, near the south-west corner. I have never examined the nature of the formation, but believe that a considerable portion of it is granite. A small lake, about a mile in length, lies at the south end of this mountain, in the township of Bolton, and the stage road passes in a cut, made out of the solid rock, about fifty feet above the level of the surface of the water of this lake, the edge of which rock rises nearly perpen- dicularly from the water. At this cut I have found large quantities of asbestos in the fissures of the rock. " The view from the summit of this mountain is truly grand and magnificent. The mountains of Montreal, Montar- ville, Belceil, Mounoir, Rougemont, and Yamaska, all of them rising out of a flat level country, appear in a westerly direction. Shefford, Brome, and Farnham mountains also appear, lying more near, in a west and south-westerly course. Still more to the south, is seen Pinnacle mountain, in the east part of the Seigniory of West Ormond ; and south, and still more to the east, are seen Button, Bolton, and Potton mountains. In Potton, rising abruptly from the west shore of the Lake Memphramagog, and about four miles and a half from the Province line, is a high, conical, and very steep mountain, called ' the Owl's Head,' which is a very conspicuous point in the view from Orford Mountain, and, next to it, is supposed APRIL. 89 to be the highest land in this part of Canada. It is a cur- rent belief with the common people, that the Owl's Head contains some precious minerals, and much digging and exca- vating have been done in places upon it, by those who wished to possess themselves of them, but without success as yet. I believe that no experienced mineralogist has ever yet ex- plored the mineral kingdom of this, nor indeed of any other considerable part of Canada. The sides of this, and of Or- ford Mountain, are covered to the very summits, with a thick growth of maple, birch, spruce, and hemlock timber. The range of Green Mountains, in the State of Vermont, the White Mountains in New Hampshire, and the outlines of most of what are called the Eastern Townships, together with about eighteen small lakes, are all visible from the summit of Orford Mountain, in clear weather/' C. It would give me very great pleasure to visit the mountain, and enjoy the prospect of so extensive a country. F. The distance is considerable, but perhaps at some future time we may find opportunity for a visit and a per- sonal examination. But the day wanes, and it is time to return. C. There is something very exhilarating in standing at a great elevation ; arising probably from the rarity of the air in such situations. F. The purity of the air, its freedom from noxious and heavy vapours, acting on the body, is no doubt one cause of the buoyancy of spirits which one usually feels at great heights, joined to the purely mental excitement, which the enlarged prospect, and the distance from the ordinary bustle of life, are calculated to produce in minds of a certain tempe- rament. That such an effect is produced, I have myself often proved. 90 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. C. There is a pair of pretty birds in the road before us : the crown of the head is bright crimson, and one of them has a red breast. What are they ? F. They are called the Lesser Red-poll (Fringilla Linaria) ; this is one of the few birds which are found both in Europe and America. It is not by any means a common bird, as I have very rarely seen it. These, too, are finches, and feed principally, if not wholly, on seeds : it is probable they breed with us, as they are northern birds, but I have never met with their nests. C. The fields are beginning to look green in some places ; and here are the young leaves of the Hop plant (Humulus Lupulus) growing in a corner of the fence. F. Professor Eaton gives the hop as a native of this continent : but for his high authority, I should have rather supposed that it had been introduced from Europe. The hop grows remarkably fast ; I have known a shoot to grow more than two inches and a quarter in twenty-four hours. C. What large fish are those, which the man who just passed us carried in his hand ? F. They are called here " Longe," in other parts, " Maskilonge ;" and are esteemed fine eating. They are caught in the neighbouring lakes, but I know nothing of their natural history. They are often taken of great size. C. I yesterday heard the voice of a bird near the edge of the second-growth-poplar woods, which sounded strange to me : it was like the words <( pwilhelly, pwilhelly." I approached, to try to get a sight of it, but found that it receded before me, faster than I could pursue it, and it was finally lost in the distance. F. It was no stranger : neither more nor less than your noisy acquaintance, the Blue Jay (Corvus Cristatus) ; the screaming rogue has so many notes and strange cries, that APRIL. 91 his most intimate acquaintance will scarcely know him by his voice ; but I have heard him utter the note you describe. My friend, Mr. Jaques, informed me of a curious circum- stance which occurred a few days ago. He found on his barn floor, just fallen from the roof, a Bam Swallow ( Hi- rundo Americana), dead and dry. He showed it to me : the feet were extended, as if sitting on a plane surface ; it appeared to be a young bird (though perfectly fledged), from its size, being not more than five inches in length, and from the exterior feathers of the tail being scarcely longer than the others : but what is most curious, is the fact, that a per- fect egg was attached to the vent, stuck on to the feathers, apparently by some glutinous substance. This egg Mr. J. broke in taking it up ; the yolk was yellow, not putrified, but thickened in consistence. I was at a loss to account for the fact of a full-fledged young bird and a sound egg being in the same nest ; but mentioning the circumstance to an ex- perienced ornithologist, he threw much light upon it, by telling me, that towards the end of the season, the swallow becomes very irregular with respect to the time of its laying. The young bird was probably deserted, owing to its not being sufficiently matured to accompany the parents in their mi- gration, It was no doubt the dung of the bird which caused the egg to adhere to its feathers. C. See ! the Coatacook is breaking up j as we came over this bridge a few hours ago, the ice appeared firm and solid, though covered with water ; but now it is cracking, and going down the large open channel in the middle of the river. F. I knew it had been unsafe for many days : the large holes around the posts of the bridge, the openings near the banks, and the depth of water that covered the main body of ice, all have shown that the disruption could not be far THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. off. The Masuippi has been open for some weeks ; and in going to Sherbrooke last week, I observed large fragments of ice swiftly floating down that rapid river, the St. Francis. C. Notwithstanding the day has been so warm, now that the sun is down, the air is chilly and even cold. Listen to the singular sound proceeding from yonder cedar swamp. It is like the measured tinkle of a cow-bell, or regular strokes upon a piece of iron quickly repeated. Now it has ceased. F. There it is again. I will give you all the inform- ation I can about it ; and that is very little. In spring, that is, during the months of April, May, and the former part of June, we frequently hear, after nightfall, the sound you have just heard ; from its regularity it is usually thought to resemble the whetting of a saw, and hence the bird from which it proceeds is called the Saw-whetter. I say "the bird," because, though I could never find any one who had seen it, I have little doubt that it is a bird. I have asked Mr. Titian Peale, the venerable Professor Nuttall, and other ornithologists of Philadelphia, about it, but can obtain no information on the subject of the author of the sound : it seems to be " Vox et praeterea nihil." Carver, in his amusing travels, mentions it as being heard near Lake Superior, naming it, if I recollect rightly, the Whetsaw. It may possibly be known, but I find nothing of it in Wilson or Bonaparte. Professor Nuttall was ac- quainted with the note, but told me plainly the bird was unknown. I conjecture it may be some of the herons or bitterns ; or, possibly, from a passage in Bonaparte's Orni- APRIL. 93 thology, the Evening Grosbeak (Fringilla Vespertina). He says of that bird, " their note is strange and peculiar ; and it is only at twilight that they are heard crying in a singu- lar strain. This mournful sound, uttered at such an unusual hour, strikes the traveller's ear, but .the bird itself is seldom seen." One season I heard it several nights in succession, early in March, and going into the State of Vermont in the same month, I likewise heard it there, but invariably proceeding from the most sombre and gloomy recesses of the black -tim- bered woods. Once, and but once, I heard it before the sun was set j I have watched in the woods from which I was in the habit of hearing it proceed, for some time after sunset ; but could not succeed in hearing it then, I was once coming from Sherbrooke near midnight, when everything was pro- foundly still, and not a sound broke the deep silence, except the measured tramp of my horse's feet on the frozen road ; on a sudden, from a thick forest, about half a mile distant, came the metallic tinkle of the saw-whetter. The unexpectedness of the sound struck me forcibly, and, cold as it was, I stopped my horse for some time to listen to it. In the darkness and silence of midnight, the regularly recurring sound, proceeding too from so gloomy a spot, had an effect on my mind, so- lemn, and almost unearthly, yet not unmixed with pleasure. Perhaps the mystery hanging about the origin of the sound tended to increase the effect. I have been told by one of my neighbours that it is a bird, about the size of a cuckoo, but as I could not find that he himself had seen it in the act of uttering its notes, little heed is to be given to the sup- position. C. It is very singular. I should think it might be discovered by perseverance. F. You may watch for it, if you please ; but I apprehend it is very shy, and you would not be aware of its presence 94 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. so soon as it would be aware of yours : so that the bird would have a decided advantage over you. Accident may throw light on this, as it has done on many other subjects. C. There is another sound, which I have not heard be- fore : as if a score of persons were whistling together : it is not so far off as the saw-whetter, for it evidently comes from this field, and but a few yards distant. F. Many are engaged in the concert ; but if you listen attentively, you will perceive that each whistles three short and quick notes, two alike, and the third much higher in tone. There is not much doubt about the origin of this. It proceeds from some of the Reptilia ; it is usually called the Piping Frog, but I believe it in reality a small lizard/ Like the saw-whetter, it reserves its music to enliven the night season, and makes up in pertinacity what it wants in melody. This field is wet and marshy, in which situations alone this reptile delights. I think it likely that the lizard is beneath the surface of the ground, at the time of making this piping noise ; at least, sometimes, if not always : for once I heard many of them in my own field before it was dark, and being quite near, I looked, but could see nothing : presently the tune struck up from the ground a yard or two from me. I went cautiously to the spot, and found that it had evidently proceeded from a small hole in the earth, but no musician was visible. If I had had a spade, I might have brought him forth to daylight, or rather to twilight, to receive the applause due to his musical powers. But here we are, once more at home. 95 VIII. MAY 1st. Robin. Green Comma Butterfly. Compton Tortoise B. Camberwell Beauty B. Moths. Cocoons. Musca. Cicada. Barn Swal- low. Musquito. Black Fly. Sand Fly. " Smudge. " Early Settlers. Curious Elm. Whirl Beetles. Freshets. Slides. Mar- tin-houses. Purple Martin. View of Hatley. Canada Thistle. Chestnut Chafer. Purple Carabus. Rosy Casefly. Forked Butterfly. Cattle in pastures. Emigration to Canada. Misstatements of Wri- ters. Instance of Infatuation. Evils of a new Country. Glory of Nature. First Flower of Spring. Pewit Flycatcher. Early Elder. Chequered Snake becomes torpid casts its skin its food. Wild Leek. Cackling of Frogs. FATHER. I have business which calls me to Hatley to-day, a village about seven miles distant. The village is more properly called Charleston, but as it is in the township of Hatley, it is more usually known by the former name. If you would like to accompany me, get your pony and let us go. CHARLES. A walk or ride with you is always pleasant, for I always find many new things to observe and to inquire about. I will join you immediately. F Now then, if you are ready. Our road lies through a very varied country, now through dense woods, and then amidst wide clearings, sometimes on lofty hills, and then into valleys as deep. C. We cannot go a step out now, without seeing some- thing new either in the vegetable or animal world. In my 96 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. rambles about the farm and neighbourhood, for a week or two past, I have observed many things worth noticing. .F. I, too, have not walked with my eyes shut : but what tokens of spring's advance have you observed since our last walk ? C. About a fortnight ago. the Robin appeared : I saw a flock then, and since that time lhave observed several flocks. They are hopping very familiarly about the wet grass-lands, and the ploughed fields, searching, as I suppose, for worms and insects. He is commonly called the Robin, though I perceive no resemblance between him and our English ro- bin, except in the single circumstance of his having a red breast. F. The American Robin is a species of thrush (Turdus Migratorius). In Newfoundland, where it is very common, it is always called the Blackbird, It is a saucy, familiar bird, fond of man's neighbourhood, and more seen in our fields and gardens than in the woods. Its song is not con- temptible, but by no means comparable to that of the Song Sparrow. The robin is a very general favourite, but this does not protect him from the assaults of any idle boy that can procure a gun. The flesh is savoury, and great numbers of them are shot for the table j in Newfoundland especially, a constant warfare is carried on against them, without any apparent diminution of their numbers. C. About the same time I saw the first butterflies this season. In the woods, a small brown one flew by me, but I was in a hurry, and could not stay to pursue it. The same afternoon, I saw two, one of which I caught, and found it to be the Green Comma (Grapta Progne ? ). Three or four days ago, I saw the Compton Tortoise Butterfly (Vanessa J. Album), and the noble Camberwell Beauty (Van. An- liopa). F. These are fine butterflies, both in size and colour. MAY. 97 There is a very striking resemblance between the Compton tortoise and its congeners the Tortoiseshells of England, both in colours and distribution of the tints, and the simila- rity is equally striking in both the upper and under surfaces, though these differ so much from each other. The Camber- well beauty, a rarity in England, is here extremely common, chiefly in autumn, and is one of the latest seen of all our butterflies. The first you named is a pretty fly ; the under surface of the wings is very beautifully and richly variegat- ed. The genus Grapta is not, I believe, generally adopted ; but it seems as natural a genus as almost any other of the Nymphalidce. I have found four species in this place, and one in the south, all of which can scarcely be distin- guished from each other on the upper side, but vary greatly beneath. They are all marked by a silver crescent in the centre of the hinder wings, on the under surface : the Comp- ton tortoise resembles them in this particular, but this is a true Vanessa. C. I have two new moths added to my collection, both of them of small size. One is a very pretty Tinea, taken about ten days ago j the other I caught last evening, a small but handsome Geometra- The cocoons of the Muff Moth (Lophocampa Tesselaris) and Panther Moth (Spilosoma Acria) , may both be found under stones or boards, lying on the ground. A pretty little bug, about as broad as it is long, of a polished black, with a white margin (Cydnus ?}, crawls about. Ichneumons and Muscce are nu- merous. P. I have noticed, buzzing about the dead leaves which lie under the maples, a large Musca that I have not seen before ; the abdomen changeable blackish -grey, the head light brown, with dark brown eyes, and rather long antennae. It is numerous. C. Among those same leaves, if we disturb them, we F 98 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. find hundreds of the little Crimson-striped Cicadse ( Tettigonia 4-vittata}, and a green species, still smaller (Tettigonia Mollipes), hopping in every direction. I suppose they have remained all the winter among these leaves, under the snow. F. These things are all signs of spring ; but there is a bird which, when it appears in any considerable numbers, is considered peculiarly as the harbinger of summer. I allude to the Swallow : as early as the 21st of April, numbers of them appeared. I was standing on the bridge near Smith's mills, and could not but admire their beauty, as they darted under the arches of the bridge just beneath my feet ; they seemed to take great delight in skimming along the surface of the water, sometimes just touching the surface, perhaps catching minute insects, too minute to be discoverable by our obtuse senses ; while their backs and heads glistened in the sunbeams with the most glossy blue ; and their breasts, and inner surface of their wings, showed a bright chestnut, visible as they occasionally swept over head. The species was the Barn Swallow (Hirundo Americana), the most numerous of all the species of this swift- winged race., that enliven the air during our short summers. C. Is this the species that builds its nest under the eaves of barns, as the English martin does under the eaves of dwelling-houses ? F. Yes : I have seen between thirty and forty nests under the eaves of one side of a barn, nearly as thick as they could be placed, besides many which were on the other side and at the ends of the building. But this species likewise builds within the barn, attaching its nest to the rafters and beams. Square or lozenge- shaped holes are usually cut in the boards at each end of a barn, to admit the birds ; and it is astonishing to observe the precision with which they fly through these holes, which are so small as frequently to compel them to half close their wings in passing through. MAY. 99 Yet in summer they may be seen flying to and fro,, through these holes, many hundreds of times in a day. C. Why are the farmers so accommodating to this bird ? F. All the species of swallows are universal favourites j and they well deserve to be cherished around our dwellings, on account of the incessant and successful warfare which they carry on against those insect pests, the musquitoes, sandflies and other similar races. C. I have observed the musquito or gnat already abroad ; but I have not yet been so unfortunate as to know by expe- rience the effect of their bites. F. You will not live long in that state of happy igno- rance : before this month is ended, we shall have them swarming around us, and our bodies will be continually co- vered with large white tumours, attended with intolerable itching, and followed by much inflammation and pain. It is more particularly by night that they make their insidious attacks ; they swarm in our bed-chambers, and it is a very common thing to see in the morning many of them lazily pitched about the walls, and ceiling, their abdomens distended, and almost bursting, with the blood which they have ex- tracted from our veins at their leisure. It is almost impos- sible to do anything in the fields after sunset, as one hand is perpetually in requisition to drive them from our faces, but they return most pertinaciously to the attack, and, notwith- standing all our efforts, manage to cover our faces, necks, heads, hands, and legs, with their bites. Their ringing hum, which always announces their approach, is listened to with a feverish anxiety, and as it approaches the ear, is heard with a dread and horror that is almost laughable when we consi- der the size of the enemy. C. Is there more than one species that is so annoying ? F. There are two species at least, if not more, of the true musquito (Culex); and besides them there is the Black F 2 100 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. Fly, a small species of dipterous fly, with black body, the legs ringed with black and white (Simulia ?}, whose bite is similar in its effects to that of the musquito, but it does not usually come into our houses. There is also a very minute insect likewise dipterous, with mottled wings, the Sandfly, or Midget, so small as to be scarcely visible : they appear in myriads at nightfall, and bury their heads in the flesh j their bite is not unlike a spark of fire, but it is not followed by tumours ; a slight inflammation continues for a few minutes, with itching. Neither of these two utters any sound as it approaches, so that their attack is still more insidious than that of the musquito. C. But is there no way of guarding against their as- saults ? are we altogether at their mercy ? F. When they are too bad to be borne any longer, our housewives make what they call a smudge ; that is, little fires to windward of the house, covered with wet chips and earth, which, smothering the flame, make a dense smoke ; this being wafted by the wind around the house, prevents the approach of the flies, as they cannot abide smoke : so we tolerate one inconvenience to dispel a greater. There is no other help, but patience. Salt dissolved in water, rubbed on a recent bite, prevents much of the evil effect. But we know little, after all, of this evil, compared with those bold and hardy men who first penetrated this vast wilderness, and set up their solitary dwellings in the midst of the forest, before roads were cut, or clearings made, or marshes drained ; when clouds of venomous insects rose out of the rank swamps, to which those we encounter are as nothing. I have heard some of the first settlers declare, that they did not dare to go out to work without a pine torch continually blazing on their hats, to keep, by its smoke and flame, a small space around their heads clear of these minute but formidable foes. But enough of them. There is a tree, if I recollect rightly, somewhere 101 about this place, which I wish you to see, for it is quite a curiosity. It is an elm of considerable size : one of the main branches, apparently the leading limb, has been partly broken off'; but being held by the under part, only inclines toward the ground, without touching it ; from this broken bough three vigorous and branchy shoots have arisen at some dis- tance from each other, presenting the curious appearance of three young trees growing in the air. We shall come to it soon, if we have not passed it unobserved. Yonder it is, on the left hand side of the road. SINGULAR ELiM. 102 THK CANADA:* NATURALIST. (7. It has indeed a very remarkable appearance. If you will stay a few moments, I should like to take a hasty sketch of it. F. Do so : I have seen several other instances of up- right shoots springing from a half-broken limb, but none having so singular a look as this one. While you are draw- i ing, I will go and look at this little pool by the roadside. < C. I have finished, and am ready to proceed. F. I have found in the pool a group of those merry little creatures, the Whirlbeetles (Gyrinus JEneus, &c.) in full play ; twisting and twirling in their mazy evolutions, with as much skill, and as much apparent enjoyment, as a band of full-grown ladies and gentlemen perform the myste- ries of the quadrille in a ball-room. They whirl in and out with surprising swiftness, and when a number are together, it is wonderful how, in their giddy dance, they manage to avoid coming in contact with each other, a thing which I have never seen to happen, though I have very often watched their merry play. They generally perform their evolutions on the surface, but occasionally one glides through the water, under the rest, and presently comes to the top again, as dry as before. While tinder the surface, a bubble of air is al- ways attached to them, which gleams like a little pearl. The antennae are exceedingly short, being nothing more than little knobs on the head, to the naked sight ; but the eyes of this insect are the most remarkable part of its conformation, and afford another out of the innumerable instances of pro- spective wisdom in creation an instance of adaptation of an organ to its use, perhaps never surpassed. Most beetles have two eyes ; but the Gyrinus has four, two on each side of the head : why is this remarkable exception to the general rule ? The sphere of action of this beetle is the surface of MAY. 103 the water, on which it swims with about half its body sub- merged. Now it has need to guard against enemies from above and below : eyes which would see well in the air, would not see well in the water, on account of the difference in the density of these media, and besides, one pair of eyes could not be in both the air and water at once. To obviate this inconvenience, the Gyrinw has one pair just above the surface, and another pair just below, very close together, yet sufficiently separate to be in different elements. Insect anatomists find that the two eyes, that is, the upper and lower eye on each side, are joined internally, and connected with one optic nerve, an example of economy of materials by no means uncommon. C. Going down to Spafford's bridge yesterday, I ob- served that the river had overflowed its banks, and inun- dated the extensive meadows and low lands on each side, so that it looked like a large lake : the road was impassable for foot passengers. F. These freshets, as they are termed, occur every spring, and are caused by the melting of the accumulated snows of the past winter. It is true our snow has disappeared some time, and the roads are comparatively dry, but it is in the mountains that these freshets originate. The snow there does not melt so soon as in less elevated regions ; and as all the springs and rivers have their sources among the hills, they are comparatively little affected, until the melting of the mountain snows. On such of our rivers as have steep banks, as the St. Maurice and the Magog, I am informed it is not uncommon for slides to occur at this season. Heavy spring rains undermine the earth, while yet frozen, and loosen it from the subsoil, when large portions of the surface, with all their trees and bushes, slide off the rock beneath, and 104 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. descend like an avalanche into the river. Sometimes, the side of a hill will slide,, after a heavy and continued rain, in the summer months, and do great damage. C. What can be the intention of those little houses stuck on poles ? F. Have you not seen them before ? they are common enough in this country, though we have none in our imme- diate neighbourhood. They are put there solely for the ac- commodation of the Purple Martin, a still greater favourite than the Barn Swallow. The Purple Martin (Hirundo Purpurea) is the largest of all our swallows ; his colour is nearly uniform, a deep glossy purple ; he generally arrives about the same time with the barn swallow, though I have not seen, or at least observed, any before those I now see flying about their little painted houses. As soon as they come, they find lodgings ready prepared ; for very many of our farmers, as well as those in the neighbouring States, have taken the trouble to provide boxes for the martin : some erect them on poles, as in this instance ; others fasten them on the very peak or corner of the roof of their dwelling- house. The making of the box in the form of a house, with holes in the shape of doors and windows, with the roof painted red, and the sides white, is the taste of the provider, but it is a pretty general one. In the southern States, I have seen gourds hung on the cut branches of a young tree, near the planters' houses ; a mode which Wilson mentions as practised by the Indians : and as far as I could see, the martins were as well satisfied with this homely abode, as with the painted and shapely houses of the North. I believe the providing of a house for the martin is confined to the American inhabit- ants : I have never seen one erected by an English emigrant. C. I suppose the reason of their being petted is the service they render in destroying flies. F. Like all the tribe, the purple martin feeds exclu- MAY. 105 sively on insects ; but its chief service is its domineering disposition : it attacks crows, hawks, and even eagles; and as its powers of flight are sufficient to secure its own safety, it makes a bold and fearless assault, and with such success as effectually to drive any bird of these kinds from its vicinity. Now draw in your horse a moment, and look at the pro- spect from this hill : yonder white building is the Metho- dist church, which, with its high tower surmounted by a cupola, is a conspicuous object, and, together with the hand- some dwelling-houses near it, agreeably contrasts with the dark woods at the back : here in front are the fields just putting on the verdant livery of spring ; behind, and to the right, we see a silver sheet of water, smiling as peacefully as if its surface had never been ruffled by a storm ; that is Lake Masuippi. From its very edge rise steep and high mountains, shagged with wood to the summits; and the whole picture is finished by the blue and distant hills of Ver- mont ; hills of all shapes, mountain rising beyond mountain, as far as the eye can see. This hill to the left hides Charles- ton village from our sight, which is not more than two or three miles distant. But let us go on. C. I observe by the roadside the young leaves of the thistle are appearing. F. The sprouting of this plant, the Canada Thistle ( Cnicus Arvensis) I noticed about a week ago. It is one of the most pestiferous weeds that are found amongst us, and has of late years increased so rapidly as to become an object of considerable alarm among farmers. It springs up among the grain crops, and its sharp spines are so formidable as to cause great difficulty in reaping grain in which the thistle is growing. It spreads rapidly too in grass lands. C. But is there no way to eradicate it ? 106 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. F. If suffered to ripen, its downy seeds are borne by the wind in clouds, in every direction ; and as they readily take root, and as the plant likewise is perennial-rooted, that is, springs from the old root, it is difficult to keep it down. Much might be done, however, if farmers were unanimous, but the plant is in many cases permitted to grow and ripen by the sides of the roads, whence the seeds are scattered over the fields. Repeated mowings in summer will cause the roots to wither and die ; and if each one would take the trouble to cut off the flowering heads of those that grow in the roads of his own farm, the plant would be prevented from seeding. This is the house at which I have business ; it will not detain me long : if you please you can go in with me, or take a look at the village. C. I will ramble about until you are ready. I shall find sources of amusement, I dare say. F, Now, Charles, it is time to see about returning. What do you think of Charleston ? C. It is a much prettier village than Compton ; it con- tains handsomer and more tasteful houses, and more of them. But I have not been in the village all the time you have been engaged; I have been entomologising in the fields. F. Have you had much success ? (7. Not very much : I have turned over stones, and found under them several specimens of a large chestnut-co- loured chafer, with flexible elytra ; it is something like the cockchafer, but much more sluggish and inactive. p. It is frequently turned up by the plough, when breaking up grass -land : and I have likewise turned up large larvae of a scarab, which I take to be this species ( Rh izotroga Fervens) . MAY. 107 C. Besides these, I found the handsome Purple Carabus (Carabus Catena) ; and a Rosy Casefly (Phryganea ?). I also found two of a broad- winged Ichneumon (Ophion Lu- teum), a Green Byrrhus (Byrrhus Varius), and a Black Water-measurer (Gerris), sprawling on a brook : these three are Newfoundland insects. These, with one or two others of little note, are all I have collected. F. What goes yonder ? That is a butterfly we have not seen this season before. It is the Forked (Vanessa Furcillata), a species common enough here, but in New- foundland the most abundant of all the butterfly tribe. Mr* Say speaks of having met with it in his travels, "several times," as if it were quite uncommon in the States ; and this is not the only instance in which insects common with us are marked by the American naturalists as great rarities. C. It is rather a pretty butterfly, though it has not much variety of colour. Its larva, I believe, feeds on the nettle. F. I perceive many persons have turned their cattle out into the pastures, but it is little that they can pick up yet ; they eat a good deal of the dead and bleached grass of last year, which fills their stomachs, but yields them no nutri- ment. The length of time necessary to stable his cattle is one of the greatest drawbacks to a farmer's profit in this country. We put up our cattle in October, and it is the latter part of May before they can support themselves in the fields, so that we have to provide dried fodder for our stock for upwards of seven months of the year. On this account we are compelled to leave a very large portion of our farms in grass, which otherwise might be more profitably put under tillage. C. But hay usually bears a good price ; is it not there- fore as profitable to mow land as to till it^ ? 108 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. F. Sometimes to an individual it is : but you must re- collect that the hay is sold from one farmer to another ; the farmer is the consumer after all ; what one gains another loses ; the farmers, as a class, reap no advantage from the very highest price of hay, whatever profit individuals may realise. C. What do you think of this country as a place of emigration for the farming class at home ? F. My opinion is, that much exaggeration, and very highly coloured, if not absolutely false, statements have been made in many of the pamphlets, and in some works of higher pretensions, holding out expectations to the settler, which, in a majority of cases, he no more realises than the loon who chased the rainbow, in the hope of obtaining the golden cup. Travellers generally come here in summer, when the country is clothed with beauty ; they see the crops growing, they have no anxieties, no labours, and are usually inclined to be pleased with all they meet with j they pass a few months in going through the pleasantest part of the country, and then think themselves qualified to give a description of Ca- nada, setting forth in glowing colours all the pleasures, and never noticing the disagreeables, probably because they know nothing about them. A very remarkable instance of this in- fatuation has come under my own personal knowledge. A person whom I had known thought of emigrating to Canada ; but previously, he determined on coming to see it. Accord- ingly he arrived here in July, was of course kindly received by his friends, who, as was natural, laid aside all gloom and care, and even the ordinary labours of the farm, to entertain him, and endeavoured to make him welcome to the best they had. He was charmed, enraptured, with all he saw; purchased a farm at once ; built all sorts of castles in the air, in project- ing alterations and improvements ; remained a few weeks ; and then returned to bring his family to his estate in the fol- MAY. 109 lowing spring. On his return, he published an account of his journey in the most flaming and hyperbolical terms, quite laughable to those acquainted with the country by experience. Supposing that because his friends sacrificed a portion of their time to his amusement, they had therefore nothing to do, he seemed to consider a -farmer's life in Canada as one of ease and pleasure, of abundance and luxury. He returned the next summer to his paradise, found that there was some la- bour, and toil, and privation, which he had not anticipated ; did nothing to his farm, spent his means, and the next spring gave up his purchase at a considerable loss, and went back poor and miserable. I fear this is too common a case. C. But I have seen some very favourable accounts from persons resident here. F. They are generally from gentlemen who have capi- tal ; or at least means enough to make them comfortable, without personal labour, in any country. These, suffering none of the inconveniences and privations which assail ordi- nary settlers, usually write as they feel ; and these accounts are mostly given while the novelty of a forest life, and the excitements of a new country, are fresh ; before they have begun to feel the want of that society to which they have been accustomed, and of those luxuries and refinements which only an old state of things can give. Perhaps it is not un- charitable to suppose that some of the praises bestowed may arise from the principle developed in the fable of the fox who had lost his tail ; the friends they have left are anxious about their welfare, and they feel reluctant to let those kind friends suppose they are disappointed, and endeavour to persuade themselves they are not. I have known something of this feeling myself. I have resided here some time, and have engaged personally in the labours of agriculture, and have made many inquiries ; and I do not know an instance, with one sin- gle exception, of an English emigrant, who is not dissatisfied 110 THE. CANADIAN NATURALIST. with his exchange. The exception is one of a gentleman who has money at his disposal,, and who has been here but a short time, who, I have heard, takes off his hat, and blesses God that ever He brought him to such a garden of Eden as this. A sub- sistence can be procured here ; but it is by incessant labour : the land is in general infertile, and the season of preparing the ground for the summer's crops so exceedingly short, that a man can do but little with his unassisted exertions. We cannot usually harrow our fall-ploughed land until May is considerably advanced, on account of the frost in the ground, and the consequent wetness. Then, there is all the grain to be sown, and the potatoes to be planted, during the remainder of May and a small part of June, or no return can be expected. The summer is short, though warm ; early frosts frequently destroy or greatly injure the wheat before it is ripe, and often quite cut off the buckwheat and potato plants. I have known severe night-frost as early as the twelfth of August, doing incalculable injury. It is not an uncommon thing for potatoes to be frozen and spoiled in the ground, before they can be secured in autumn. Weeds, smut, rust, and flies are full as pernicious here as in other places, and all tend to di- minish the farmer's means of existence. The extreme seve- tity of the winter, the thermometer frequently falling more than 20 below zero, sometimes more than 30, is another inconvenience severely felt by the poor farmer. The tending of his cattle, and the cutting and^ drawing of firewood, are sufficient to occupy nearly all his time in the short days of winter. The advantages are, freedom from tithes and taxes, a pure air, healthy climate, excellent water in abund- ance, and the prospect of gradually but slowly increasing his comforts, and leaving an inheritance for his family. Whether these outbalance the disadvantages, I can hardly tell. If a farmer in England finds that with all economy he grows poorer, and thinks he could put up with these evils, and MAY. Ill another which I have not mentioned, the evil of exile from country and home, he might better his condition by coming hither, if he has the means o"f setting himself agoing when he arrives. But in common justice, in common humanity, he ought to have both sides of the question fairly laid before him, that he may know beforehand the difficulties he will have to encounter, and not have to repent of his choice when repentance is too late. I do not speak against emigration in general ; but I think that emigrant makes a very unfortunate choice, who fixes on the eastern townships of Lower Canada as his place of residence. From what I have heard from many sources, I believe that Upper Canada offers an incom- parably greater advantage to the settler, without the peculiar drawbacks of this country. There is a class of emigrants, however, to whom these townships hold out a very fair prospect. I mean the class of agricultural labourers, who would be content to work for hire. One of our greatest evils is the want of hands in busy seasons, such as haymaking, harvest, &c. It is often very difficult to hire labour at any price ; and good, and even high wages may at all times be secured. But that class of men, as soon as they come here, almost invariably become discon- tented, because everything is not exactly like- England ; and generally go into the States, probably going farther and far- ing worse. Those that remain accumulate money so fast, that the spirit of independence comes over them, and they become farmers ; so that the lack of labourers continues, from year to year, unsupplied. C. Have you not drawn too dark a picture ? I have found the winter very severe, and very dull ; but I have met with many pleasant things, especially of late, since the spring has begun to open. F. The naturalist finds gratification in any scene, and at any season, if he can but get abroad among the works of THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. God ; and the bursting forth of life and vegetation,, as the glorious spring gladdens all creation, is an abundant- source of enjoyment to every benevolent mind. But the minds of that class of men to whom I allude, are often incapable of drawing water eut of these w.ells, or at least a taste for such enjoyments has never been awakened. And even if it had, the tangible evils I have mentioned would be sufficient to counterbalance the pleasures of the imagination. C. -! Let us return to our more accustomed and, I may say, more interesting subjects of conversation. I observed, yesterday, the first flower of spring ; it is a low yellow syn- genesious flower, much resembling in appearance a dandelion, but with a thicker and a solid stem, covered with scaly bracts ; it had no leaves. F. I too have observed it in preceding years : it is the common Coltsfoot ( Tussilago Farfara) so useful in catarrhal affections, but it is not abundant with us. The leaves spring from the root, and do not appear until sometime after the flower. A pretty little bird was shown to me a few days ago, which had no doubt just arrived from the south. It was the Pewit Flycatcher (Musdcapa Nunciola) ; it had been caught within a house. The plumage, like that of many of the flycatchers, is olive on the upper parts, with a dark head ; the under parts are yellowish white. It has a simple, rather monotonous note, " pewee ;" its habits are like those of the rest of the tribe ; it is fond of taking its station on a particular twig, whence it makes its frequent sallies after flies, and to which it as constantly returns ; keeps its tail in a continual motion, and often erects the dark feathers of the head, like the kingbird, and others of this genus. C. The buds of the elder are opening. F. The early Elder (Sambucus Pubescens) always opens its flower-buds the first of our shrubs and trees, ex- cept some of the catkin-bearing trees. We have two species MAY. 113 of elder, both abundant in the corners of our fences, and much resembling each other : the second species (S. Cana- densis) is called the late elder. These plants multiply and spread rapidly j and in some of the agricultural publications of the neighbouring States, I have seen complaints of them as pernicious weeds, with inquiries for the best modes of ex- tirpating them. C. There is a snake crossing the road. Are there many species of snakes found in this country ? F. I have never seen any but this species, the common Chequered Snake, (Coluber ?) but it is possible there may be more. C. Is it venomous ? F. No, perfectly harmless ; as I have proved by exam- ining the mouth : all venomous serpents have two or more large curved fangs in the upper jaw, which are wanting in harmless ones. " In general it may be said that innocent serpents have four rows of teeth in the upper jaw ; two on the palate, and one on each side : but that poisonous ser- pents have no other outward or side-teeth but the fangs." When attacked, this snake, like many other harmless kinds, rears itself up in a threatening attitude, dilates its body, brightens its colours, and darts in and out and vibrates its red forked tongue : this organ, called by the vulgar " its sting," and supposed to be the weapon of offence, is consi- dered an undoubted token of its venomous nature. But in reality, all these motions are but menaces ; there is no power to do hurt, though they no doubt often serve as a protec- tion. In common with the whole serpent race, it is the object of universal enmity : every person seems to consider it a sort of duty to kill snakes whenever they can be met with, perhaps in consequence of the curse entailed on the serpent that beguiled Eve. 114 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. C. The snake becomes torpid during winter, I believe ? F. Yes : it conceals itself in the fall, in some conve- nient spot, such as under logs, often in heaps of stones, and sometimes, I have reason to think, in the earth ; for in ploughing late in the autumn, I once turned up a chequered snake : it was inert and dull, but not torpid. C. At what period of the year does it cast its skin ? F. I believe that is the first operation performed, after its revivification in spring, and before it leaves its winter concealment. An intelligent neighbour informed me that once in turning over a heap of stones early in spring, before the snow had all disappeared, he discovered a snake in the very act of sloughing its skin ; the skin was stripped off from the head to about the middle of the body ; the displaced part lay around it in close folds or wrinkles : even the eyes were skinned. If I recollect aright, in Bingley's Animal Biogra- phy it is intimated that the snake crawls among the stalks of plants, in order that the skin may be rubbed off by fric- tion, and that it is turned inside out, as we draw off a stock- ing. My neighbour's account appears far more probable: besides, it is supported by analogy ; for it is exactly the mode in which all caterpillars slough their skins, as I have many times witnessed. The food of the snake is frogs, toads, lizards, and probably insects. I once killed a snake which I found in the field, (supposing then that it was poisonous,) by dashing it against the ground : and some- thing protruded, which I supposed was its bowels, but on examination, I found it to be the pretty olive-spotted frog, with an orange-coloured belly (Rana Halecina ?) : it, too, was torn, but whether this was done by the snake, or by the shock against the ground, I don't know ; I suspect the latter, and that it had been swallowed whole, and probably alive. A friend of mine informed me that he once saw a snake of unusually large size, and determined to kill and open it ; MAY. 115 which he accordingly did, and found a very large green frog, which was dead of course,, but unbroken. It seems impossi- ble that so slender an animal as a snake can swallow or con- tain so large a creature as a frog, but the jaws, throat, and body, are capable of prodigious distension. C. I have read that the sloughs of snakes are an object of superstition with some Indian tribes, and are used in their pretended magical rites. F. They are also an indispensable article in the nests of some birds ; perhaps from their softness, as they are ex- tremely thin and smooth. I have lately perceived the young deep green leaves of the Wild Leek (Allium Vincale) sprouting through the dead leaves on the ground, in the maple woods. This plant is greedily eaten by the cattle, probably because anything fresh and green is now acceptable to them ; but if milch cows eat it, it gives a strong and unpleasant taste to their milk, so as sometimes to make it unfit for use. This flavour is in a considerable degree dissipated by slightly heating it as soon as brought in. C. I was much deceived last evening in a sound I heard : as I was standing in the field behind the house, about twilight, I heard what seemed to be the rattling of a thou- sand carriages on a rough road, about half a mile off. I could not think what it could be ; but on going towards it, I found it proceeded from the marshy spot below the bam, and on my approaching discovered that it was nothing more than the cackling and croaking of myriads of frogs. As I came pretty close, I could see one after another splash into the water, and the croaking gradually grew less and less until it altogether ceased. I had not left them long, how- ever, before they tuned up their musical throats again, and 116 THE CANADIAN NATU11ALIST. cackled (c EpeKeKeKe^ /coa Koa,," as vociferously as before. I could not help laughing, to think how egregiously I had been mistaken. F. They have just awaked from their half year's sleep ; and will now nightly serenade us with the same delightful sounds, for several weeks to come. Occasionally the Bull-frog (R. Pipiens) comes in with his bass, making a deep hollow sound, something like the short bellow of a distant bull. These sounds, with the whistling of the lizards, fill the air in the neighbourhood of the marshy places the whole night long ; and are very annoying at first, but habit soon accustoms the ear to this, as well as to most other annoyances of a similar nature. That which is often repeated, except absolute pain, ceases to affect us with sen- sations either of disgust or pleasure ; and becomes a mere matter of course, so as scarcely to be perceived. 117 IX. MAY 10th. Belted Kingfisher. Gold-winged Woodpecker. Pileated Woodpecker. Red-winged Starling. Bald Eagle. Meadow Lark. Ferruginous Thrush. Maryland Marmot. Birch Stump. Insects. Grey-veined White Butterfly. Spring Azure B. Dog's-tooth Violet. Tamarack. Elm Blossoms. Ova of Frogs. Leather Plant. Raspberry. Black Cherry. Red Cherry. Bat. Short-tailed Field Mouse. Instance of maternal Care. CHARLES. I have been taking a walk this afternoon by myself; my course has been down to Smith's mills, crossing the bridge, and following the river a little way ; occasionally straying into the woods, as I took my gun with me. FATHER. I perceive you have had some success in pro- curing birds. C. What is this bird ? its head is too large to allow the form to be graceful ; but its colours, blue and white, are chaste, and even elegant. F. It is the Belted Kingfisher (Alcedo Alcyoii) : its habits are much like those of its more showy congener, the English kingfisher. C. I shot it near the mill : it was perched on the branch of a cedar which overhangs the water just below the falls, where the cliff is high and precipitous'; I had some difficulty in securing it after I had killed it, for it fell in the water. It was probably watching for fish among the pools and eddies caused by the rocks. F. It generally frequents such situations : it no doubt 118 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. finds its prey abundant, many fish being driven over the falls, and entangled among those rocky shallows below. C. I heard its sudden rattling cry two or three times, before I could get a shot at it. Is it migratory ? F. I have never met with it in winter ; and as our streams and rivers are fast frozen up at that season, I should think it impossible for it to subsist. C. I have obtained a specimen of a very beautiful bird, the Gold-winged Woodpecker (Picus Auratus), which was hopping about the ground, and the rails of the fence. F. In this respect it differs from the other woodpeckers ; for they are very rarely, if ever, seen on the ground, and not often on the fence ; whereas, this species is more com- monly found in such situations than in any others. This, though it often rests perpendicularly, and climbs, like its brethren, yet more frequently sits on a bough, or on a rail, like other birds. He is very fond of ants, and to search for these is probably the business which so often brings him to the ground : he does not perforate trees so much as the others, though still he does a little business in that line. C. The common people here call it " Wickup ;" its common cry consists of one note repeated very rapidly, many times, so as almost to resemble a shake in music. F. I was once shown the nest of a Gold-wing ; it was in the State of Alabama, where it is called the Yellow-ham- mer. The nest was in a hole in a decayed stump, about twelve feet from the ground ; the hole was round and small, but widened within, and turned downwards. It contained four young ones, almost fledged. A boy took out one to show me, which he put in again, and for some time after, they kept up a singular hissing noise, sufficient to deter any- one from exploring their hole who was not acquainted with the origin of the sound. The colours of this bird are beauti- ful, without being gaudy. MAY. 119 C. I saw a still finer species, the noble Pileated Wood- pecker (P. Pileatus), with his black body, and white wings, and high conical cap of 'deep scarlet. He was stripping the bark from a dead spruce, in the black-timbered woods, and seemed to enjoy the sport, as he laughed a good deal at it. I wanted to spoil his tune, but could not get near enough to shoot him. F. The notes of the pileated woodpecker resemble the loud horse-laugh of a person with a cracked voice, gradually sinking, which makes the resemblance perfect ; those of the Red-headed (P. Erythrocephalus), are a cackling repetition of one sound. The pileated is not migratory, but is occa- sionally seen in winter ; it is not however at all numerous at any season. C. On the willows and hazels in the marsh bordering the river, was a flock of pretty birds, all over shining black, except the shoulders of the wings, which are bright scarlet, edged with whitish. I shot two of them. F. It is the Redwinged Starling (Sturnus Predato- rius) ; a bird much hated by the farmers of the neighbour- ing States, by whom it is called " Corn thief," on account of its appearing in countless myriads in the fields of Indian corn when it is soft, which it devours in immense quantities. With us, however, they do not assemble in such numbers as to be formidable ; a few flocks, and those not numerous, are all that we usually see during the season. C. They had a singular kind of crowing sound, rather melancholy, and now and then opened their wings as they sat on the trees. There were several among them, whose plumage was black, mottled with white, which I take to have been females. These are all that I succeeded in procuring, but I saw several others that were new to me. One in particular I very much wished to obtain. At a very lonely part of the river, about a quarter of a mile 120 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. below the falls, where its rocky course is bounded on each side by high cliffs, topped with thick evergreen woods, I saw sitting on the limb of an old hemlock that grew out of the side of the cliff, a very large eagle, of a dark brown colour, except the whole of the head, which was white. I suppose it was the celebrated Bald Eagle (Falco Leucocephalus ) , the emblem of America : it took to flight before I could come near it, and sailed down between the cliffs, till a bend in the river hid it from me, and I saw it no more. F. It was doubtless what you suppose it to have been ; it is a noble bird, and is not altogether rare. C. Some pretty birds were running about the field at the margin of the river : the upper parts of the body were brown, mottled with black, the under parts bright yellow, except a black mark on the breast. They allowed me to approach pretty near, but I fired and missed my bird, when they all took to wing. F. That is the Meadow Lark, another visitant from the south (Alauda Magna) : they are shot for the table, and are a delicacy. They are much larger than the larks of England, but resemble them in many of their habits. Their song is sweet. C. Early this morning, before I set out on my walk, I saw a bird, evidently a species of thrush, sitting on the top of a tree, singing with all his might, and with great sweet- ness of expression. He was of a bright red-brown above, and the under parts white, spotted with brown, like the songthrush of England. His attitude was singular; for he kept his tail spread out, and bent under him as he sat on the bough. I could easily have shot him, but he sang so delightfully that I had not the heart to do him a wrong. F. It is the Ferruginous Thrush (Turdus Rufus) ; and is a very prominent musician among the choir, which are just beginning to fill our woods with harmony. C. But I have more game which you have not seen : I left it in the kitchen, but I will fetch it. It is a curious animal. WOODCHUCK. (Arctomys Monax). F. This is the Maryland Marmot (Arctomys Monax) ; it is common in the temperate parts of this continent. In some places it is called the Ground Hog, but here it is better known by the name of Woodchuck. It feeds on cabbage and other garden vegetables, young corn, &c. and devours vast quantities, so that it is considered an injurious animal. He retires underground about the middle of September, and is generally very fat in spring. His burrows are long and cham- bered, and he sleeps in these even during the summer, taking care to make himself a soft bed, for he is very attentive to his own comfort. He cannot run very fast, and generally makes for his burrow if alarmed ; but he is easily caught by a dog. C. Is the flesh good for food ? F. It is often eaten, and I have partaken of it ; but the flesh, and especially the fat, has a rank and rather disagree- able taste. C. I shot it in the woods, more from curiosity to know what it was, than from any supposition of its being valu- able. In entomology I have made some new captures : I found in the woods the stump of a very large birch, which THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. had been cut down in the winter ; the sap has flowed from it profusely, and is still flowing, and the whole top, and all down the sides, is covered with a thick coat of that pink mucilage you mentioned the other day. Great numbers of insects were crawling about this substance, several of which I took; a convex Chrysomela, resembling silver, sculptured with black curves and marks (Eumolpus Bigsbyana) : it is a very elegant little beetle : another beetle, of a bright crim- son (Cucujus Rufus} ; two or three little black ones, with scarlet bands ( Ips Quadripunctata ?) ; two black-winged Tenthredinetce ; and a red-bodied Ichneumon, with a yellow scutellum ( I. Devinctor ?J. I took a silver Chrysomela of the same species, from the very same spot yesterday ; a sin- gular coincidence. I have also captured several moths : four Geometrce, and a Tortrix, none of which have much preten- sion to beauty. I have a very elegant little species of locust, the Spotted Fan- wing (Aery- dium Ornatum): the thorax is elongated and tapers to a point, which reaches to the tail ; the wings are perfectly transparent, opening like a fen, and are very finely net- SPOTTED FAN ' WING - , . , , .. , (Acrydium Ornatum.) ted with delicate lace-work ; they reflect the prismatic colours, like mother-of-pearl. On a pool by the road-side, I caught two species of Water-mea- surer ( Gerris), very much like my former species, but both of these have wings, whereas the former is apterous in all its stages. I caught also a four spotted Ladybird (Chilocorus ?) and a little Cur-culio in flight. F. I have been busily engaged to-day, sowing wheat, and have noticed some novelties. I took, crawling on the newly ploughed ground, the Copper-spot Carab (Calosoma Calidum), a large beetle, the elytra black, marked with rows of round MAY. COPPER- SPOT. (Calosoma Calidum.) hollow dots,, which shine like new copper. A strong odour proceeds from it, resembling that of prussic acid, or al- mond kernels. It is not un- common throughout the year, in meadows and ploughed fields. I also saw two new butterflies, the Grey-veined White (Pontia Oleracea), and the beautiful little Spring Azure (Polyommatus Lu- cia) ; these last were quite numerous, but confined to a small space of the road, and a part of the field adjacent : they are exceedingly playful ; chasing each other through the air, and though often alighting on the ground, remaining scarcely an instant before they are in flight again, flitting about over one particular spot, which they seem reluctant to leave. Notwithstanding they are so restless, they are not difficult of approach, and are easily caught. The colour of their wings, a delicate azure blue, is exceedingly brilliant. C. In the hard- woods, I observed several plants springing up through the fallen leaves of autumn, many of them having, in growing up, pierced through a dead leaf. They generally consist of one leaf, hollow or sheathed at the bottom, but some have another smaller leaf, appearing in the sheath of the first. Their colour is peculiar ; they are of a polished green, with more or fewer brown spots, many of which run into each other, and cover a large part of the surface. A single stem springs from the leaf, surmounted by a very ele- gant drooping flower, of a bright yellow. F. It is the Yellow Dog-tooth Violet (Erythronium Ame-< ricanum), which blooms abundantly in the beech woods. G 2 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST, THE YELLOW DOG-TOOTH VIOLET. ( Erythronium Americanum). MAY. 125 C. I found on most of them, in the very bottom of the corolla, some little black beetles, with a red thorax. (Tele- phones ?) F. The leaf buds of the Larch or Tamarack (Pinus Pendula) are bursting ; a deciduous member of an evergreen family. C. The tops of the elms are quite yellow : is this co- lour caused by the opening of the leaf-buds ? F. No : the elm has not yet begun to leaf; but it has been in full flower about a week. The blossoms are yellow and very small ; from some trees they have already begun to fall, and are thickly strewn on the ground beneath. The seeds ripen and are shed in June, at which time they may be collected ; and as the elm, if properly treated, would make an excellent hedge, it would be worth while for our farmers to plant the seeds for that purpose. It grows rapidly, and makes a strong shoot the first season. C. In standing water, I observed many masses of clear jelly-like substance, containing a number of small black globules. .F. They are the eggs of frogs ; they are all deposited at once, enveloped in this mass of jelly, which both serves as a protection to them, and keeps them from being washed away. When near the time of hatching, the young tadpole may be distinctly seen with a microscope in one of these eggs ; but I suspect they are not yet sufficiently matured. The frog deposits its ova almost immediately after it revives from torpidity : we may always see these masses a very few days after we first hear their croaking. C. I found a shrub very numerous in the woods, co- vered with yellow flowers, very small, with thick downy envelopes. I have a twig of it ; I was obliged to cut it off ; for, small as it is, the bark was so tough that I could not tear it. THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. F. That is the Leather plant (Dirca Palustris), so called from the extreme toughness of the inner bark, which is so strong that the stoutest man could not break, by pulling, a strip of an inch in width, taken from the main stem. The bark is used as strings for many purposes, especially by millers, who collect great quantities for the purpose of tying their flour bags. The wood, when stripped of the bark, is remarkably soft and brittle, snapping with the slightest effort, almost like the pith of elder. Like the elm, it blos- soms before leafing. It is here commonly known by the name of Wickaby. C. The leaves of the raspberry are opening. Is this plant a native ? F. I believe it is : Eaton mentions it by the name of Rubus Idceus, among the native plants. It grows and spreads abundantly, so as quickly to overspread a large space of ground. I have never seen it in the primitive woods, but whenever a clearing is made, the raspberry appears. I think it is the most delicious of our native fruits ; fully equal, if not superior, to the garden raspberry of England : an unusual thing, for the advantage is almost universally on the side of the cultivated fruit. In Newfoundland, it also grows abundantly, and in the most unpromising situa- tions, springing up from a mere bed of stones. As a weed it is troublesome, and not very easy to eradicate : mowing will, however, keep it down in grass land, and in tillage land we plough them up, and turn the bushes under the furrow. The stumps of trees that have been cut down, which we are obliged to leave in the ground for several years, but which give our fields so unsightly an appearance, are invariably surrounded by a clump of raspberry bushes ; these seem privileged places. Another fruit-bearing plant, but of somewhat fairer proportions, is leafing ; the Black Cherry (Prunus Virginiana). The cherry grows to a con- MAY. 127 siderable tree,' and has a spreading body, and a handsome outline, but its foliage is too thin to have that massy richness which gives so much beauty to many trees. Its wood is hard, of a fine grain, and susceptible of a polish, and from these qualities, and its colour, a dark red, it is in demand for furniture, which sometimes has no small resemblance to ma- hogany. The red cherry, whose fruit is very dissimilar in colour and flavour, is, I believe, a distinct species (P. Bo- realis). Except by the fruit, they can scarcely be distin- guished from each other : the red, however, rarely grows to any size. C. In coming home this evening, I saw a bat in flight : I should scarcely think there are yet moths enough abroad to support him. F. Though moths are his favourite food, I do not think he altogether confines himself to that diet, but occasionally makes a meal of other insects : and an entomologist of his skill and industry, no doubt, can manage to capture many specimens, even at this season. C. Under large stones and the like, I find many pass- ages, turning in every direction, made in the surface of the ground, about half an inch deep : in some of them there is a great quantity of soft dried grass : as much as a man could hold in both hands, I have taken out. F. They are the burrows and nests of the Short-tailed Field-mouse (Arvicola Pennsylvanicus) , a destructive little animal, which every farmer kills at every opportunity. In ploughing grass land, we frequently disturb them ; and as they cannot run very fast, though they are nimble in creep- ing into crevices and under the clods, they very often suffer death. The fanner's animosity against them arises from their fecundity, and their appetite for grain and Indian 128 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. corn, of which they destroy a great quantity. This animal is about four inches long, besides the tail, which is about an inch more ; the head is roundish and blunt ; the fur is thick and soft, the colour a kind of iron-grey on the back, the un- der parts light grey. They are very numerous. A friend of mine told me that once in the month of June, a mouse of this kind, whose nest he had exposed by turning over a large stone, was endeavouring to make her escape with three young ones which clung cleverly to their mother's back, holding with their teeth, and not retarding her progress in the least. His admiration of the maternal care of the old one was not, however, a sufficient inducement to prevent his killing the whole four. There is another species of Field- mouse (Mus Leucopus ?), much smaller, of a lighter brown, and with a tail considerably longer than the body. I have never seen more than one specimen of it, and that I did not preserve. 129 X. MAY 20th. Ricebunting. Blackburn Warbler. Canada Flycatcher. Bay- breasted Warbler. Purple Grakle. Rusty Grakle. Kingbird. Yellow- bird. Scarlet Tanager. Botfly. Moths. Carrion Beetles. Sparklers. Reflections of Colour. Poplars. Curious Fact. Balni of Gilead. Leaf-buds. Thorn. Hedges. Birch. White Birch. Elm. Making Salts. Height of Elms. Uprooted Trees. Leaf- ing of Logs. Rock Maple Soft Maple. Oak. Service. Purple Finch. Singular Dance. Wild Gooseberry. Willows. Insects. River Coatacook. Indians their warfare war-whoop domes- tic manners religion government language sufferings anec- dotes. Evening Walk. Perfume of Balm of Gilead. FATHER. Every day now increases our sources of plea- sure and enjoyment. Nature now opens her stores so fast, that we have scarce time to look on one object before another is presented to our view, and in the multitude we doubtless overlook many altogether. The labours of agriculture, although by employing us in the fields and woods, they afford us opportunities for the observation of nature at this peculiarly interesting season, yet afford us little leisure to search for her more hidden operations, or even to duly mark those that fall under our notice. Very many interesting facts we cannot fail to observe ; among which the successive arrival of one bird after another, from its hybernation in milder latitudes, is not the least worthy of remark. CHARLES. What species have you noticed since our last conversation on the subject ? G 5 130 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. F. On the fifteenth, I observed several little feathered strangers : the trees and bushes being still leafless, afford faci- lities for discovering birds, which a few weeks later we shall not possess. The first I noticed was that well-known bird, the Ricebunting (Emberiza Oryzwora), familiarly known to everybody here by the name of Bob Lincoln, from his call, uttered as he sits on a rail of the fence, or a branch of a tree, which much resembles the words " Bob Lincoln/' but still more " Bob Linkling" whistled with a very peculiar intonation, the middle syllable being in a much higher note than the others. Yonder one sits on the fence now : do you note his call ? C. Yes ; he repeats his name very distinctly : as a stranger, he perhaps thinks it a point of politeness to an- nounce himself. He is a pretty but singularly marked bird ; the whole of the under parts being deep black, and the back of his head and neck white, and his back being chiefly of the same colour, make a very curious appearance ; the distribu- tion of the colours being opposite to that of most other birds, which have the darkest tints above, and the lightest beneath. F. This is the male : the female has the back brownish, and the under parts dull yellow ; and in the summer the male throws off his black and white dress, and becomes like his mate. I have never known them to do us any consider- able injury, but in New England, and in the Southern States, they do great damage ; in the former, by devouring the oat crop in summer, and in the latter, by the devastations they commit in the wheat fields in spring, and among the rice in autumn. For these reasons, and because his flesh is highly esteemed, no mercy is shown to him ; but the immense flocks that appear are thinned by the combined guns of all the sportsmen in their vicinity. C. Has he no other notes but the ' ' Bob Linkling ?" MAY. 131 F. Oh, yes ! his song is very pleasing ; of which Wil- son says, " Some idea may be formed of this song, by strik- ing the high keys of a pianoforte at random, singly and quickly, making as many sudden contrasts of high and low notes as possible." I observe that they have a habit of sus- pending themselves in the air, and then coming gradually down, singing more and more rapidly till they alight, and in the moment of alighting, make a hissing, or sometimes a low guttural sound. They do not usually fly high, but sing in this rapid manner, hovering over a field. After having been several years in this country, on my return to England, hearing for the first time the skylark in the air, and turning quickly round and seeing the bird singing as it descended, my first impression was, " there is a Bob Lincoln." C. What other birds have you lately noticed ? F. The Blackburnian Warbler (Sylvia BlackburnicB ) is one ; a little bird of great beauty : the whole upper parts are black, the black on the crown of the head, bounded and divided in the middle by lines of rich orange ; a large white spot on the wing ; the whole throat and breast rich fiery orange with black spots ; the belly yellow. It is very rare in the United States, but here, I see some every spring ; and in some seasons they are quite common : they are not very shy, coming around the house, and allowing a person to ap- proach within a short distance, when in the woods. I saw a pair of them a few days ago, busily engaged in pecking the buds of a tamarack, probably searching for insects. Of its musical powers I can give no account, as I have never heard it utter a note. C. I have seen a bird somewhat like the one you de- scribe, but its breast and belly were brilliant yellow, spotted with black, the upper parts dark coloured. F. I too have seen it, but cannot exactly determine whether it is the Black and Yellow Warbler (Sylvia Mag- 132 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. nolia), or the Canada Flycatcher (Muscicapa Canadensis): as the former is represented as very scarce, it is probably the latter. Many of the warblers are marked on the under parts with different shades of yellow, and it is difficult from a casual sight of an individual or two in the woods, without opportunity for close examination, to determine with accu- racy the species to which they belong. I believe I am clear in mentioning the Bay-breasted Warbler (Sylvia Castanea) among our recent visitants, though I do not know that I have seen more than one or two specimens. Many other warblers, marked with olive and yellow, are hopping about the bushes, but these colours are far too general in this fa- mily for me even to guess at the species. C. From the name, " warbler," given to this genus, I should suppose that they are noted for their song : is it so ? F. By no means : in general, the numerous species of this tribe are either silent, or have a few weak, simple notes. The word warble signifies to sing sweetly, but in a low weak tone of voice ; and the notes of several of the Sylvia genus bear this character. C. Among a thicket of willows near Spafford's bridge, I noticed a flock of birds about the size of a thrush. At first, they all appeared of a deep black, but on a closer sur- vey, I observed that it had a changeable gloss, and that the head was deep green. F. They are called by naturalists the Purple Grakle (Quiscalus Versicolor), but by farmers the Crow Blackbird. This is another of those species which assemble in immense armies, and attack the agriculturist in the tenderest part, his crops. I have seen large flocks in this country, but nothing compared to those clouds which are said to blacken the fields of our southern neighbours. The depredations of these birds, and others of similar appetites, seem chiefly com- mitted on the maize, or t( corn," as it is emphatically called ; MAY. 138 but as very little of this grain is raised in the Province, we escape the ravages sustained by our less fortunate brother agriculturists in the south. There is a kindred species, hardly to be distinguished from this, the Rusty Grakle CQuiscalus Ferrugineus), visiting us about the same time : it has many of the habits of its congener, assisting in the destruction of the corn, though not in such countless thou- sands as the other. A large proportion of the individuals of this species are of a rusty hue, but this is not found in the full-grown male. C. There is a pretty bird with a black head, sitting on the topmost twig of that leafless bush just before us. F. That is the notorious Kingbird (Muscicapa Tyran- nus} ; a bird well known throughout this continent, and I believe respected, wherever he is known. He is a bird of the most undaunted courage : during the breeding season, no bird of prey of any kind, no matter what its size or strength may be, can approach his territory with impunity. He sallies forth on the wing, attacks the intruder with vigour, and makes even the kingly eagle retire from his premises. The plumage on the head is frequently erected, and then shows a rich bed of brilliant flame-colour, at other times concealed. Like the rest of the flycatchers, he fixes on a prominent station, like that occupied by the individual just observed, whence he watches all around for bees, flies, and other insects : when he perceives his prey, he darts into the air, catches it with a snap, and instantly returns to his watch-post again. C His slate- coloured back, and white breast, are very becoming ; and his character is noble, as it appears to be in defence of his mate and young ones that all this courage is exerted. The service of banishing birds of prey more than compensates for the loss of a few bees. F. The Yellowbird (Fringilla Tristis) has been in 134 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. summer plumage for several days. His appearance is now very beautiful and striking ; the body being of a rich yellow, with the front of the head, wings, and tail of a deep black ; and as they are by no means solitary, but fly in flocks, they cannot fail of being noticed by the most unobservant. Ha ! 1 see a stranger, still more showy in his appearance ; the Scarlet Tanager ( Tanagra Rubra) ; you may see him by getting on the fence, in this ploughed field, a few rods distant. C. I see him : he is indeed a beautiful bird. There is some resemblance in the "distribution of the colours, between him and the Yellowbird ; but where the latter is yellow, this is brilliant scarlet ; both have the wings and tail black. SCARLET TANAGER. ( Tanagra Rubra.) F. The tanager is more than twice as large as the yel- lowbird : the brilliancy of his colour makes him conspicuous, when the sun shines, at a great distance ; and when seen near at hand, the contrast between the jet black and bright vermilion has a fine effect. His notes have not, I believe, any pretensions to be called a song ; at least, I have never heard any, though I have seen them in considerable num- MAY. 135 bers. The female is a kind of dull yellow-olive, a colour which the females of almost all our gaily coloured birds pos- sess : probably to secure them from observation while per- forming their maternal duties. C. I picked up a few days ago,, in the horse-stable among the ordure, a somewhat oval larva of a dirty white colour, encircled with rings of minute hooks. It is now be- come a pupa, not by throwing off the skin, but by the inte- gument itself becoming more rigid : it is also a little altered in form, being cylindrical, and its colour is a shining chestnut brown. F. It is, no doubt, the Horse Gad-fly, or Bot ( Gastrus Equi,) but it is not likely that you will raise it to the per- fect state, unless you have covered it with damp earth. The Bot-fly deposits its eggs in summer and autumn, on those parts of the horse's body that he can reach with his mouth : a curious provision is made for the deposition of the egg j the oviduct of the female is capable of being thrust out to some length, and is composed of tubes, which slide one within another, like the tubes of a spyglass. When the fly is hovering around a horse, I have often observed this oviduct protruded, and turned up under the belly ; if caught at this time, we find that an egg is already ejected, and lies at the very extremity, ready to be deposited. The slightest con- tact with the hair of the horse effects this, and the egg is left sticking to the hair. We frequently see the fore legs and shoulders of our horses almost white with the numbers of these eggs. In a short time they become ready for hatching, and the least touch of moisture, even a wet finger, will in- stantaneously cause the egg to burst, and the little maggot crawls and writhes about. As the horse frequently licks himself, hundreds of these eggs must be hatched, and the worms adhere to his tongue ; and as many as escape the grinding of his teeth, go down with his food into the stomach. 136 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. Here they have reached their destination ; and here, or in the intestines, they thrive and increase in size until full grown, when in spring they are voided with the faeces, as the one you found. They are supposed by some to produce a painful, and sometimes fatal disease, to which horses are at this season subject ; others, however, believe the presence of these insects to be even conducive to the health of the animal by their stimulating effects. C. I have taken several new moths within the last ten days, some flying in at the window at night : Noctuce and GeometrfB. F. Yonder is the carcass of a lamb, thrown out to putrefy, with no regard to the olfactories of passers-by. If your entomological zeal is sufficient to overcome your disgust at the scent, you may probably find some large and hand- some carrion beetles under it. C. Oh, I don't much mind the smell if I can obtain any fine specimens. If you will stay here, I will examine it. F. Well, have you succeeded ? C. Yes : there are multitudes of beetles of many dif- ferent species crawling about it. Most of them were a black species of Sylph, the elytra covering the abdomen, ex- cept when the latter is elongated, the thorax broadly mar- gined with pink ( Thanatophilus marginalis) : another species was numerous, much larger and handsomer, the elytra almost as long as the body, longitudinally ridged, and having a transverse row of red spots near the hind margin : the rest of the insect is black (Necrodes Surinamensis). There were numbers of Staphylinidce, the Fish-beetle of Newfoundland (Staphylinm Villosus), the beautiful Gold- tailed Rove-beetle ( Staphylinus Chrysurus), and other smaller kinds. I also took a small black Hister (H. Har- risiij, and a little lamellicorn beetle, with the thorax elon- gated into a projecting horn, and having another horn on the head (Pathophagus latibrosus). MAY. 137 F. These beetles answer the same useful purpose as the vultures and jackals of tropical countries : that of quickly removing putrid animal substances. The Silphidce, in par- ticular, are very useful in this respect : as soon as animal substances become fetid, these beetles throng to it from all quarters : whether the knowledge is derived from the sight, as in the case of the vultures, or from the smell, I do not know, but I suspect the latter. A curious practice prevails here, of throwing the carcass of a lamb, when one dies, into^ the limbs of an apple-tree in the orchard : it is true this instance is an exception, but the custom is a general one, though of the origin or object of it, I have not the most dis- tant idea. C. The beautiful green Sparklers (Cicindela Sex-gut- tata), and a purplish species (Cicindela Proteus), fly about dusty roads. The former are of a most brilliant dazzling green, if the rays of light falling on them are reflected to the eye at an acute angle j but if it be obtuse, they appear of a deep and fine blue. The same phenomenon occurs in the brilliant colour of the Emerald Agrion of Alabama ( Agrion Virginica), and Wilson notices exactly the same thing in the plumage of the Indigo-bird (Fringilla Cyanea). These Tiger Beetles, as they are called, are, I suppose, the most agile of all coleopterous insects ; their legs are very long and slender, and they run with such swiftness, that they seem to glide along the ground rather than to crawl ; and on the approach of a footstep they take wing with as much wildness as any fly, but only for a short distance, when they alight again. They can be caught only with a net, and it is a difficult matter even then. F. Many trees have burst their leaf-buds, and new ones are opening every day. Yonder poplar woods have a pleas- 138 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. ing flush of green, the leaves being quite developed and open/ but yet soft, small, and tender. The green is now of a very light and yellow cast, but after a while it will be much darker. C. The poplar seems to be the first tree that leafs. F. Yes : there may be others that burst their leaf-buds a day or two before it, but they are much longer before they acquire anything like foliage. I noticed the bursting of the leaf-scales in those woods about a week ago, but some near the village are more forward by several days. We often find a difference of many days in the leafing of trees of the same species in different situations, which, for aught we can see, appear equally favourable. The Poplars (Populus tremu- loides, P. grandidentata, P. Icevigata, Stc.J are very rarely seen in the primitive forest : but if a clearing be made, and neglected for a few years, the ground will be covered with a new growth of trees, usually called " second growth timber," consisting almost wholly of poplars, provided the land be slightly disposed to wetness. The cause of this I cannot in anywise explain. It is not confined to the case I have men- tioned : it has very often been observed that when forests are destroyed, they are succeeded by a spontaneous growth of plants of altogether different species from those which originally occupied the ground. How are they produced? From seed, certainly : but whence comes the seed ? has it lain in the ground for uncounted ages, waiting a favourable op- portunity to spring up ? I cannot tell ; this is one of those mysterious things, which I am not at all adequate to unfold. I can only notice the fact. C. Is not the Balm of Gilead a species of poplar ? F* It is : Populus Balsamifera is its botanical appella- tion. This tree affords a good example of the perules, or scales, which serve as a sheath to the bud in winter, and which protect the tender, unexpanded leaves within from MAY. 139 the cold. That they may better do this, the perules in the Balm of Gilead, and in many other plants, are coated with a thick, clammy, resinpus substance, which may be scraped off with the nail, and which in this species has a fragrant smell. It seems probable that the hive-bee collects the substance called propolis, with which it stops the fissures and crevices of the hive, partly from the resinous perules of plants. Let us examine a bud from this Balm of Gilead ; as the terminal ones open some time before the lateral ones, we shall find some unopened. C. Here is one. F. These two dark-brown convex scales are the perules ; they are thick and tough ; within them are two more, much thinner and paler, but still more coriaceous than the young leaves. Here are the leaves : how soft and small they are ! they appear, however, much smaller than they are, for they are so folded up as to occupy the smallest possible space. C. I will try to unfold one, though it seems a very delicate operation. Are all young leaves folded up in the bud in this manner ? F. I believe all are folded, but not all in the same manner. " It is found that the young leaves are constantly folded up in the bud in the same way in the same species of plants, but there are many different modes of this arrange- ment ; this is termed the vernation or foliation of the plant/' The Balm of Gilead opens its buds at about the same time as the other poplars. C. I noticed a few days ago that solitary bush in the corner of the upper field beginning to unfold its leaves. F. It is a specimen of the native Thorn ( Cratcegus Coccinea) ; the leaves are shaped almost exactly like those of our English hawthorn, but the berries are much larger. This is not a very common plant here, though I know of several large shrubs within the compass of a mile : but near Quebec 140 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. it is very numerous. The Heights of Abraham, and the sloping sides of the cliff are, in many places, so thickly clothed with thorn-bushes as to form almost impenetrable thickets. C. Could not this plant be introduced as a substitute for the hawthorn, in the formation of live fences or hedges ? F. There is no doubt but it might. I have begun an experiment of this nature, but too recently to be able to speak with certainty of its ultimate success. I collected about a quart of the haws, from under the neighbouring bushes last autumn, and buried them in the garden a few inches below the surface; they will not, however, sprout until next spring. I also took the pains to collect about a dozen suckers and young plants, which I planted in a line last spring : many of them lived through the summer, and are now budding. There are many other plants which might be put to this purpose. The beech readily grows from seed, is very thick in branches, and may be easily dwarfed by cropping : it has the advantage of keeping its dead leaves through the winter, affording considerable shelter. It is said that after cider is made, if the pomace, that is, what re- mains of the pulp after the juice is expressed, containing the seeds, be strewn in a line and slightly covered with earth, a thick hedge of apple will spring up and prove very effective : all these, with the elm, are worth trying. C. The plum and apple trees in the orchard are like- wise bursting their leaf-buds. F. So are the Birch (Betula Papyracea 1) and Elm ( Ulmus Americana). Both these trees grow to a majestic size, and are among the finest of our forest trees : the former is particularly abundant in wet and marshy lands, and is the companion of the resinous evergreens. It is considered a sign of poor land where it is plentiful. The outer bark of the birch is composed of many very thin layers, which MAY. 141 may by patience be separated, and can be written on as easily as writing-paper. The outer laminae are of a delicate cream colour, but as they approach the inner bark they be- come redder. These layers, when separated and divided into narrow strips,, make an exceedingly soft and elastic bed, equal, if not superior, to a feather-bed ; but great patience is requisite to prepare so large a quantity. The inner bark is about half an inch thick, of a crumbly, somewhat farinaceous nature : it is of a rather pleasant smell and taste, and of a bright orange colour, which it readily transfers to water. I have read that in times of scarcity, the rude inhabitants of northern Europe make a kind of apology for bread by pound- ing the inner bark of the birch. The buds have a similar smell, which is strong, but agreeable. For some time after the leaves are disclosed, they are covered with a fine silvery down, as you may observe : probably this down acts as a preservative against the effects of cold, both while within their perules, and afterwards while young and tender, for it soon disappears. The wood of the birch, when young, is yellowish white ; when mature, the heart-wood, or all ex- cept the sap-wood (alburnum), is of a dullish red, which deepens by exposure ; and is, when polished in furniture, &c. of considerable beauty. In very old trees, the heart is nearly black, or rather of a deep bistre brown, and very brittle. The laminae of the outer bark are used to form the very in- genious birch canoe of the Indians, being sewn together with deer sinews, and payed with resin. There is another tree of this genus, the Paper, or White Birch (Betula Populi- folia ? ), which is said to be occasionally found in our woods : for instance, near the banks of the Masuippi river, on the west side. I have never met with it here, but have seen it in great numbers near the head of Lake Memphramagog, in Vermont. I have been told that the Indians sometimes travel through the country, making inquiries for this tree, for THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. what purpose I do not know. It has a singular appearance : the bark is perfectly white, not glossy or silky as the common Birch, but exactly like white paper, very smooth, but not shining ; it readily peels in thin laminae, but does not look so ragged as our tree. None that I saw were of large size, not more than six inches in diameter. I observed it in several other localities, usually on the slope of a hill, and near water. C. Is the timber of the birch applied to any useful purpose ? F. It is often sawed into planks for tables, and many other articles of furniture, but is chiefly used as fuel, as it burns readily even when green, and makes a hot fire. C. Is there any difference in this respect ? F. Oh, yes ; very great difference. Some woods, such as elm and the evergreens, especially hemlock, will scarcely burn at all when green, and when they do, make a very dull fire, smouldering away without flame. Maple and beech burn intensely, the former the most readily, and with the most flame ; but the latter, when half consumed, gives out the most intense heat, though there is little difference be- tween these two. Birch ranks next, and then the ash, both white and brown : basswood and poplar can scarcely be con- sumed, except by gradual and slow smouldering, and that with the help of other fuel. All wood burns well when seasoned, or deprived of sap by drying. C. To what purpose is the wood of the elm applied ? F. When young, it is often cut and quartered ; that is, split through the middle into four parts, which are laid by to season. Few farmers have not a number of pieces of elm, white ash, and leverwood by them, to be brought into use whenever any small article is wanted, in which hardness must be combined with toughness, such as axe-helves, wheel-spokes, &c. When grown, it is not used for any- MAY. 143 thing that I know of, except by those who prepare salts of ley, for the manufacture of potash. As the elm yields a large quantity of ashes when burned, in proportion to other trees, it is often felled by the salts-boilers. C. What is the process of making salts ? F. One man, or more commonly two, go into the woods with holders, and a kettle or large caldron, and make a kind of camp, very much like a sugar camp. As winter is the usual season of operation, they often make a rude hut, or some little protection from the cold. They commence their business by felling such trees in the neighbourhood as suit their purpose ; unless they have another object in view, the clearing of the land for cultivation, in which case they cut and burn indiscriminately all the timber, except such as is saved for some peculiar purpose, such as cedar for fencing, c. Having cut enough to begin, and divided it into logs, they pile them on one another by rolling them up an in- clined plane, made by stakes from the lower logs to the ground : they then fill the interstices with dry brush, sea- soned wood, &c. and set fire to the whole, taking care to have sufficient wood that will burn to consume that which would not burn without assistance. The ashes are collected from time to time, and put into a holder, shaped like an in- verted cone, with the bottom open ; a little straw is placed over the hole at the bottom, a receiver placed beneath, and water poured on the ashes : the water filters through and runs into the receiver, having extracted the alkali contained in the ashes, which stains it of a dark colour, like that of brandy. This is called lye, or ley, and is boiled down till the water is evaporated and the alkali is left, which is the potash in a very impure state ; it is of a black colour, and is called salts of lye. This is sold to those who keep a pot- ashery, where it is cleansed from its impurities, I believe by burning in a furnace, and becomes the potash of commerce. THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. The making of salts is toilsome and laborious, but is consi- dered profitable, especially where it is carried on in conjunc- tion with clearing. But to return to our elm. In June, the bark readily separates from the wood ; and as it is very tough and leathery, it is often used (the dry furrowed out- side being pulled off) to tie stakes together, between which boards are put as a fence. C. The elm grows to a great height ; I know of several that I should think are not short of a hundred feet high. That solitary one on the top of the hill, near Barker's house, must be near that height. Divested of its neighbours, rising alone out of the open field, and stretching to so great a height without branches, it has a picturesque appearance. F. The large elms are often left standing in lonely majesty when a clearing is made : and their straight tower- ing trunks, crowned at top with a small bunch of foliage, give them a character somewhat resembling that of the tall palms of southern regions, but without their feathery light- ness. I suspect, however, that their uselessness pleads for their lives in the mind of the axe-man more strongly than their beauty. There was one in the field to the south of the house, more lofty than the one you have mentioned j and as it was much more insulated, and its top decayed and dead, except a small tuft of foliage on one of its limbs, it seemed as it stretched forth its withered arms, to be a stiking emblem of an aged patriarch, who has outlived all his com- panions, and is a stranger and a solitary in his generation ; in whom death is already struggling with life, and fast gain- ing the ascendancy. C. What became of it ? for it is not there now. F. One Sunday morning last summer, we heard a thun- dering roar, a sound unlike any to which we were accus- tomed ; we ran out of the house, but all was still around, and we could not imagine the cause. By and by we missed MAY. 145 our aged Elm, and on going to the place found it prostrate ; the blast had come at length and laid it low. C. Is it not dangerous to leave trees in this manner, standing in the open field ? F. Yes ; the roots of our forest trees are very super- ficial, and the branches and foliage being all at a g"eat height, the wind has a strong purchase, as it is called, and they are very liable to be overthrown ; sometimes killing cattle and breaking fences. Even in the forest, when protected by their fellows, trees are often uprooted by the wind : their we can see how very little below tne surface the roots ex- tend, forming, as the tree lies prostrate, a perpendicular wall of contorted roots, mixed with earth. C. We can see scores of these in every walk through the woods : the roots often extend to a great width, though to so little depth, and the wall, as you call it, is very high. F. So high that if the trunk be cut off close to the root soon after it has fallen, the weight of the roots will cause them to fall back into their original position. This is often done, as these roots are not only unsightly, but present great obstacles to cultivation after the land is cleared. C. I have observed that an elm log that was cut last autumn, is putting forth leaves as if it were still growing in the woods. F. That very often occurs ; in our piles of firewood, cut during winter, you may see many logs during the en- suing spring and summer, not only budding, but actually putting forth leaves which attain considerable size. The sap contained in the log, supports and affords nutriment to the budding twig, for some time after the felling. In the same manner we observe that maple logs cut in winter, con- tinue dry till spring ; then the sap begins to flow freely, and the ends are running and dripping all day. By the way, H 146 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. I have not observed the progress of the maple in vegetation : here are some by the road-side ; let us examine them. C. The terminal and lateral buds are both opened ; the former seem to have been expanded some days. F. I supposed they were ; the maple usually leafs at about the same time as the birch. C. How many kinds of maple are native ? F. I believe some five or six species ; but the Rock Maple (Acer Saccharinum) and the Soft Maple ( A. Ru- brum) are the best known, and the only ones that are of any note as trees. The Rock, or Sugar Maple is the most noble of our native trees : it grows to a great height, and is crowned with a dense mass of foliage at the summit ; the trunk is generally straight, though often studded with pro- jections and excrescences. When it grows in a clearing, with room for it to spread on every side, and when all its branches are exposed to the light, it is a tree of great beauty. It somewhat resembles the English oak, in its outline^ its trunk, the form of its branches, and the massy character of its foliage trees with broad sinuated leaves having this character in a higher degree than those whose leaves are more regular in their shape. Their colour is a fine green, changing in autumn to bright scarlet or deep crimson. C. We have seen its utility in producing sugar ; has it any other use ? -F. I have already mentioned it as affording firewood of the best quality ; and though as a sugar tree it is so valuable when growing together, yet as it is found scattered through all our upland woods, and as it is so very abundant, the greater part of our winter fuel is composed of this wood. Besides this, sound and healthy trees are often sawed into plank, which is used for many purposes. When a tree of this kind, or birch, or elm is found, which has a sudden curve or bend in the trunk, it is sawed into plank for the runners MAY. U7 of sleds, which are curved up at one end to run on the snow. The wood is handsome, of a bright, changeable, satiny lustre, with many straight lines radiating from the centre outwards, across the grain ; these are lustrous, and in one light look darker, and in another lighter than the rest of the wood : these are the medullary rays. It is used for the finer kinds of furniture, and when varnished, looks very .beautiful ; it is hard and heavy, but it is not durable. Trees are occasion- ally found, the wood of which is filled with little knots or eyes, which make what is called curled, or Bird's-eye Maple, and which is much prized in cabinet work. This appearance is accidental, and does not indicate a different species. I have often seen logs of firewood which were curled, some less, others more ; and sometimes the eyed part extends only a few inches, all the rest being as usual. C. Here is a Soft Maple : it is covered with little red blossoms, so thick as to hide the branches : how very beau- tiful it is, and what a delightful fragrance it diffuses around ! F. The Soft Maple, whether in blossom or in foliage is, like its congener, a beautiful tree. It flowers several days before it leafs, and the blossoms individually considered are both handsome and fragrant : they grow in thick spikes or clusters on the twigs, and have a very rich appearance. This is a lofty tree, but with us it does not attain either the size or the height of the sugar maple. It very much resem- bles that species, but it may be distinguished from it by its trunk being more profusely marked with broad, pale yellow patches. In clearings, it usually divides at the ground, and takes the form of several small trees, growing in a clump ; the bark in such situations is of a darker colour and smoother texture than when it grows in the woods. It affects marshy situations, the sides of rivers, brooks, &c. but is not found with us in any great abundance. The wood is soft and too full of sap to make good fuel : indeed it will scarcely burn of H 2 148 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. itself. It is handsome, however, and is sometimes used for furniture. The bark of this tree, boiled with copperas, makes a fluid of an intense black, which is commonly used in the village schools as ink, but it never dries properly j and in damp weather the writing becomes glutinous and blots, after any length of time : it is also used in domestic dying. This tree is called indifferently, soft or white maple. C. Is no species of oak found here ? F. I believe there is none nearer than the banks of Lake Memphramagog, about twenty miles distant : I have been told that the White Oak ( Quercus Alba) grows there : and about Quebec I have seen oaks of several species. Throughout the United States, the white oak grows abun- dantly : I have seen it in Vermont and in Alabama, in both of which, and I believe in all the intermediate States, it forms a very prominent tree in the forests. Its general appearance is like that of the sugar maple. C. What tree is that in blossom yonder ? F. It is the wild Service Tree (Pyrus Arbutifolia ?) its profuse corymbs of white blossoms give it the appear- ance of a large snowball. Its fruit is about the size of a cherry, but more resembling a medlar in form : it ripens in August. The tree is not common with us. C. I see a beautiful little bird sitting on a bush yonder : it is of a dark crimson. Do you see it ? F. Yes ; it is the Purple Finch (Fringilla Purpurea). It has the power of raising the feathers of the head, as if it were crested, which it is continually doing. Wilson says it is of a tyrannical and domineering disposition : one beating and nearly killing two or three other birds with which it was confined, " driving them into a corner of the cage, stand- ing on them, and tearing out their feathers, striking them on the head, munching their wings, &c. and even if called to, the aggressor would only turn up a malicious eye for a mo- MAY. 149 merit, and renew his outrage as before." They are common here in spring, and the early part of summer ; they probably spend the whole summer with us, but retire into the woods and swamps ; the female is olive coloured, as usual. I once noticed a curious trait in the history of this bird. One day, about the latter part of June, I observed two males and a female of the purple finch, hopping about beneath the window, and was amused by watching the motions of one of the males. He stationed himself close to the female, and looking at her, kept rapidly dancing from side to side, in the space of about a foot, with his wings widely extended and quivering, his crown feathers erected, singing all the time very sweetly ; but so faintly were the notes uttered, as to seem to proceed from twenty or thirty yards' distance, though the bird was only three or four feet from me. The female took no part in the dance, but looked on very complacently, her crest being likewise somewhat erected. C. Did the other male take no part in the ceremony ? F. No ; he hopped about, apparently minding his own business, and took no notice at all of the dancer. C. Here are some bushes of the wild gooseberry, which have begun to leaf ; was this plant introduced from Europe ? F. Oh no ! many species of gooseberry and currant are indigenous to this continent. A Black Currant (Ribes Flori- dum ?J is found here, which produces fruit much like the English black currant, but not so large ; both the fruit and leaves have the same rank taste, but in a less degree. In the woods I have found Red Currants (Ribes Albinervium) scarcely to be distinguished from those of our gardens. Both these plants are rare ; but this gooseberry (Ribes Cynosbati) is abundant about the edges of the forest, and in second- growth woods. It bears a middling-sized berry, deep red and sweet, but beset, as is the bush itself, with strong prickles, which make them somewhat formidable in picking 150 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. and eating. In Newfoundland, a Red Currant (Ribes Rin- gens ?) is common, which is covered with hair, and has a very strong, unpleasant smell and taste. The stem and twigs, too, are thickly beset with brown hair. C. As we approach the river, the willows become abundant ; their long shoots are quite green with the open- ing leaves. F. The Willows (Salix) of which there are forty species, natives of North America, leaf, like the Poplars, with great rapidity. They delight in marshy situations, and will not usually thrive except in the vicinity of water. Generally speaking, the willows have more the appearance of shrubs than trees, rarely growing to any considerable height, and commonly dividing at the root into many di- verging branches ; yet there is, on the road to Sherbrooke, within about a mile of that town, a willow, which is a lofty tree, being, I should think, not less than fifty feet in height. C. The Day flies (Ephemera) fly now in the evenings : two of them, with dark wings, flew in at my open window last night, which, I see this morning, have sloughed their skins, and obtained perfectly hyaline wings. The Red and Yellow Sphex of Newfoundland (Nomada Americana) is now to be found ; I saw one yesterday hovering about ploughed ground, and peeping into every little hole. Large dragonfly grubs are abundant at the bottom of brooks and ponds, I caught an Azure Butterfly (Polyommatus Lucia), with the upper wings having a broad border of black : from its distended abdomen, I supposed it was a female. Many beetles crawl about the grass and under stones, among which the Purple Carab (Carabus Catena) and the Copper- spot (Calosoma Calidum) are numerous. In fact, insects of all orders have ended their winter's repose, and meet us at every step. MAY. 151 F. Let us stand still a few moments on the bridge, and view the scene. I love to stand here at this hour, when the twilight gives a mellowness to every object, and that indis- tinctness which has so pleasing an effect. I love to look on the calm and placid river, flowing in blackest shade beneath the tall overhanging woods on each side : " the dark, the silent stream," as Shelley beautifully says : the line of light in the middle, where the sky is reflected between the woods on either bank, making the blackness of each side still more dense and ob- scure. Not a breath ruffles the surface ; not a twig vibrates in the air ; every sound and every motion seems stilled ; nature appears to sleep in that calm repose which prevailed in this spot for centuries before the foot of the adventurous white man trod the soil. We seem to expect the face of the dark Huron to peep from the woods, or the canoe of the more chivalrous Algonquin to dart round yonder point ; everything is in its primitive wildness : there is nothing to remind us of civilized man, save the bridge beneath our feet. The same silent river has flowed here for ages ; the same woods have clothed its banks ; the same beasts have hid in their recesses ; the same birds. have warbled among their branches ; the same tiny flies have danced in the last light of evening, between the heaven above, and the reflected heaven below. Nature remains the same : but where is the Red-man, whose noiseless tread once passed like the gliding of a spirit through these woods, or whose wild war- whoop broke the solemn silence, and made the forest ring ? He has passed away, and left scarce a vestige behind. C. Do you know anything of the manners of the natives ? F. Nothing from my own observation : I have seen but few, and they appeared to be little benefited by their inter- THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. course with civilized man ; they are a degraded race, very much like the gipsies of Europe. Perhaps I can give you some information respecting them, derived from sources to which you may not have had access. The Indians appear to have been originally divided into three great families, speaking languages so distinct, that no affinity can be per- ceived between them. All the numberless tribes into which the red men have been subdivided, may, with a few excep- tions be assigned to these three families : the Algonquin, or Chippeway, the Dahcotah, and the Floridian. The Algon- quin was the great race from which the Wampanoags, the Narragansetts, the Mohegans, the Pequots, the Ottawas, the Iroquois or six nations, and all the tribes which originally inhabited Canada and New England, appear to have sprung. These all speak dialects which can be traced to one great root, and in their habits and manners bear a great affinity to each other. I should rather use the past tense, however, as few remains of these powerful tribes survive. They fought for their hearths with a chivalric valour, and a deter- mined perseverance worthy of a better fate ; but the scalp- ing-knife and the tomahawk have sunk before the musket and the bayonet. They were cruel and unmerciful in war, and cunning and stratagem were as highly esteemed as valour. The scalp, or skin of the crown of the head with the hair attached, was taken from a fallen enemy as a trophy, and highly valued : and so much honour was attached to the possession of these bloody spoils, that it is said a wounded Indian belonging to a retreating party, has been known to entreat his fellows to cut off his head, lest his scalp should fall into the hands of the enemy. In performing the act of scalping, the victor sets one foot on the neck of his disabled enemy, entwines one hand in his hair, and by a few slashes of the scalping-knife in his other, round the top of the head, is enabled to pull off the skin with the hair. Before the intro- MAY. 153 duction of iron by Europeans, their hatchets were made of flint, and they used shells or sharp stones for knives. They stole upon their enemies with great caution ; but when dis- covery was unavoidable, or concealment no longer necessary, they uttered frightful yells, and the terrific war-whoop, to strike terror into their foes. C. Have you any idea of what the celebrated war- whoop was like ? F. It is said to resemble the words "woach, woach! hach, hach, woach ! " and I have been told by those who have heard it, that when two or three hundred Indians are shouting these discordant sounds, each one thirsting for blood, it is enough to appal the stoutest heart. Probably there is not so much in the sound itself, as in the ideas with which it is associated; the suddenness and unexpectedness of the attack, the stern and merciless character of the warfare, and often the horrors of night, and the uncertainty respecting the force of the enemy, have contributed to give to this war-cry that fearful character with which it has been invested by the whites. Prisoners were often taken, and put to death with horrible tortures, the sustaining of which, without any mani- festation of pain, was indispensable in him who wished to bear the character of a warrior. They lived chiefly by hunt- ing, and were well acquainted with the habits and retreats of the wild animals of the woods : they clothed themselves with the skins. They also cultivated the maize plant, or Indian corn, and from them the Europeans learned the mode. In- stead of hoes, they used large oyster-shells, and the labour of cultivation was performed by the women j personal labour being considered beneath the dignity of a warrior and hunter. They had little knowledge of medicine j their jugglers were both physicians and priests : they used a few simples, and had some knowledge of rough surgery. A steam bath has often wrought surprising cures, and was a favourite remedy in H 5 154 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. most diseases. A small hut is made over a* hole in the ground, and a number of red-hot stones are put at the bottom of the hole. The patient crawls in with a vessel of water, and closes the entrance ; he throws the water on the hot stones, which fills the hut with a cloud of steam, and the man is thrown into a profuse perspiration. He then comes out, and instantly plunges into cold water ; repeating the course several times, and ending with the steam bath. The medicine-bag, rattle, and juggling tricks of the priests were, however, the ordinary hopes of restoration. C. Had they any notions of religion ? F. In this respect they were far before the refined nations of antiquity ; for they held these important doc- trines, the unity of God, the immortality of the soul, and a state of future retribution. It is certain these doctrines were tinctured by the prejudices of their habits and education : their paradise was a happy hunting-ground, where game was plentiful ; their notions of vice and virtue were in many in- stances erroneous : thus an Indian prays that he may be- some a great warrior, hunter, and horse-stealer ; but it appears that these children of the forest acted, in general, in conformity to the light they had received, and were in many cases examples to us, who are partakers of a better dispensation. They were destitute of all government, except the influence which a strong mind exerts over a weak one ; their chiefs were merely the bravest or most sagacious of their warriors, having no authority to make laws, nor power to execute them ; but they were looked up to for advice, and led them in battle. Every man did what was right in his own eyes, and public opinion appears to have been the principal restraint on individuals. The chief was called a Sachem, or Sagamore ; he wore no badge of rank, and often possessed no more wealth than others. The Indian was in- defatigable in the chase, unshrinking in war, but supinely indolent in peace ; this indolence was an insuperable bar to MAY. 155 improvement, as nothing but stern necessity could induce exertion ; and immediately their necessity was supplied, they returned to the same state of inaction as before. Yet they were not destitute of mechanical contrivance and ingenuity, for they invented the birchen canoe, an article which has elicited the approbation of all travellers. It is made of a frame-work of light tough wood, over which the papery bark of the birch is stretched ; the pieces being sewed together with sinews, and the seams smeared with turpentine. It is water-tight, and so light that a man can carry it on his head : a white man would, on getting into one, tip it over : but the Indians manage them with great dexterity, and sometimes load them down to within an inch of the water. An Ameri- can author says of the languages of these tribes, that " they are like no forms of speech known in the old world. They are wonderfully expressive, both defective and redundant, and are said to be difficult of acquisition. The verbs of the Dahcotah language appear to have no roots, and to be entirely irregular in their modifications. The nominative case neither precedes nor follows the verb, as in the languages of the old world, but is incorporated with it ; sometimes at the end of the word, sometimes in the middle, sometimes abbreviated, and sometimes entire. We have known traders fail to acquire it during a trial of thirty years. From the little ac- quaintance we were able to gain, we thought it a collection of phrases, with scarce the semblance of rule or order, and con- clude that to be learned at all it must be learned by rote." C. Were not the red men treated with unnecessary cruelty by the first settlers of North America ? F. There is no doubt they were -, they were called " the heathen," and were often hunted and shot down like wild beasts. Some curious legends are preserved of these doings : some Indians of the Norridgewock tribe, who lived on the Kennebec river, near this province, were employed by some traders to draw a cannon into the fort, by means of a long 156 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. rope. The Indians took hold of it, and seemed much amused with the sport ; but the moment they were arranged in a straight line, the whites treacherously fired the cannon, and killed and wounded a great number. At another time, a man was chopping in the forest, and having cut a large log was engaged in splitting it : the wedges were riving the wood, and it had begun to open. Just then, a party of Indians suddenly appeared : though they showed no hostili- ty, the woodman suspected their intentions, and at length asked them to help him in splitting the log. He told them to put their hands into the cleft, and pull against each other. As soon as they had got their fingers well in, he suddenly knocked out the wedges, and the Indians were all caught, like so many foxes in a trap. He then went for assistance, and secured (that is, most probably, killed} them all. They displayed considerable ingenuity in catching and killing animals : " they made traps by bending down young trees, which would spring, when touched, with force sufficient to raise a wolf or a bear. An English horse having strayed away was once caught in one of these traps, and sent sprawl- ing and kicking, several feet into the air. The Indians, who had seen a horse but seldom, were afraid of his ' iron feet.' They shouted to him from behind their fence, c what cheer, what cheer, Mr. Englishman's horse ?' but getting no answer, ran off and told the English they could find their horse hang- ing on a birch tree." But the Indians are passing away; and except in the extreme north of our possessions, and in the southern Ame- rican States, few are to be found east of the Mississippi. Westward of that river, and especially to the west of the Rocky Mountains, many tribes are yet to be found in primi- tive wildness. These, too, will recede before the mighty power of civilization ; white men will ultimately reach to the Pacific ; and where, then, will the poor Indian dwell ? That it is better for the world at large, that this vast con- MAY. 157 tinent should be peopled with civilized and Christian men, cannot be doubted ; yet a benevolent mind cannot contem- plate the fate of the red man without a pang of regret for the hardness of his destiny. " They waste us, aye, like April snow In the warm noon, we shrink away ; And fast they follow, as we go Towards the setting day : Till they shall fill the land, and we Are driven into the western sea." But while we are talking of the Indians, the evening has waned into night; and were it not for the innumerable lamps above us, it would be quite dark. C. The evening is warm, and the air balmy and pleasant ; the soft maple in flpwer on the bank of the river gives out a sweeter fragrance than before ; but let us walk homeward. F. A walk in the evening at this season has always charms for me, and I often delight to protract it into the night ; the general quietness that prevails around, and the sight of those unnumbered glittering worlds, have a soothing and calming influence on my mind, and fit it for devotion. C. What delightful odour is that which is now dif- fused through the air ? It is very different from that of the maple, but equally delicate and pleasing. F. It comes from the Balm of Gilead, near the house : by day it is not perceivable, but in the damp dewy air of evening, at this season, the tree diffuses this delicious perfume. If one sense is delighted by day, another is charmed by night : how many sources of pleasure and in- nocent enjoyment has our good Creator opened for us ! " These are thy glorious works, Parent of good ! Almighty ! thine this universal frame, Thus wondrous fair ! thyself how wondrous then ! " 158 XL MAY 25th. Spiders' Webs. White and Red Death. Violets. Breeches Flower. Dandelion. Plum Blossoms. Humming-bird its beauty, activity, habits interesting Anecdote peculiar mode of flight. Scarlet Tanagers. Crows. Raven. Black-poll Warbler. Song Sparrow. Snow-bird. Cat- bird. Perfume from the Maple. Leafing of the Ash White and Brown Ash. Native Fishes. Shad Maskilonge Sturgeon White Dolphin. Seals. Common Dolphin. Capture of one. Strange cetaceous Animal. Caterpillars. Orange Comma Butter- fly. Butternut. Moosewood. Basswood. Red Currant. Great horned Owl. Striped Squirrel. lied Squirrel its playful tricks agi- lity. Anecdote. Other Squirrels. CHARLES. We can scarcely take a walk in the dewy morning without feeling our faces come in contact with the fine gossamer webs, which are stretched from fence to fence, and from tree to tree. They are so slight as to be invisible, except when the light is directly reflected from them, but the tickling sensation when they touch the face detects them in a moment. How does the spider manage to stretch his web through the air from one point to another so far distant, as he has no power of flight ? FATHER. That is a very curious inquiry, and one which has given rise to much research and experiment, and much controversy ; and yet it does not appear that the point is settled. Some maintain that the spider has the power of shooting out long filaments of silk in any direction, which are waved by the wind till they are entangled in some object ; others affirm that the wind is necessary to produce these MAY. 159 threads ; that the spider ejects a little jet of glutinous sub- stance, which the wind blows out into a thread ; others again suppose that the spider fastens one end of its thread, and then patiently crawls down, we will suppose from the fence, along the ground, and up the opposite fence, taking care to keep the thread from contact with the surface on which it crawls : and when arrived at its chosen point, " hauls in the slack," as a sailor would say ; that is, tightens the web by pulling it in, and fastens the other end. These and other modes are said to be confirmed by actual observation, and probably they all are correct, different species having different habits ; and even the same species may not always be con- fined to one mode of operation. C. The network webs that are extended on bushes, between palings, &c. are beautiful and curious, from the regu- larity and geometrical nicety with which they are construct- ed, the lines radiating from the centre like the spokes of a wheel, and the interstices filled with many concentric circles of the finest threads : and they are particularly beautiful in the early morning, when every thread is thickly studded with little sparkling gems of dew. F. They are so slender that one would suppose the slightest touch would break them, but the threads are elastic, and very strong in proportion to their size ; they are suffi- cient to break the flight of small two-winged flies, and to detain them in their meshes. Let us turn out of the road for a while into these beech woods, where many a flower " wastes its sweetness on the desert air." Here are two species numerous, besides the yellow dog-tooth violet, which is abundant. They are handsome flowers, and are much alike in every respect, except in colour, one being dark red, the other pure white, tinged with pink. Both have a corolla of three petals, three large heart-shaped leaves, a calyx three-parted, a style three-cleft, a seed-vessel three- 160 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. valved and six stamens. These flowers are called by some of the Americans, the White and the Red Death : for what reason so ominous a name is given them,, I am unable to determine. Their botanical appellations are Trillium Pictum the white, and Trillium Feet id um the red. Here WHITE DEATH FLOWER. Trillium Pictum. MAY. 161 are violets of different species, some white, some bright yellow : we have also blue and tricoloured violets, like the pansy of our gardens, but smaller; these are not yet in blossom. None of them have the delicate . fragrance of the little English violet. No less than thirty-one species of the BREECHES FLOWER. Cnrydalfe CucuUaria, THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. genus Viola are enumerated by Professor Eaton as indigen- ous to North America. I have seen one or two specimens of a delicate, lowly little flower, whose blossoms, hanging from a stem of^about six inches in height, bear a resem- blance to tiny pairs of breeches. They are white, the upper part or mouth of the corolla tinged with yellow ( Corydalis Cucuttaria). I was at a loss at first to find its leaves ; for on breaking off the flower close to the earth, no leaves were attached to it : the fact is, the leaves spring directly from the root, and they are connected with the flower-stalk beneath the surface. They are pinnatifid, the lobes irregularly in- cised. A very common and humble plant is likewise in flower, the Dandelion (Leontodon Taraxacum) ; though despised, the blossom is pretty. C. What is the origin of the name, dandelion ? F. The word was originally Dent-de-lion, that is, lion's tooth, the leaves being cut into curved teeth, pointing back- ward. The generic name signifies the same thing ; this form of the leaf is called runcinate. In Newfoundland, the leaves of the dandelion are much sought after in spring, as a culinary vegetable ; their taste, when boiled, is peculiar, but agreeable to many persons, and as this is the first eatable vegetable that appears, the meadows and fields are fre- quented at this season by boys and girls, who in cutting up the plant with knives, cut up a great deal of the grass also, and do considerable mischief. Here it is not eaten. C. The plum trees are one mass of blossoms ; let us look at them and enjoy their perfume. How loud the bees are humming amongst them ! F. That is not the humming of bees ; look attentively, and you will see a novelty. C. Ha ! there is what I have long wished to see, a humming-bird sucking the flowers. There are two of them : let us take a closer view of them. MAY. 163 F. No, no : stay where you are, and remain quite still, and talk in a low voice; for on the slightest alarm, and their brilliant little eyes are glancing in every direction, they shoot off with the straightness and speed of, an arrow. See how they hover on the wing, in front of the blossoms, quite stationary, while their long tongue is inserted, but their wings vibrating so rapidly as to be only visible as an indis- tinct cloud on each side. C. One of them has suddenly vanished, but I did not see him fly, though I was watching him. F. He has gone only about a yard : you may see him stationary again to the right of where he was before. These starts are so sudden and so rapid, that they are often lost to the sight. C. How very little and how very beautiful ! the body glitters in the sun with green and gold, and the throat is just like a glowing coal of fire. Now they rest on a twig ; one of them I perceive has not the brilliant throat of the other. F. That is the female ; in other respects her plumage is like that of the male. It is the Ruby-throated Humming- bird (Trochilus Colubris), and is scattered over the whole of this continent, at least to the latitude of 57 degrees north. It is the only species of the genus found in North America, except a species (T. Rufus) which inhabits the coast of the Pacific, as far north as 61. C. Is it numerous here ? F. Yes : in summer it is abundant ; frequenting our gardens, for the tubular flowers, which it probes with its long bill and tongue, sometimes hiding its head in the corolla, and sucking with so much indiscretion as to be approached, and taken in the hand. It is particularly fond of the deep crim- son flowers of the sweet-smelling Balm (Monarda Kalmi- ana), and will return to these after a few moments, even if 164 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. repeatedly alarmed away. Last year, in the month of Sep- tember, I was in the garden one morning, when a female humming-bird came, and began sucking the flowers. I im- mediately ran into the house for my insect net, but found that the bird was gone when I returned : I stationed myself, however, close by the balm flowers, holding the net up in a position for striking, that there might be no occasion for any previous motion if it should re-appear. I remained perfectly still, and presently the bird came again, hovering over the flowers, and probing them with its tongue within two feet of me, without any sign of fear. I dashed at it, and succeeded in capturing it. I carried it into the house, and held it in my hand, admiring its delicacy and beauty. It would lie motionless in my hand, feigning death, then suddenly dart off like an arrow towards the window, strike against the glass, and fall, and lie motionless as before. I at length killed it, not without regret ; and having taken out the eyes and viscera, stuffed it with cotton, imbued with a solution of corrosive sublimate, which preserved it pretty well. C. I have read of humming-birds having been tamed, but I do not know whether they were of this species. F. The most interesting anecdotes of the ruby-throat which I have read, were published in a Quaker publication of Philadelphia, called " The Friend." The correspondent says, " Sometime in the seventh month of the present year [1834], one of my family caught a small humming-bird, which appeared quite debilitated for want of food. We pre- sented it with some sugar and cream mixed together, which it sucked up with avidity ; after which it was restored to liberty. In the course of a short interval, it again made its appearance, was taken in the hand, and a mixture of sugar made into the consistence of a syrup, was poured into the corolla of a trumpet honeysuckle, from which it eagerly ex- tracted it. From that time forward it became quite familiar, MAY. 165 and would come a dozen times a day, or more, to be fed. After fluttering a few seconds at the door or window to at- tract notice, it would alight on a neighbouring tree or rose- bush, until its food was prepared for it ; and then upon calling " peet, peet," it would dart in a straight line with the velocity of an arrow to receive it. We generally filled two or three tubes of the honeysuckle with syrup, which it extracted while on the wing, buzzing around the flower held in our hand, and inserting its bill, which was about three fourths of an inch in length, from which it protruded its tongue, at least half an inch longer, with which it sucked up the liquid. This generally sufficed it, but sometimes it did not appear satisfied, but would repair to its resting-place, and wait until the flowers were again filled, when upon being called it would return and finish its repast. But if after flying to its perch it wiped its bill upon the limb, we were then assured it wanted no more at that time ; all the soli- citations we could make would have no other effect than to hasten its departure. In the course of half an hour, it would be back again after more food, and if the member of the family to whom he applied was engaged, and not ready to attend to him, he would try over and over again to excite attention, by flying into different apartments of the house, and buzzing within a few inches. Feet's solicitations gene- rally succeeded, as the younger branches of the family were delighted with attending to him. He appeared to be more fond of syrup when made thick, than any other food which was offered him. If it was too much diluted, he would fly to his resting-place, and wait until it was altered. We also at times gave sugar and cream, wine and water mixed with sugar, and once some honey obtained from a humble bee's nest, which he appeared to treat with great contempt. Sometimes when he was fluttering around the flower held outside of the doorway, a stranger of the same species, having less confi- 166 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. dence in human nature, would dart at the little fellow and drive him away., as if anxious for him to escape from so perilous a situation. But it only had a momentary effect on our little friend, as he would return with as confiding an as- surance of safety as before. His little twittering noise and averted eye, as he momentarily withdrew his bill from the flower, appeared to say, f surely thou wilt not hurt me.' After he had visited us every day so frequently for about three weeks, and been admired by numerous persons, he disappeared on the llth of last month [August], being fed about the middle of the day, which was the last time that he was seen. As the wild humming-birds,, which were quite numerous before, disappeared about the same time, it is probable he accompanied them to more southern regions. As we were on terms of the most friendly kind, it is hoped our little traveller will again revisit us, after he has finished his peregrinations among the flowers of the south, as it is very doubtful whether he will find them as sweet as he did the honeysuckles of Delaware." C. It is a very amusing account, and appears to have an air of strict veracity. I observe the darting flight spoken of; it resembles the motion of the dragon-flies more than that of birds. F. The flight of the humming-bird is like that of no other bird; it has a character peculiarly its own. When most birds fly, we perceive that there is an evident effort ; that constant exertion, more or less, is necessary to support them in the air : their tendency appears to be to sink, which has to be continually resisted by muscular effort. The swal- lows, and some other tribes of swift and powerful flight, ap- pear to skim at will through any stratum of the atmosphere without any tendency to rise or sink ; but our little hum- ming-bird seems just like a cork drawn under water ; he seems all buoyancy, as if his natural place were above the clouds, MAY. 167 and he had to struggle to keep himself in the lower air : he brings himself down to suck the flowers, then shoots away with a springy lightness like an unincumbered balloon when the cords are cut. It is more like the flight of a dragon-fly than anything else, but much more buoyant. The first that I ever saw were two males, that shot along just over my head one day in July, soon after my arrival here. From the peculiar character of their flight, and the sparkling brilliancy of their colours, I took them for large and beautiful insects, and it was not until I had seen more that I was convinced of my mistake. C. I have seen many Scarlet Tanagers lately in the ploughed fields and pastures ; yesterday they were very nu- merous, particularly in the orchard ; there was scarcely a moment in which we might not see three or four within a few rods of each other. The Bob Lincolns are still more abundant ; they sit on every fence, and utter their singular cry in every direction. Crows have been occasionally seen some time ; but I have heard for about a week a sound from the summits of the forest, somewhat like their cawing, but much more soft and musical. I followed the sound to discover the authors, but could see nothing but crows not perceptibly differing from the common species. F. It is the common Crow ( Corvus Corone) ; this change in its usually harsh note, takes place periodically at or rather just before the breeding season. They are selecting their mates, and fixing on a spot to build in, the top of some lofty elm or other tall forest tree. As soon as their nest is built, they become totally silent, and continue so until their young are flown, when they resume their usual mode of cawing. This is one of the few species which are common to both America and Europe. The Raven (Corvus CoraxJ occasionally sails over our heads, as he appears to visit nearly every country; but he is not a common sojourner with 168 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. us ; or if he is, he must be generally mistaken for the crow, the chief difference being his superior size. C. I noticed a little stranger in the depth of the woods, which I have not seen before. Its head was deep black, wings and back dark, and all the under parts white ; but it was very shy, so that I could not examine it particularly. F Probably it was the Black-poll Warbler (Sylvia Striata), which occasionally visits this province, and even Newfoundland, where it is more common than with us. The nests of the Snow-bird and Song-sparrow (Fringilla Ni- valis and F. Melodia) may now be found in great numbers ; they both build on the ground, in a small hole, or in a tuft of grass : the former frequently chooses a hole in the side of a bank under a raspberry bush. They are easily discovered by the bird's flying away on the approach of man, and they are not very artfully concealed. Have you in your rambles heard a bird whose cry resembles the mewing of a cat? C. I have not noticed any such. What is it like ? F. It is a species of thrush ; its colour is slate blue, deep on the upper parts, and light below. Its note exactly resembles the plaintive mew of a cat that has been hurt ; it is very familiar, and when mewing in this odd tone, has various jerks and motions that are full as odd. It is called the Cat-bird (Turdus Felivox), and is very well known, but is not at all a favourite, though a very harmless bird, C. What a delicious odour fills the air from the maple grove. F. Yes ; the sugar-maple is in full blossom : its flowers are small and greenish white : their fragrance would scarcely be perceivable if smelt singly, but a grove of young maples, such as these, each one covered with blossoms, gives out a volume of perfume that indeed, as you say, fills the air. The leaf-buds of the brown, and the white ash are expanding. MAY. 169 The ashes are among the last trees that leaf, and the first that shed their leaves. C. The ash, when it grows in a clearing, has great grace and elegance, but it wants the massy character of foliage that distinguishes some trees. F. Its leaves being pinnate, give it a feathery kind of lightness, and its outline is graceful. The two species, White Ash (Fraxinus Acuminata) and Brown Ash (Fra. Sambu- cifolia) are much alike, but are distinguished by the buds, the bark, and the wood. The buds of the former are pale brown : of the latter nearly or quite black. In both, they are large and broad, and intensely bitter. The bark of white ash is deeply furrowed, and the ridges cross each other so as to give the spaces between a lozenge shape, or what is usually called diamond form : that of brown ash is much smoother, (though furrowed in old age,) the furrows are parallel and perpendicular ; it is more inclined to a yellow cast, is more subject to be infested with bunches of moss, and may in some degree be peeled off in small thin plates, or laminae. I have read in books much doubt respecting the cause of the distinction, white and brown, and the conclusion that it is from the superior lightness of colour in the bark of the former species. But not to mention that this is not so in fact, every Canadian farmer knows that it is in the wood of these two trees that this distinction is found ; the whole heart of the brown ash is of a deep bistre brown, while that of the white ash is white from the bark to the centre. The wood of the latter is exceedingly tough and elastic, and is in much demand for hoops, chair-backs and bottoms, and any farming implements in which toughness is the chief requi- site ; the grain is large and coarse ; it is capable of being torn into long strips, almost as thin as a wafer, which are interlaced for bottoms of chairs, and are very durable. The sapwood of the brown ash is tough, but not in the same i 170 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. degree, and the heart is brittle : this species is much more abundant,, and is chiefly split into rails, which rank next to cedar for durability, but are far heavier and more difficult to handle. The white ash is very scarce as a tree of any size, and its value for the purposes named, and for sawing into plank, is too great to allow it to be used for rails ; it is con- fined to upland, or what is called hardwood land, while the brown is most abundant in marshy ground, with the resinous evergreens and the birch. C. Yonder is a boy angling in the brook : do you know anything of the native fishes of our rivers ? E. Very little indeed : and nothing of their natural history or specific characters. I have angled in the Coata- cook, and caught several small species, which bite very freely. Dace, trout, chub, lump-fish, and others, are names given to our most common river fish, whether correctly, I am not ich- thyologist enough to determine. The Salmon is taken in our rivers: the Shad (Clupea Alosa), a fish very highly es- teemed for its firmness and the delicacy of its flavour, abounds, I believe, in the St. Lawrence in spring ; and the Maskilonge, (Esox Estor ?) another fish of large size, of the pike family, is found in the lakes. On the bank of the Ma- suippi, about a mile above its junction with the Coatacook, is a spot where the land, after descending with a gradual slope, suddenly ends in rather a steep but grassy bank. At the very edge of this bank is a farm-house, and the owner has told me that he can sit at his door, and watch the stur- geon and other fish playing almost directly under him, over the pebbly bottom of the clear river. The Sturgeon ( Aci- penser Sturio) is very numerous just there ; and is, I sup- pose, the largest fish we have, being several feet in length. They are long, slender, and angled, and covered with tuber- cles ; the flesh is not much esteemed. They often leap from MAY. 171 the water, several feet into the air. While on the subject of fishes, I may allude to the White Dolphin of the St. Law- rence (Delphinus Canadensis). In coming up that river in summer, I saw great numbers of them frolicking and leaping about, like their congeners, the dolphins and porpoises of the ocean, from which I could not see that they differed in any respect, except in being all over of a pure white. The Na- tural History Society of Montreal offered a prize a few years ago for an essay on the Cetacea of the St. Lawrence, which was, I believe, handed in, but I have never had an oppor- tunity of learning the information contained in it. Seals also often pop up their black heads in the same river. C. I have seen the common Black Dolphin (Delphinus Delphis) in shoals, while crossing the Atlantic. They are very amusing ; and as, when they come around a ship, they seem unwilling to leave her, we have plentiful opportunities for observation. They are in the habit of leaping out of the water, sometimes to the height of twelve feet, as I have seen, and while in the air their bodies are much incurvated. It is no matter how fast a ship is going, the dolphins play around her and under her bows, as if she were fast at anchor. Some- times I have seen them quite clearly through the side of a wave, darting along with incredible velocity, and apparently without an effort, leaving behind them a wake of whitening foam beneath the water. F. They seem to revel in the storm : the prodigious leaps which they are so fond of making, appear to be made for no other reason than in mere wantonness, in the exuber- ance of their mirth. They are believed by sailors to indi- cate the direction of the wind, as it is absurdly supposed the wind will shortly be in that quarter from which the dolphins approach the ship. I have been present at the capture of two individuals, one of which was taken about midway between England and Newfoundland in the summer of 1832. It i 2 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. was just after dinner : a shoal of dolphins were amusing themselves under the bows, when our captain went forward, took his harpoon, and stationed himself on the bowsprit. He watched his opportunity, poised his weapon, and trans- fixed a fine fellow in the back. The animal rushed away with the speed of lightning, but the barb was fast, and so was the rope attached to it : the sailors hauled him to the sur- face of the water, where he tossed and plunged with amaz- ing force, while the red life-blood gushed from his wound in torrents, dying the water all around. We were fearful of losing him ; for one barb of the harpoon was out, and the point of the other was protruded through the skin : his hide must have been very tough, or his tremendous struggles would certainly have freed him from so slender a hold. After many trials and failures we at length got the bight of a rope under his huge tail, and another over his breast fins, and hauled him on deck, with the warm blood still spouting from his gaping wound. The mate, however, cut his throat, and he was dead almost instantly ; but not before he had well lashed the deck with his muscular tail. I took an ac- curate drawing of him as he lay. He measured seven feet ten inches from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail : one foot four inches from the insertion of the back fin to the belly (that is, in perpendicular diameter) ; two feet four inches from tip to tip of the pectoral fins ; the tail was two feet in width ; the snout, from the tip to the angle of the eye, one foot. The blowhole on his forehead was very curi- ous ; it was circular, about an inch in diameter, and was closed by a valve. When it was cut open, we found that the orifice considerably enlarged a little below the surface, and was lined with a very soft black skin. The eye was of a transparent blue colour, and gleamed in some lights like the eyes of cats, &c. The teeth were very small, regular, and beautiful ; those of the upper jaw fitting into the inter- MAY. 173 slices of the lower. We found in his maw some beaks of squids (Sepia). Under the skin was a coating of white fat, an inch in thickness all over the body, and much thicker about the head ; this was peeled from the flesh with the skin, and thrown into a cask to melt into oil. All the cetaceous animals having warm blood, would be likely to be chilled by the coldness of the water, as they have no outward covering, such as fur or hair. God has therefore protected them by a thick coat of fat, which is a poor conductor of heat : the effect of this is, that their blood is as hot as that of any land animal, if not more so. We ate part of the flesh of our game ; it looked much like beef when raw, but was very dark when cooked : it was particularly tender, and " ate short," as it is called. I fancied it had something of the taste of reindeer venison, which I had eaten in New- foundland. This was a male, and one of large size. The colour was bluish black on the back, lead colour on the sides and fins, and white on the belly. The other that I saw caught was in the Gulf of Mexico ; the harpooning, the struggling, and the thumping of the tail were the same as in the former instance ; but this was a much smaller specimen, measuring only six feet in length : it was a female. It had thirty- eight teeth on each side of each jaw, making one hun- dred and fifty-two in all ; of this, too, I took a drawing. Whenever a dolphin is harpooned, the rest of the shoal vanish instantly, never staying to sympathize with the suf- ferer : indeed, sailors say that if one is wounded and escapes the harpoon, the rest immediately tear him to pieces with their serrated jaws, and devour him. I think it probable that some species of this tribe are yet undescribed. In going up the English Channel in 1832, when off the Devonshire coast, a large animal of the cetaceous kind suddenly ap- peared just under our bowsprit ; it swam along for about ten minutes (the vessel going before the wind at about five 174 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. knots,) as if to pilot us in our course, keeping within a" few inches of the vessel's head, deviating sometimes a foot or so to the right or left. At length the captain prepared his harpoon, but before it was ready the animal had disappeared. It was about sixteen feet long, of a light grey colour, with a round bluff head. I could find no description of such a species.* But where have we wandered? From the Masuippi to the St. Lawrence, from the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic, from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Gulf of Mexico to the English Channel : a wide flight in a few moments ! But let us return to our woods and fields. C. Several kinds of caterpillars are now to be found, which survive the winter ; such as those of the Grey Kidney Moth (Polia ?), the Buff Leopard (Arctia Isabella), and others with which I am not acquainted. I caught two specimens of the Orange Gomma Butterfly (Grapta C. Album ?) a few days ago, a beautiful species. Some very pretty but small dipterous flies have appeared, with bril- liant metallic thorax and abdomen, glittering with green and crimson gold (Sargus ? ). F. The Butternut (Juglans Cinerea) has begun to leaf: the buds of this tree much resemble those of the ashes, but are larger, of a downy pale green, and they are not so regular in shape as the ash buds. The leaves are pinnate, like those of that tree, and on the whole there is considerable resemblance between the white ash and the butternut. This tree is considered an indication of the very best land we have ; it is not abundant in this vicinity, though there are many trees scattered about : on the banks of the Coatacook, near Spafford's bridge, are several trees. The bark of this tree is used in dying : I believe it produces a snuff-brown colour ; I know of no other value which it has * Perhaps it was Beluga, Leucas^ the White Whale. MAY. 175 except for its fruit, which is by no means equal to an English walnut. C. I notice the leaves of a shrub which grows abun- dantly in the upland woods ; the common people call it moosewood. The leaves are large and heart-shaped, and much wrinkled. F. I know the bush well ; it is a species of Guelder- rose (Viburnum Lantanoides) : the moosewood of botanists is a species of maple (Acer Striatum). This plant bears in autumn clusters of round berries, which are at first green, then bright red, and when ripe shining black. They are hard at first and astringent, but become farinaceous ; they are not very pleasant, though some persons eat them. Its leaves expand very rapidly. The Bass wood, or Lime (Tilia Glabra) is at length bursting its glutinous leaf-buds. This tree frequently attains a great height, but though its trunk is usually remarkably straight, round, and pillar-like, and its outline good, the foliage is never beautiful. The leaves are always corroded or distorted in some way, so that among many trees I have often vainly searched to find a perfect leaf, except such as were just unfolded. The cause of this I do not know, unless it be produced by minute insects: few caterpillars feed on the basswood, and as the tree is so com- mon, their ravages could be easily discovered j whatever the cause, the effect is greatly detrimental to the beauty of the tree. The outer bark of this species is rough and stringy, the inner bark is viscid and sweet, the twigs and buds are likewise very glutinous when chewed ; cattle are fond of them, and in severe winters, when fodder is scarce, it is common for a farmer to drive his stock into the woods of a morning, and cut down a basswood or a maple, on which they eagerly browse, and which proves nutritive. C. Is the wood of this tree of any service ? .F. It is extremely soft and white when green ; -when 176 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. seasoned, it becomes of a light brown hue : it does not warp like the resinous woods, and is often sawed into boards for many purposes. The young trees are sometimes cut into poles, which are set up as rails for a temporary fence, but they are not at all durable. It is almost useless as firewood when green, being too full of sap. The basswood grows abun- dantly in this country, and is found in all situations, but most affects a low, and often a marshy soil. C. I observe the red currant bushes in the garden are putting out their leaves ; and many other garden plants are beginning to shoot into active life (if vegetation can be called active) ; the bulbs of the Orange Lily (Lilium Canadense) are above the surface of the ground. What very large bird is that sitting on yonder hemlock. Is it an owl ? F. Yes ; and one that is much oftener heard than seen; it is the Great Horned Owl (Strix Virginiana,) a HORNKD OWL. Strix Virginiana. MAY. 177 very fine species : it is a native of nearly the whole of North America, but is rarely met with here. Its voice is peculi- arly loud and alarming : Wilson describes it in his usual happy manner : I have myself often heard it in the forests of Alabama, where in travelling through the swamps, covered with gigantic- beeches and sycamores, entwined and tangled by the various species of briers and vines that hang in fes- toons from the trees, and amidst the evergreen bushes of the hystrix fan-palm, this "ghostly watchman" lifts up his hol- low voice like a sentinel challenging the intruder. Through the afternoon, and especially as day wanes into evening, they may be heard from all quarters of the swamps ; and in the deep solitude and general silence of these gloomy recesses, the cry is peculiarly startling. " Ho ! oho ! oho ! waugh ho ! " is his call ; the last syllable uttered with particular earnestness, and protracted for some seconds, and gradually falling. The whole is given deliberately, in a loud and hollow tone ; and one can scarcely be persuaded that it comes from a bird. They call and answer to each other, and I have made one answer my imitation of his call. But it is at night that this delightful music is heard to most ad- vantage : he sometimes makes a noise which Wilson justly compares to the half-suppressed screams of a person throttled, but I have heard this but seldom ; the first appears to be his favourite song. There he goes ; as he flies, you may observe how exceeding noiselessly he glides through the air : all the owls have this property ; not a ruffle is to be heard : this arises from the very soft nature of their feathers ; an owl is almost all feathers, and they are loose and unwebbed in most parts of the body, and offer little resistance to the air. C. What do they feed on ? F. Small birds, field-mice, squirrels, and any animals that they can master. i 5 178 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. The Ground Squirrel (Tamia Striata) is quite nu- merous now : it does not migrate, I believe. F. No : all our squirrels are residents, not sojourners here : I think the ground squirrel, however, retires to a burrow during the winter, and hybernates. I have never seen it, as I recollect, abroad during that season ; but the Red Squirrel (Sciurus Hudsonius) may often be seen on a RED SQUIRREL. Sciurus Hudsonius. fine day at the foot of some beech or maple, and if disturbed he quickly runs to his hole under the snow. C. The striped or ground squirrel is a very pretty ani- mal : it has not the roguish saucy familiarity of the red, and has little of the appearance of a squirrel. Its bright fawn colour is well marked by the three black stripes down its back and sides. F. He rarely if ever climbs trees, but is fond of playing bo-peep around old logs, or among a heap of stones, now and MAY. 179 then poking out his head to take a sly peep at you ; then gone again. His note is a single chuck, uttered at intervals like the cluck of a hen : he is commonly known here by the name of the chipmunk. C. The red squirrel is a very fantastic little gentleman : he plays as many tricks as a monkey, and were it not that he is so fond of grain, and has such very loose ideas on the subject of meum and tuum, he would be a universal fa- vourite. F. As it is, however, he is sorely persecuted with pow- der and shot, and even periodical hunts are made up, as a kind of frolic, in which men and boys eagerly join ; any old rusty musket being a sufficient qualification. Two leaders choose sides, each alternately taking a man, till the whole are engaged, just as in cricket, &c. : then they sally forth, and the party that brings in most squirrels is the victor ; the whole then adjourn to some tavern, and have a dinner, to be paid for by the vanquished party. Notwithstanding all this, and the numbers that are shot about the barns in winter by vindictive farmers, they are not a whit less impudent or fa- miliar, nor do they seem diminished in numbers. His jerks and motions are very amusing ; if you go under a tree where one is sitting, he sets himself firmly on the branch, flourishes his tail over his back, and looks fiercely at you, making a most angry chattering all the time, or rather a reiterated chirping ; every now and then giving a start as if he had a mind to fly at you, jerking his tail too with a convulsive sort of motion. If you are pretty close to him, you may hear at every chirp, and simultaneous with it, a sort of low under- tone of a mournful sound, something like the coo of a pigeon, but much shorter. C. How very nimble they are ! they leap to a great dis- tance, and run very swiftly : I have often chased them along the rails of the fence, I running on the road beside it ; but 180 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. though I ran with all speed, and though the squirrel had to run nearly double the distance, from the zigzag form of the fence, he would keep a-head of me. He is a cunning fellow too ; for after running from rail to rail, he will often suddenly crouch down on one -of the projecting ends where they cross each other, in hope of remaining unseen : I have often lost them in this way. F. Do you see that little grove in yonder bottom, exactly between our house and the village ? There I once put the agility of a little rogue of a red squirrel to a pretty severe test. The trees are chiefly maple, cherry, and elm ; all, or nearly all, though of considerable height, so slender as to be easily shaken with my hands. My little gentleman was enjoying himself on one of those trees, when as " his evil stars " would have it, I espied him. I knew that he would not leave the grove, and for a frolic I commenced shaking the tree violently, which put him at his wit's end : he ran from bough to bough, and at length leaped to another tree ; this I instantly shook in the same manner, and so kept him flying from tree to tree sometimes at an astonishing distance, back- ward and forward through the grove, for more than half an hour, without a moment's cessation. He several times missed his hold, but always caught a bough in his fall, ex- cept once, when he came rather heavily on the ground from one of the topmost branches : he was instantly on his feet again, and up in the tree before I could come near him. I don't know whether he was tired, but 7 was, and was fain to yield him the point, and leave him in quiet possession of his trees. C. Are there any squirrels found here besides the red and the striped ? F. There are three others : the Grey (Sciurus Leu- cotis), the Black (Sciurus Niger), and the Flying Squirrels (Pteromys Volucella), all of them larger than these : but MAY. 181 they are very scarce, and I know comparatively nothing of their economy. I once had a glimpse of a flying squirrel taking a long leap from the top of one tree to the top of an- other, in the forest ; and I have seen one or two specimens of the grey species, which had been shot. The black has never fallen under my own personal observation : I know it only from the report of others, but have not the least doubt of its existence here. Many species are indigenous to this continent, but I am not aware that any others visit this part of Canada at least, than those I have mentioned. 182 XII. JUNE 1st. Musquitoes. Gallflies. Moths. Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly. Black Swallowtail. Clouded Sulphur. Black Skipper. Other Insects. Elder. Moosewood. Wild Strawberry. Beech its bark foliage roots wood. Leafing of Forest Trees. Providence of God. Tor- toise its manners eggs. Mushroom. CHARLES. I begin to feel the truth of your former ob- servations respecting the virulence of the musquitoes : last night they were very numerous, and I was shockingly bitten by them. FATHER. Yes, they have begun to be troublesome, and we may now look for their nightly attacks, for three months at least, but not without frequent intermissions, or at least mitigations of their violence. We must bear it as we may. C. I yesterday picked up, lying on the ground, an irre- gular-oval, spongy gall, resembling a brown tuberous root, studded here and there with prickles : it contained very many regular cells, and pupae of Gallflies (Cynips). I observed one little hole, which I enlarged, and took from it a little gallfly perfected, the first I had ever seen. F. The gallflies are generally small insects, but very curious in their economy : their power of so altering the course of nature, as to produce on plants apparent fruits and flowers, totally different from their ordinary productions, merely by means of an invisible puncture, is one that com- pletely baffles all our researches, and shows us that, with all JUNE. 183 our boasted wisdom, we know nothing. There are very many species : the one you found is, I believe, produced on a spe- cies of Rubus (I think, the common raspberry). Another kind, very common, swells out the stem of a species of Soli- dago, Golden-rod, which is very abundant, into a round ball, spreading equally on all sides. C. I have taken two new moths lately, and three now butterflies have made their appearance since our last walk ; the first of which is the beautiful Tiger Swallow-tail ( Pa- pilio Turnus). This large and handsome butterfly is very TIGER SWALLOWTAIL. Papilio Turnus. wild and difficult of capture j at least so I have found the specimens which I have seen, which are only two : I pur- sued them both, but succeeded in catching neither. F. They will be more familiar presently ; or at least will be much more abundant, so that you will be able to 184 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. secure as many specimens as you please. It is a wide- spread species, extending from Newfoundland to the Gulf of Mexico, and perhaps farther : in the State of Alabama it is common Another species, the Black Swallowtail (Papilio Asterius), is likewise found in Newfoundland and in the Southern States; in both of which I have found it numerous, and I have seen it mentioned in lists of New England insects, yet I have not met with it in this province. I should suppose, however, that it is a native, but probably, as in Newfoundland, only appears plentifully in particular seasons. C. The other butterflies were the Clouded Sulphur (Colias Philodice), and the Black Skipper (Thymele Brizo ?}. F. The former is very abundant through the summer, and continues till late in autumn : it is a pretty butterfly; the female, especially : her yellow-spotted black border, and pink fringe, is much more becoming than the plain black of the male. The extent of the black margin on the poste- rior wings differs much in individuals, and there is more vari- ation in size in this species than, I think, in any that I am acquainted with. I once saw an individual which was so pale as to be nearly white : whether it was a distinct species, I don't know. The skipper is not numerous j three or four specimens being as many as I have usually seen in a season. Its form and colour are not at all pleasing : it has the habit of all the Hesperice, of jumping up and down in its flight over the herbage ; whence these butterflies have derived the name of skippers. What other insects have you observed ? C. I went out a day or two ago bush-beating among the willows, but the leaves were too young and small to afford me much success. I shook off a black Sawfly ( Ten- thredo), two green Waterflies (Perla Cydippe 9), two Ci- mices (Pentatoma ?), several Chrysomelidce, with soft horn-coloured elytra (Crioceris ?}, and another very JUNE. 185 little species, of a metallic purple (Phyllodecta Vitettina). I have also taken some more of the delicate Fanwing Lo- custs (Acridium Ornatum), another Tenthredo with netted wings (Lyda Circumcinctus 9 ) , one of the beautiful change- able crimson and green Elater, which is found in Newfound- land (Elater Metallicus ?), a rufous Tipula, a pretty straw- coloured Pachyta with black spots, and a female Meloe Proscarabceus, the abdomen monstrously distended with eggs : it is all over of a deep steel blue. F. This is called the oil beetle, because, whenever molested, a round drop of bright yellow clammy fluid ex- udes from every joint, as from the Ladybirds (Cocci- nellce). This species is rather common with us : I have taken it in the act of eating the leaves of the common Buttercup (Ranunculus Acris) ; there is a great disparity of size betVeen the male and female : the elytra are ex- ceedingly short in both. C. I found a small beetle, quite numerous on poplars, scarlet with black spots (Chrysomela \Q-notata?) ; it re- sembles in shape, size, and colour, the ladybirds. Among stones I obtained a dingy specimen of the sculptured small bronze beetle of Newfoundland (Carabus ?) ; and se- veral purple and copper-spot Carabs C Carabus Catena., and Calosoma Calidum). I have also caught an Ephe- mera, with the tip of the wings clouded, and a Membracis with two prominences on the back. F. The Elder (Sambucus Pubescens) and the Moose- wood (Viburnum Lantanoides) are both in blossom: the large white corymbs of the former are very fragrant, and are the constant resort of numbers of little flies and other in- sects. C. Windsor-beans and Scarlet-runners I see are above ground in the garden ; but they were planted late. I ob- serve the blossoms of the wild Strawberry (Fragaria Fir- 186 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. giniana) abundant on those barren places in the pastures and grass fields, which will scarcely bear any grass. They seem almost confined to such places : probably where the grass is luxuriant, it chokes them out. . F. Here is the tardy Beech (Fagus Ferruginea) just beginning to open its leaf buds. This, and the brown ash usually contend which shall be the latest in leafing. The red beech is probably the most beautiful tree we have ; its bark is remarkably smooth, of a pale blue colour, often marbled with large spots of white. Its leaves are of a graceful shape, of a deep glossy green ; its general outline, when growing in a clearing, is often very round, and always beautiful, its lower branches spreading horizontally; and its foliage possesses that rich and massy character, common to the maple. It has the singular property of retaining a great portion of its leaves all through the winter, though they are sere and dry, as the leaves of other deciduous trees. The roots spread out to a great distance on the surface of the earth, and are generally very tangled and contorted ; they often begin to diverge from the trunk some distance above the ground. In the forest, in which the beech holds a pro- minent place, the trunk is tall and straight, with a wide and branchy top : its twigs are slender, and minutely ramified : its buds are spindle-shaped, and long; and become much longer when they approach their expansion. The perules are coriaceous and tough, but thin, and are lined with a silky down. The leaves do not acquire their glossy appear- ance for a considerable time. C. What are the uses to which the wood of the beech is applied ? F. It is a hard, close-grained, and firm wood, and is used for carpenters' tools, brushes, and many other small articles ; but the chief use we make of it is as fuel : a prin- cipal part of the firewood used in this country is beech, as it JUNE. 187 is very abundant, and burns well, and with a strong heat. Perhaps we use as much maple as beech, but these two form nearly the whole of what is consumed. The wood of the beech somewhat resembles that of the maple, but may be distinguished from it, by being redder, and by the medullary rays being broader and coarser in appearance ; the ends of these form innumerable short dashes on the outer part of any section of the wood, which distinguish it from that of any other tree. It wants too the bright play of light that makes maple wood so beautiful. It is heavy in proportion to its bulk. When young, the sugar maple often bears great resemblance to the beech, before its bark has become fur- rowed, but the leaves in summer, and in winter the taper twigs and pointed buds, and an appearance of superior hardness in the bark of the beech, (which can be seen, but not described,) are a sufficient distinction. This tree grows to a majestic size and height, and its fruit affords sustenance to squirrels, and other wild animals. We have now observed the gradual unfolding of the buds of all our forest trees : some, forward and fearless of late frosts, expand their incipient leaves or tender blossoms to the fickle sun of April; others, more sober and cautious, have suffered day after day to pass over, apparently unin- fluenced by the increasing warmth of the solar rays ; but all have at length yielded to the resistless influence of the genial spring ; and greenness, the cheerful livery of the summer, will speedily envelope all the vegetable progeny of nature. Why one plant unfolds its leaves so many weeks before another, exposed to the same influences of light and heat, we cannot tell : we observe facts ; but when we presume to inquire why these things are so, we are baffled and repulsed : in some cases we can penetrate to second causes, but the primary cause must be referred to the will of the Father of all ; who, we may be assured, appoints the seasons, and 188 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. watches over the welfare of the meanest objects of His crea- tion. He regulates with unerring wisdom, and with benefi- cent providence, the expanding of every leaf, and the un- folding of every flower; not a sparrow falls without His supervision, for " His kingdom ruleth over ALL ! " What an encouragement is here for our implicit trust in His care, even as regards the comparatively trifling affairs of this life, " what we shall eat, what we shall drink, wherewithal we shall be clothed;" "seeing He clothes the grass of the field, and feeds the fowls of the air." And we are of far more value in His sight than these : if we do His holy will, and rely on Him by faith, we are raised above all anxiety, for Omnipotence and Omniscience itself is pledged to care for us : " Who is he that shall harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good ? " C. Look ! what is this among the grass ? it is a little Tortoise. F. They are not uncommon in some of the brooks: there is a brook running through what is called the Eobinson farm, on the banks of the Coatacook, near SpafFord's bridge, where this species ( Terrapene Clausa) is quite numerous. I have caught several at different times ; if I should not rather say " found," for a tortoise is not a very difficult thing to catch. I kept one in the house for some days, where he was rather amusing : when touched, he would draw in his head and legs, and curl his tail so tightly to his body that my fingers could not pull it away : if left alone, he would gradually put forth his ugly, hawk-like head, but did not like to crawl if watched, contenting himself with merely looking out. If put into a room, however, by himself, he would soon take courage, and rattle over the floor with a speed I could not have antici- pated from his uncouth appearance. He managed to get JUNE. 189 out of a box about a foot high, several times ; but how he did it I don't know ; for he does not seem at all adapted for scaling walls or crawling up a perpendicular. I bored a hole through the edge of his shell, and tied him with a string to the fence of the field, thinking he would there enjoy him- self; but one day, I found my poor tortoise dead, killed, as I supposed, by the heat of the sun. Another that I caught, I fastened in the same manner to a stake by the side of a spring, giving him scope enough to immerse himself in it. I often found him, with his head and fore parts exposed, and the rest of his body in the mud, quite still, and apparently enjoying his situation ; he lived in this way some time, and at last broke the string, and I saw him no more. I have never seen this species exceed the size of the one before us, about six inches in length of the upper shell. I once saw a tortoise taken in one of our streams, which was twelve or fourteen inches long ; but I believe it was of a different species : I had no opportunity of examining it. They lay their eggs in the sand on the banks of the rivers, leaving them to be hatched by the sun's warmth. Farwell informs me that he has often been engaged in digging up the eggs of tortoises from the depth of a foot and a half in sand, and that once for a frolic, he boiled and ate some : they were about the size of sparrows' eggs, from which he says, he could not distinguish them in taste and appearance: they were covered with a brittle shell. He has seen the young on these warm sand-beaches, from the size of a dollar up- wards. The eggs are to be found at about this season of the year. C. Here are some Agarics which look like Mushrooms ; are they so ? F. Yes ; these are true Mushrooms (Agaricus Cam- pestris}, and very large ones : they are extremely scarce here : I do not remember ever having seen the mushroom 190 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. here before, except in one instance, in which they were growing among the litter beneath the floor of a barn. The mushroom is distinguished by the colour of the gills being pink in young, and liver-coloured in old specimens, by the curtain beneath the head, by the solidity of the stem, and by the smell and taste. When fried or stewed, they are agreeable, but not very wholesome : they possess a remark- able resemblance to animal flesh, arising from the abund- ance of ammonia in their composition. 191 XIII. JUNE 10th. Beauty of Summer. American Pearl-border Fritillary. Yellow- spotted Skipper. Natural affinities of Insects. Tiger Swallowtail. Moths. Sembling. Star Cranefly. Other Insects. Tabani structure of their Mouth appetite for Blood Distension. Chi- goe. Termites. Ticks. Pearlfly. White-bodied Cimbex. Passenger Pigeon its immense Hosts Beauty of Plumage. Tur- tle-dove its Notes. Quivering of the Air. River. Evening Scenery contrasted with Morning. Sleep of cold-blooded Animals. Barred Owl. Firefly. Use of its Light unknown. Luminous Appearance of the Ocean. Bottom of the Sea. Singular Light once seen by the Author. FATHER. We may now say that summer is here in all its rich and gorgeous beauty : " the glorious summer time ;" a time which, to the naturalist, is like the opening of the gates of Eden. It is indeed delightful to walk forth and behold Nature in her majesty and loveliness ; the glorious sunshine, the verdant field, the glittering insects ; to feel the balmy and fragrant breeze j to hear the melody of the birds, as they glide among the leafy shades of the forest ; to see the trees with their weight of massy foliage, fragrant with blossoms ; to observe the profusion, the almost excess of life and gladness, which pervades the vast temple of nature. Look at yonder maple woods: how rich an effect is pro- duced by the contrast of light and shade ! masses of the most soft and refreshing green, prominent in the bright sun- shine, relieved by the dark sombre recesses which the eye THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. cannot penetrate, while the leaves quivering in the air, seem as if each one were possessed of an individual life, and were frolicking 4n mirth and gaiety. The bushes and shrubs are studded with myriads of happy insects, of all sorts, merrily hurrying to and fro, and enjoying their brief but joyous span of life in the gladdening beam. CHARLES. It is indeed a scene of loveliness : it is al- most worth a winter of frost and snow to witness such a scene. The apples in the orchard, and the wild cherry trees in the woods are now mere bunches of blossoms, so profuse as to quite hide the leaves. The fields of grass are brightly green, and enamelled with flowers, and the young grain is of a still richer and deeper greenness. The cattle in the pastures are beginning to acquire the sleekness consequent upon fresh and abundant herbage, and warm weather ; and every thing speaks of happiness. The birds do not appear in such numbers, nor with -so much familiarity as before, having probably domestic duties to attend to in the shelter of the groves ; but the insect tribes are more and more numerous. jF. What new acquisitions have you lately made in entomology ? C. The American Pearl-border Fritillary (Melitcea Myrina), a very pretty little butterfly, much resembling M. Euphrosyne, has made its appearance. It is one of those Fritillaries which are marked, especially on the under surface, with spots having the lustre and polished metallic appearance of silver. Why is the name Fritillary given to this division of butterflies ? F. Fritillarius signifies a chess or chequer-board, and the term is applied to this family, because a majority of the species composing it, have the upper surface of the wings, and sometimes the lower also, tesselated or chequered with black and tawny. This species, though small, is very JUNE. 193 elegant and beautiful ; it is quite common, and is fond of settling on flowers, especially Syngenesia, by roadsides, &c. where it may easily be caught. It continues with us till the latter part of September or October. C. Another little butterfly, but of humbler pretensions has likewise appeared. It is the Yellow-spotted Skipper (Hesperia Peckius). F. The family of butterflies known by the name of Skippers, have in the thickness and clumsiness of their bodies, as much resemblance to moths as to butterflies. I have sometimes amused myself by tracing the close affinities which exist between members of tribes, that appear at first sight widely different, and by observing the very minute gra- dations by which nature delights to step from one to another. Let us look at a few of these in the organs of flight ; besides the thickness of body just alluded to, what a close resem- blance of shape is there between the wings of the Hesperice and the Noctuce, so that when dead and expanded, it would not be easy for a young naturalist to tell whether the speci- men were a butterfly or a moth. On the other hand, an equally close similarity exists between the Geometrce and butterflies : the delicacy of form and breadth of wing is the same; the butterfly flies by day, the geometra does the same ; the butterfly erects its wings when at rest ; nothing is more common than to see a geometra with closed erected wings : here we have resemblance in points, which are con- sidered generic distinctions. How closely do the Hawk- moths approach the Phalcence, through the subdivision Zygcena ! But for a far closer affinity, and between orders apparently very remote from each other, look at Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera. So exactly do many of the hawk-moths of the division Mg&ria resemble hymenopterous flies, that even an entomologist may be deceived at the distance of not more than a yard. The transparent wings, often with K 194 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. opaline reflections of colour, the peculiar shape and relative proportion of the fore to the hind pair,, the form of the an- tennae, and even the colours of the body, and their arrange- ment in bands, are so exactly imitated, that every species of JEgeria seems to have its hymenopterous counterpart. I have observed in some, which possess the deep blue wings common to many of the Sphexes and Ichneumons, even the habits of those flies ; the restlessness, the short flights, the frequent turns and starts, and even the flirting of the wings, which no one can have failed to observe in the larger Ichneu- mons. Again, see how close in the small hind- wings, and the ramification of the nervures, of the genus Psocus of Latreille, is the order Neuroptera brought to Hymenoptera. And when the hind-wings of this latter order are united to the fore ones by their minute hooks, it is not easy to per- ceive the difference between them, and the single wings of many in the order Diptera. " Thus does Nature laugh at our systems ! " C. The Tiger Swallow-tails (Papilio Turnus) have become abundant : they have a very noble appearance in flight when compared with the meaner fry : they are seen a great way off, as they come dancing through the green lanes, and I do not now find them difficult of capture. Since this month began, I have obtained as many as twenty-five species of moths, which I had not seen before, of which seventeen are Geometrce. The Streaked Hooktip, (Platypteryx Erosa ?J Lemon Beauty, (Angerona Sospeta ?) Pea Green, (Chlorissa Putataria?) and Grandee (Geometra Clema- tariaj, are very elegant species, and the last-named is the largest Geometra I have seen here. The others of this division are not remarkable. A curious little Pyralis, the Rhinoceros Moth, (Herminia ?) occurs now in clover fields : the palpi, which are very long, are recurved over the head like a horn. Three are Bombyces, the first I have JUNE. 195 seen of this division,, and are all handsome : the Belle (Spi- losoma Virginica), a moth of soft, velvety, white wings, is become quite numerous ; the Ruby Tiger ( Phragmatobia Fuliginosa), an European species, I caught in a potato field just at night-fall. It laid several eggs in a box, which were hatched in about a week ; the young caterpillars, which are hairy, eat the leaves of the dandelion. The other moth, the finest I have yet taken, is the Rose-breasted (Dryocampa RubicundaJ, a female : the head is exceedingly small, and jaws (or sucker) altogether wanting. It is large and heavy, and very inert, not making the least attempt to fly, or even to crawl, when molested. I found it in the evening, on a large stone in the field. F. It is a rare species : the male is so much unlike the female, that you would scarce recognise it. It is much smaller and lighter of form, and not remarkable for inacti- vity ; and the wings, which are cream-coloured in the female, are in the male beautifully clouded with rose-colour. C. I put it and the female Belle Moth into sembling boxes to attract males, but though I kept them exposed in the field for several days and nights, no males came near that I was aware of : it may be that they were already impreg- nated, though in that case they would probably have depo- sited their eggs. It has been likewise unsuccessful with a female Tiger Swallow-tail which I reared from the pupa : hundreds are flying around, but not one comes near the captive. F. Sembling is not so likely to be successful with those species, whose females are active and lively, as with those which are dull and inert ; therefore I am not surprised at your failure with respect to the Belle and the Swallow-tail ; and perhaps the scarcity of the species may sufficiently ac- count for it with the Rose-breasted moth. C. Wasps of different species are now very busy : some K 2 196 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. of them are large, and handsomely ringed with black and bright yellow (Vespa Marginata). The elegant Star Crane- fly C Bittacomorpha Crassipes) I have observed slowly sailing through the air over a pool of water ; the black and white legs exten