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- 



