112 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 out of these wells, 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 f 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 ( Muscicapa NunciolaJ ; 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. 

 Ft — 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 



