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 ; 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 f 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 (Fyrus 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 comer 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- 



