HKMINISCENCES OF ANDREW DOWNS. xix 



in the least; the sound is very gutteral and the throat swells to a large 

 hemispherical bag and at the same time the tail is raised. The older 

 birds of his species sit far back in the shade under the sloping roof, 

 apparently absorbed in moody reflection; for we cannot look at their great 

 eyes, over which the covering membrane, which acts a an eyelid, slowly 

 falls and is withdrawn, and the apparent abstraction evinced by their 

 form and attitude, without fancying them to be cogitating deeply. 



" Upon a beam aloft he sics, 

 And nods, and seems to think, by fits." 



A much brighter-looking bird, however, appears in the form of the 

 snowy owl, confined close by, a stray wanderer from Arctic climes to our 

 woodlands on an extended hunt for rabbits. His quick eyes, which lie 

 uses to seek his prey by daylight, unlike most of his family, follow our 

 every movement. Dr. Gilpin states that this bird may be seen sitting 

 in the full glare of the sun, Avatching the rabbit burrows on the sands of 

 Sable Island, of which he has of late years become a visitor. 



Finally our agreeable guide and entertainer conducts us to the top 

 of the hill, where, standing on a huge, erratic boulder of granite which 

 has been left by glacial action in its present site on a bare plateau of slate 

 rock, we may enjoy the beautiful and comprehensive view which opens to 

 us as we turn. Beneath us and at our right are the gardens, with their 

 walks and shrubberies, and the .white tops of the bird houses. Beyond, 

 the North West Arm stretches away to the outer harbour; Thrumcap, 

 projecting from the eastern shore, just coming into the picture; and the 

 wooded top of McNab's Island appearing above the south end of the 

 peninsula. The snugly ensconced little sheet of water called Chocolate Lake 

 is partly seen. On the high lands of the peninsula which ridges in front 

 of us, the citadel and its signal station, the common, the fields and farms 

 dotted with white houses, and the wooded spur of Bockaead successively 

 meet our view as we sweep the horizon. Then the blue expanse of Bed- 

 ford Basin and its distant hills, with the little, white tower of the three- 

 mile church nestling in a fir grove by its shores in the foot of the valley; 

 the picture being bounded on our extreme left by the slopes of Geizer's hill, 

 thickly wooded and skirted at its foot by the road which winds round the 

 valley through the pretty settlement known as the Dutch Village. 



And now we retrace our steps, and take leave, of our worthy guide 

 with many a good wish for his long enjoyment of the beauties of nature 

 in the pleasant retreat which he has chosen. His conceptions of her teach- 

 ings, and the mode in which he imparts them to the visitor, are aliKe 

 original and sound ; and few can leave the zoological gardens at the North 

 West Arm without realizing that they have spent a happy afternoon with 

 Downs. 



