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CHAPTER X. 



HE first of April opened the month well, 

 but the succeeding day was even finer and 

 warmer, and in consequence the snow had 

 already quite vanished in the fields, and 

 was rapidly diminishing in the more open 

 parts of the woods. Indeed, in sunny 

 little glades, where the snow had all 

 melted, I several times startled hybernated 

 individuals of the Camberwell beauty butterfly (Vanessa 

 antiopa), an insect which is very commonly distributed in 

 Nova Scotia. They almost invariably settled upon the 

 ground, with wings outspread to catch the full warmth 

 of the sun's rays, starting up suddenly upon one's 

 approach and flying off with extreme swiftness. 



I disturbed several chickadees from an old decayed 

 stump of a tree, about ten or twelve feet in height, 

 in which I found they had commenced several holes, 

 probably with the intention of forming nesting cavities. 

 Some numbers of crows are always to be found in the 

 morning in the woods upon the North- West Arm, 

 along the shore of which the ground beneath most of 

 the trees is strewn with clam-shells, proving the extent 

 to which this favourite bivalve enters into the "bill of 

 fare " of these omnivorous birds. 



In several parts of the forest I found a few fox sparrows 

 a large and handsome sparrow, the largest in North 

 America, and noticeable from its ruddy tail-coverts and 

 tail, and the bold blotches or markings upon its breast 



