160 Canadian Record of Science. 
or in the fissures of rocks on the coast of Greenland, &c.” 
The Snowbird is part and parcel of Canada. It typifies the 
country just as much as the traditional Beaver. 
Thousands of these hardy migrants, borne aloft on the 
breath of the March storms, come each spring, whirling 
round the heights of Charlesbourg, or launch their serried 
squadrons over the breezy uplands of the lovely isle facing 
Quebec—the Isle of Orleans; one islander alone last spring, 
to my knowledge, having snared more than one hundred 
dozen for the Quebec, Montreal and United States markets. 
The merry, robust ‘ Oiseau Blanc ” is indeed the national 
bird of French Canada, it successfully inspired the lays of 
more than one of its native poets. In his early and poetical 
youth the respected historian of Canada, F. X. Garneau, 
found in the Snowbird a congenial subject for an ode—one 
of his best pieces—and the Laureate Frechette is indebted 
to his pindaric effusion “ L’Oiseau Blanc” for a large 
portion of the laurel crown awarded him by the Forty 
Immortals of the French Academy. 
With the ornithologist Minot, I am quite prepared to 
recognize the Snowflake as “the most picturesque of our 
winter birds, which often enliven an otherwise dreary 
scene, especially when flying, for they then seem almost 
like an animated storm.” 
There exists a great variety of color in the plumage of 
these birds; some, the males perhaps, are more white than 
the rest, some nearly all white; in others, black and a warm 
brown is noticeable mixed with the white. 
“The black dorsal area is mixed with brown and white, 
the feet are black, but the bill is mostly or entirely yellow- 
ish.” Though they seldom perch on trees and are not fond 
of thickets, but prefer the open country, I have seen flocks 
light more than once on large trees, elms and others, in the 
midst of pasture lands at St. Thomas, County of Mont- 
magny. 
The eggs, five in number, vary in their coloration, mark- 
ings and size. The Snow Bunting all disappear from the 
neighborhood of Quebec with the middle or end of April, 
