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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 Snow-bird a con- 

 genial subject for an ode, one of his best pieces, and 

 the Laureate Frechette is indebted to his pindaric effu- 

 sion " L'Oiseau Blanc" for a large portion of the laurel- 

 crown awarded him by the " Forty Immortals" of the 

 French Academy. 



Had I, like Garneau aud Frechette, been gifted with 

 a spark of the poetic fire, I, too, might have been 

 tempted to immortalize in song this dear friend of my 

 youth. Eight well can I recall those, alas ! distant, 

 those enchanted, early days, whose winters were colder ! 

 sunshine brighter ! snow-drifts higher ! than those of 

 these degenerate times ! Right well do I remember 

 Montmagny (St. Thomas as it was then called) and its 

 vast meadows, peariug out under the rays of a March 

 sun, swarming with Snow-birds, Shorelarks, and occa- 

 sionally some Lapland Longspurs, feeding there in the 

 early morning or with the descending shadows of eve. 

 Those far-stretching fields facing the Manor House to 

 the north, how oft at sunset have I not stalked over 

 them, bearing home to my aviary the numerous captives 

 found fluttering in my horse-hair snares, listening as I 

 sauntered along to the low, continuous warble of my 

 feathered friends, taking their evening meal ! 



With what zest boyhood can recall those animated, 

 fleecy clouds of birds darting across whitened fields or 

 hovering in a graceful cluster over distant tree-tops, and 

 defying with their glossy wintry plumage the icy blast 

 of the north. Methinks, I can yet recall on a bright 

 April morning, a myriad of these hardy little fellows 

 dropping from the summit of a large Elm, a shade tree 

 in the pasturage ; and lighting, like a fall of snow, on the 

 meadow, to pick up grass seed, or grain forgotten from 

 the previous summer ! With the ornithologist Minot, I 

 am quite prepared to recognize the Snow flake as " the 

 most picturesque of our winter birds, which often 



