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enlivens 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 

 white. 



" The black dorsal area is mixed with brown and 

 white, the feet are black, but the bill is mostly or 

 entirely yellowish ". 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 Montmagny. 



The eggs, five in number, vary in their coloration, 

 markings and size. The Snow-Bunting all disappear 

 from the neighborhood of Quebec, with the middle or 

 end of April and retire probably to the Arctic regions 

 to build, though we are told that Audubon found a 

 Snow-bird's nest in the White Mountains and Maynard 

 certifies to the presence of a flock of these birds at 

 Mont Katahdin, in Maine, early in August, 1869. 



The Snow-Bunting, common to the continents of 

 America and Europe, occurs in vast flocks in Scotland, 

 England, Eussia and even in Siberia. 



Round Quebec, it comes as a regular fall and spring 

 migrant : like the passenger pigeon, its numbers have 

 sadly decreased of late years. 



That broad-mouthed, long-winged, short-legged, dark 

 bird, with white badges on its wings, is the Night 

 Hawk, or Goat Sucker, Caprimulgus. You, no doubt, 

 are aware why he is so persistently called Goat-Sucker 

 by naturalists ; it is because he never in his life sucked 

 a goat, never dreamed of it. It is one of those 

 outrageous fabrications invented by ignorance, to filch 

 a poor bird of his good name, and which took root only 

 because it was oft repeated. In the days of Olaus 



