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elegance of diction, the sedentary philosopher, Buffon, 

 must yield the palm to the naturalist who studied 

 God's creatures on the mountains, prairies, sea shores,*' 

 plains, fields and forests of our continent. 



I now hold in my hand a most gorgeously-habited 

 little songster, who pays us a welcome visit in July. 

 His azure mantle has bestowed on him the name of 

 Indigo Bird. Buffon calls him " Le Ministre," probably 

 because he was, like the French Ministers of State, 

 robed in blue : our own Cabinet Ministers, as you 

 know, on the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1860, 

 chose blue for their grande tenue officielle. Never 

 shall I forget one bright July morning walking in my 

 garden, shortly after sunrise. In the centre there stood 

 an old apple tree, bearing pink and white buds and green 

 leaves ; close to it my children had grown a very large 

 sunflower : its corolla was then lovingly expanding to 

 the orb of day, whose rays streamed through the over- 

 hanging canopy of dew-spangled blossoms. In the fork 

 of the apple tree a pair of Eobins had built their clay- 

 cemented nest, in which, protected by soft hay, rested 

 four emeralds of pure sea-green, whilst the male Eobin 

 was caroling forth his morning hymn from the topmost 

 branch of a neighboring red oak. I was in the act of 

 peering in the nest, when my eye was arrested by the 

 resplendent colors of an azure bird nestling in the sun- 

 shine on the saffron leaves of the sunflower. The bright- 

 ness of the spectacle before me was such, its contrasts 

 so striking, that I paused in mute astonishment at so 

 much splendor. Was it a realm of dream-land spread 

 out before me ! a vision painted by a fairy ! It was, 

 my friends, the Indigo Bird of Canada, in his full 

 nuptial plumage, seen amidst the bright but every- 

 day spectacle of a Canadian landscape. 



What a charming musician, the Vireo or Eed-eyed 

 Fly Catcher, during his protracted stay from May to 

 September ? scarcely visible to the naked eyed, amidst 

 the green boughs of a lofty elm, he warbles forth his 



