WILD FOWL. 



SI 



feathered tribe leave us during a long and severe 

 winter. In this season, we hear only, and that 

 but very seldom the croaking of the raven, the 

 chattering of the magpie, or the tapping of 

 the woodpecker. But as summer bursts upon us, 

 the call of the whip-poor-will is heard in the 

 dusk of the evening, and the solitude of the 

 woods is enlivened with a rich variety of birds, 

 some of which dazzle the eye with the beauty 

 of their colours. They have no notes however 

 in their gay plumage, or melody of sound, which 

 catch, and delight the ear. The wild fowl are 

 mere birds of passage at the Red River, and 

 but few were shot, as they passed over the 

 colony, for our relief, in the want of provisions. 

 Our numbers increased almost daily, from the 

 return of the settlers from the plains, and it 

 was the general opinion that it would be far 

 better to kill all the horses and dogs in the Set- 

 tlement for food, than distribute the whole 

 of the grain, so as to be without seed corn. 



April 5. — One of the chief officers of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company arrived, and gave us 

 the welcome promise, (before we were actually 

 driven to the above extremity,) that the Colony 

 should receive some wheat to sow from the 

 Company's Post at Bas la Rivfere, on Lake 

 Winepeg, where there is a good farm, and the 



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