50 
RURAL HOURS. 
soon attract attention wherever tliey appear. They are arrant 
corn thieves, all of them. It is odd, that although differing in 
many respects, these birds of black plumage, with the crow at 
their head, have an especial partiality for the maize. 
Saturday, 29th. — The tamaracks are putting forth their bluish 
green leaves, the lightest in tint of all their tribe ; the young 
cones are also coming out, reminding one somewhat of small straw- 
berries by their color and form, but they soon become decidedly 
purple, then green, and at last brown. The tamarack is very 
common about the marshy grounds of this county, attaining its 
full height in our neighborhood. There are many planted in the 
village, and in summer they are a very pleasant tree, though in- 
ferior to the European larch. Some individuals become diseased 
and crooked — a great fault in a tree, whose outhne is marked by 
nature with so much regularity — though the same capricious bro- 
ken line often becomes a beauty in Avood of a naturally free and 
careless growth. This defect is much more common among trans- 
planted tamaracks, than with those you find growing wild in the 
low grounds. 
May 1st. — Cloudy sky; showery; not so bright as becomes 
May-day. Nevertheless, we managed to seize the right moment 
for a walk, with only a little sprinkling at the close. It would 
not do to go into the woods, so we were obliged to be satisfied Avith 
following the highway. By the rails of a meadow fence, we 
found a fine border of the white puccoon ; these flowers, Avith 
their large, pure white petals, look beautifully on the plant, but 
they soon fall to pieces after being gathered, and the juice in their 
stalks stains one's hands badly. We gatliered a few, however, 
by way of doing our Maying, adding to them some violets' scat- 
