112 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 
God ; and the bursting forth of life and vegetation^ as the 
glorious spring gladdens all creation^ is an abundant source 
of enjoyment to every benevolent mind. But the minds of 
that class of men to whom I allude, are often incapable of 
drawing water out of these wells, or at least a taste for such 
enjoyments has never been awakened. And even if it had, 
the tangible evils I have mentioned would be sufficient to 
counterbalance the pleasures of the imagination. 
C. — Let us return to our more accustomed and, I may 
say, more interesting subjects of conversation. I observed, 
yesterday, the first flower of spring ; it is a low yellow syn- 
genesious flower, much resembling in appearance a dandelion, 
but with a thicker and a solid stem, covered with scaly 
bracts ; it had no leaves. 
F, — I too have observed it in preceding years : it is the 
common Coltsfoot f Tussilago Farfara) so useful in catarrhal 
affections, but it is not abundant with us. The leaves 
spring from the root, and do not appear until sometime after 
the flower. A pretty little bird was shown to me a few days 
ago, which had no doubt just arrived from the south. It was 
the Pewit Flycatcher f Miiscicapa Nunciola J ; it had been 
caught within a house. The plumage, like that of many of 
the flycatchers, is olive on the upper parts, with a dark 
head ; the under parts are yellowish white. It has a simple, 
rather monotonous note, pewee its habits are like those 
of the rest of the tribe ; it is fond of taking its station on a 
particular twig, whence it makes its frequent sallies after 
flies, and to which it as constantly returns ; keeps its tail in 
a continual motion, and often erects the dark feathers of the 
head, like the kingbird, and others of this genus. 
C. — The buds of the elder are opening. 
F. — The early Elder {Samhucus Puhescens) always 
opens its flower-buds the first of our shrubs and trees, ex- 
cept some of the catkin-bearing trees. We have two species 
