MAY. 
149 
ment^ and renew his outrage as before." They are common 
here in spring, and the early part of summer ; they probably 
spend the whole summer with us, but retire into the woods 
and swamps ; the female is olive coloured, as usual, I once 
noticed a curious trait in the history of this bird. One 
day, about the latter part of June, I observed two males and 
a female of the purple finch, hopping about beneath the 
window, and was amused by watching the motions of one 
of the males. He stationed himself close to the female, and 
looking at her^ kept rapidly dancing from side to side, in the 
space of about a foot, with his wings widely extended and 
quivering, his crown feathers erected, singing all the time 
very sweetly ; but so faintly were the notes uttered, as to 
seem to proceed from twenty or thirty yards' distance^ though 
the bird was only three or four feet from me. The female 
took no part in the dance^ but looked on very complacently^ 
her crest being likewise somewhat erected. 
C. — Did the other male take no part in the ceremony ? 
F. — No ; he hopped about, apparently minding his ovfn 
business, and took no notice at all of the dancer. 
C. — Here are some bushes of the wild gooseberry, which 
have begun to leaf ; was this plant introduced from Europe ? 
F. — Oh no ! many species of gooseberry and currant are 
indigenous to this continent. A Black Currant ( Ribes Flori- 
dum ? ) \^ found here^ which produces fruit much like the 
English black currant^ but not so large ; both the fruit and 
leaves have the same rank taste, but in a less degree. In 
the woods I have found Red Currants (Ribes Albinervium ) 
scarcely to be distinguished from those of our gardens. Both 
these plants are rare ; but this gooseberry ( Ribes Cynosbati) 
is abundant about the edges of the forest, and in second- 
growth woods. It bears a middling-sized berry, deep red 
and sweet, but beset, as is the bush itself, with strong 
prickles, which make them somewhat formidable in picking 
