214 THE CANADIAN NATUIIALIST. 
a great distance^ and has some resemblance to the bellow of 
a bull. It is supposed that the sound is caused by the air 
rushing into their capacious open mouths^, as into the top of 
a barrel. They feed on moths and other night-flying insects^, 
and are rarely seen by day. 
C. — Is the Whip-poor Will ( Caprimulgus Vociferus ) 
an inhabitant of this part of Canada ? 
F. — I have been told that it has been sometimes heard, 
but I have never heard nor seen it myself^ and at all event s^ 
it must be considered a very rare visitor. 
C. — Our neighbour here is clearing some forest land. 
F, — Observe the remarkable appearance of it : if we look 
at the forest at the edge of an old clearings yonder field for 
instance^ we see it green and leafy to the very ground ; but 
if we look at it where a portion has been recently cut away, 
a very different aspect is presented. We see nothing but tall, 
slender, upright stems of different sizes, with scarcely a leaf, 
except at the top, where there is a small and scanty surface 
of foliage, quite out of proportion to the height of the trees : 
the eye can penetrate a long way into the gloomy depth, as 
there is no foliage to intercept the vision ; nothing but this 
host of straight grey sticks. There is certainly a little under- 
brush, on the ground, but it is meagre, and extends only to 
the height of a very few feet, consisting of a few scattered 
shrubs. 
C — What is the cause of this remarkable manner of 
growth ? 
jP. — The want of light ; without which there is no folia- 
tion : those trees which grow on the edge of the forest shoot 
out side-branches into the light, and bushes and shrubs 
spring up, which are profusely covered with leaves. But 
those that spring up within, continue to shoot upward and 
upward, until they reach the top of the forest (the only situa- 
tion in which they can reach the light), before they shoot 
