European King-fisher, frequents the rivers and brooks of Canada. The colour of its coat is blue; and its head, which is out of all proportion with its body, is frightfully ugly.

Immense flocks of birds, resembling the Black÷ birds of England, and so called here, assemble in the Spring, and continue in the country during the Summer. They are the most destructive creatures on the globe, and have a particular predilection for the corn-crops, which they frequently destroy with a vengeance scarcely conceivable. They appear to me to be a species of the stair or starling, being like them noisy and gregarious.

The BLUE-BIRD is somewhat larger than a sparrow. Its plumage is most exquisitely beautiful. A deep sky-blue is the colour of its back and wings; and its breast and head, which are of the same colour but lighter, are elegantly interspersed with shades of scarlet and green.

The LARK in appearance is very much like the sky-lark of your country: but it never attempts to sing. It is a stupid inactive bird, and unwilling to get upon the wing; seemingly as ignorant of the art of flying, as it is of the science of music.

The KING-BIRD of Canada, resembles the redwing, and is probably the same.

A bird like the BULL-FINCH in size and shape, but greatly superior in the richness of its plumage, appeared, it is said, in Canada, for the first time, during the late war. It still continues to pay an annual visit to the country, and is now familiarly

styled "the War-bird." It wants only a knowledge of singing to render it the most delightful of the feathered tribe.

YELLOW BIRDS, which are very much like Canaries, may be seen in flocks in any part of the country. They call exactly as Canaries, but do not sing; and yet I am inclined to think that they, are a variety of the same genus.

The HUMMING-BIRD, the least and most delightful. of the fowls of the air, is an annual visitant of the Canadas; there are various sizes of this diminutive bird, from that of a wren to an humble bee. The splendour and variety of their plumage is beyond. all description. The smallest is, I think, the most beautiful; its colours are more numerous and varied than the others. On its head is a tuft of feathers or more properly of down, as black as jet; its breast is scarlet; its belly, a pale blue; its back and wings the most brilliant green; and its tail, a golden green, edged off with some of the most splendid tints in nature. The whole of its plumage is interspersed with spots of gold. During Summer, the humming-bird may be seen in all the gardens in the country, sporting its inimitable figure in unnumbered gambols, flirting from place to place, and busily extracting the sweetness from the flowers.

There sits the bird that speaks; there, quivering, rise
Wings that reflect the glow of evening skies!

Half-bird, half-fly, the fairy King of flowers,

Reigns there, and revels thro' the fragrant hours,-
Gem full of life, and joy, and song divine!

When its fluttering wings are in motion, it makes a noise like that of a spinning-wheel, which is the reason why it is called "the humming-bird.” Notwithstanding the diminutive size and fragile appearance of this beautiful creature, it is one of the irritabile genus, and a most fatal enemy to birds of a superior size. It will not scruple, when provoked, to attack even a raven; it darts, with the speed of lightning, its slender bill, into the body of its sable antagonist, and makes him fall lifeless to the ground.

Crows, Sparrows and Wrens are rarely seen in the Western parts of Upper Canada: But in the Eastern Districts, and in the Lower Province, they are common, though by no means numerous.

Eagles, Ravens, Owls, Kites, Falcons, Bitterns and Hawks are common in both Upper and Lower Canada.

The BALD EAGLE,-Falco Leucocephalus,-is by far the largest bird which I have seen in this country. Some of them measure seven feet from the extremity of one wing to that of the other. Dr. Dwight says, a bird of this kind was killed in Brookfield, Vermont, which measured nearly nine feet.

LETTER XIV.

INSECTS OF VARIOUS KINDS -BUTTERFLY

GRASS-HOPPER AND

LOCUST THE HORSE-FLY, MUSQUITO, SAND-FLY AND BLACKFLY — THE SHAD-FLY, SNOW-FLY, AND FIRE-FLY-THE BLACK BEETLE THE BED BUG, HIVE BEE AND WASP, &c.

SNAKES of every description are much dreaded by the Irish on their first arrival in this country. But, before they have spent a single Summer in it, they meet with enemies of whose existence they had never heard, which are far more obnoxious and much more to be dreaded: I allude to the numerous and teasing insects with which Canada abounds. A man may reside in any part of America for half a century, without sustaining the slightest injury from a snake of any description, though he may daily behold hundreds of them. But it is impossible to remain a single summer in the country, without experiencing the most unpleasant effects from a variety of insects, many of which are sufficiently virulent and painful in their attacks, to embitter one's life during the only season of the year, which possesses attractions sufficient to allure one from the threshold. To give you a systematic entomological description of the insects of Canada,

is a task which I am little inclined, and less qualified, to undertake. You must therefore be content with a cursory notice of such as are the most remarkable. These are the Butterfly, the Grasshopper, and the Locust; the Horse-fly, the Musquito, the Sand-fly and the Black-fly; the Shadfly, the Snow-fly, and the Fire-fly; the Black 'Beetle, the Horse-fly, and the Bed-bug; the Hivebee, the Field-bee, the Hornet and the Wasp; the Tick, the Ant, the Spider, &c.

Some of the Canadian BUTTERFLIES are very large, and all of them exquisitely beautiful. When Nature was employed to give them existence, one would think, she determined to exhibit on their wings all the brilliant colours and finelycontrasted shades, which her incomparable skill alone could produce. If the grades of distinction among butterflies, are regulated according to their different degrees of beauty, Sir Joseph Banks, had he lived in America, would have enjoyed many a fine chace, and have had numerous occasions of exclaiming, "An Emperor! an Emperor! by all that's lucky!" without any danger of that grumbling reprobation, from botanical enthusiasts, to which he was liable in his own country, for his want of respect to their variegated beds of tulips or gay parterres of pinks and auriculas, when he dashed through every intervening obstacle in pursuit of the vagrant, yet fascinating insects. Many of the Canadian butterflies, appear, when flying, as large as a bat; but the largest species are, I think, the most beautiful.