354 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



members, as well as for the richness and variety of their dress. 

 There is, perhaps, no group of small birds which so much interests 

 the collector, or furnishes so many attractive specimens to his 

 cabinet, as that we are now about to consider. 



Some of the members of this family are so rare that the capture 

 of one is the event of a lifetime. To get any of them in perfect 

 plumage they must be collected during the spring migration, and 

 that season is so short and uncertain that if a chance is missed in 

 May, another may not occur for a year. 



Game birds are followed by sportsmen with much enthusiasm 

 and varying success, though Ruffed Grouse, Woodcock and Quail are 

 now so scarce in the more settled parts of the country that it is 

 hardly worth while searching for them. 



Our inland lakes and rivers are, at certain seasons, visited by 

 crowds of water-fowl, and the hunter, hidden behind his screen of 

 rushes in the marsh, delights to hear the hoarse honking of an old 

 gander as he leads on his A-shaped flock of geese, or to see the flocks 

 of ducks wheeling around and pitching down into the open water 

 beside his decoys. At Long Point and other shooting places where 

 the ducks have been protected, the number killed in a day is often 

 very large. Dull, windy weather with light showers of rain is 

 preferred. If the hunter is fortunate in choosing a good point at 

 which to screen his boat among the rushes, he may remain there 

 all day, and if the ducks are moving about he needs only to load as 

 quickly as he is able and kill as many as he can, the proof of his 

 success being the number he brings home at night. 



Not so with the field ornithologist, whose pursuits I have always 

 felt to be more refined and elevating than those of the ordinary 

 sportsman. As soon as the winter of our northern clime relaxes its 

 grasp, and the season of flowers and brighter skies returns, he enters 

 the weods as if by appointment, and hears among the expanding 

 buds the familiar voice of many a feathered friend just returned from 

 winter-quarters. The meeting is pleasant and the birds pass on. 

 The walk is enjoyable, the bush is fragrant and freckled with early 

 spring flowers. The loud warning note of the Great Crested Fly- 

 catcher is heard in the tree-tops ; Tanagers, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, 

 etc., are there in brilliant plumage and full of life, but a note is heard 

 or a glimpse is seen of something rare, and that is the time for the 

 collector to exercise his skill. He must not fire when the bird is too 

 close or he will destroy it. He must not let it get out of reach or he 

 may lose it. He must not be flurried or he may miss it, and if he 



