OBITUARY. 
We have again to record the passing away of one of our 
~oldest and most valued members, in the person of THomasS 
McILwraltH, SEN., who died on the 31st of January last. 
The late Mr. Mcllwraith had a national reputation as a 
naturalist. From boyhood he possessed a strong love pf nature 
‘in all its forms, and the insects, plants and birds were familiar 
to him at an early age. His chief interest, however, was in bird 
‘life, and he roamed the woods with great energy in pursuit of 
knowledge. ‘There being no books to serve as guides to the 
‘identifying of the species in Ontario, he prepared a paper con- 
taining a list of the birds of which he had obtained a knowledge 
by careful observation. This paper was read before this Asso- 
ciation about 1859, and it appeared in the Canadian Journal the 
following year. In this same year he was first vice-president 
-of the Association, and from then till 1875 he acted as librarian 
and curator. On the re-organization of the Association in 1880 
he was elected President, and from that time on, until failing 
health prevented, he took a lively interest in the welfare and 
progress of our Society, and often contributed to the pleasure 
and instruction of our members out of his vast stock of natural 
history, information gathered in the pursuit of his favorite 
study of Ornithology. He was looked upon as the best au- 
thority on the “ Birds of Ontario,” a work on which of 300 
‘pages, containing a minute and correct account of 300 species 
of birds, their nests, eggs, etc., was published under the aus- 
pices of our Association. 
The ornithologists of the United States were early at- 
tracted by Mr. Mcllwraith’s knowledge of bird life, and in 1883 
he was invited to New York to take part in the formation of the 
American Ornithologists Union, he being one of the founders. 
He was appointed superintendent of the district of Ontario for 
