i883.] '^cli^'^^A^n-a on Wt?zter Birds of Wester?i Ontario. lAC 



Getting- outside the city we at once lost sight of Passer domesti- 

 cus^ who has not yet betaken himself to the farm-houses, but 

 almost immediately met with another recent addition to our birds 

 which promises ere long to be as abundant in the country as the 

 Sparrow is in the city. This is the Eremofhila alfestris, 

 Shore Lark. When I first made the acquaintance of this species 

 twenty year? ago, the few individuals observed came and went 

 with the Snowbirds, and kept always with them while here. 

 They were stout, well-developed birds, with the black and yel- 

 low markings clear and decided. Some ten or twelve years 

 since a new race made its appearance, smaller in size, the 

 the colours paler, and having altogether a bleached, washed-out 

 look about them when compared with the others. These have 

 remained permanently, and, increasing from year to year, have 

 now become our most common winter resident in the country. 

 They breed very early by the road sides and in the low commons 

 everywhere, and at this season of the year are seen either run- 

 ning in the road-tracks or sitting in rows of fifteen or twenty 

 along the fences waiting till you pass that they may return to 

 their regular feeding ground. 



A ride of several miles through an open country developed 

 nothing of ornithological interest. Sable, silent crows, flying in 

 straight lines to some known point, were common ; but the road 

 now^ leads through several miles of bush containing a large pro- 

 portion of evergreens, and here, if anywhere in the country, the 

 Grosbeaks will be found. But they were not thei'e ; not a single 

 specimen did we either heav or see. In a sheltered hollow, where 

 tamaracks, pines, and cedars were growing thickly together, 

 a noisy little group were enjo3'ing themselves in a state of great 

 hilarity notwithstanding the severe cold to which their fragile 

 bodies were exposed. The Chickadee was apparently the leader 

 of the company, but the Nuthatches were both there, and also 

 the Tree-creeper, and one or two Golden-crested Kinglets, while 

 a little Downy Woodpecker was drumming away on his own ac- 

 count, keeping his company in view, all the time. 



This ride took in a circuit of twenty-five miles, and we came 

 back without a specimen save a poor emaciated Saw-whet Owl 

 which we found lying peacefully on his back on the snow at the 

 foot of a fence post, from which he probably dropped dead the 

 nig-ht before in a fit of starvation. 



