146 McIlwraith on Winter Birds of Western Ontario. [J"Iy 



On the 17th of March I made a similar excursion north of the 

 city into the townships of East and West Flamboro', having for 

 company, as before, tlie same male member of my family, aged 

 fifteen. These townships are much broken up by cedar swamps 

 and rough, uncleared land. Even at this advanced date the 

 roads leading north and south were blocked with snow as high 

 as the fences, and the farmers had taken down the rails and were 

 traveling for miles through the fields parallel with the road to 

 avoid the drifts. On a bare spot* under a low-growing pine 

 which stood in a cleared field, some dark colored little birds 

 were observed hopping about among the fallen cones. A closer 

 inspection showed them to be White-winged Crossbills ; and so 

 little did they seem to understand the effects of the gun that we 

 got them all, seven in number, without leaving the tree. The 

 males had partially assumed the red plumage, and the females 

 were, as usual, green with white bars. 



A few Pine Linnets were next obtained, and shortly afterwards, 

 while passing through a swamp of mixed timber my companion 

 had wing-tipped a Nuthatch, and v\^as floundering through the 

 deep snow in pursuit, when I saw him suddenly turn and fire in 

 an opposite direction. In reply to the usual question, "What 

 have you got.?" the answer came back, "An Evening Grosbeak." 

 Leaving the horse in the tracks I found that such was really the 

 case, but, under fear of missing so rare a chance, he had fired 

 too close and almost destroyed it. The call of another w^as 

 still heard among the tree-tops, and in a few minutes I saw an 

 Evening Grosbeak alive for the first time. I can't say my hand 

 was quite steady, but I brought him down, with outstretched, 

 quivering wings, with a single pellet through his head, — a bad 

 place for a bird to be hit that is wanted for preservation, but in 

 this case a little extra care was all that was needed to make a 

 good mounted specimen. Both were young birds in the plumage 

 of the female, and seemed as if hardly recovered from the first 

 moult. 



In the month of May, 1S63, a few specimens were obtained 

 near Woodstock, and again in May, 1S71, I got three which were 

 shot near London, but these are all I have ever heard of being 

 found in Canada ; and from the list of birds recentlv published 

 by Messrs. Saunders and Morden of London, these (Hlligent col- 

 lectors do not seem to have met with this species, which may 

 be regarded as pui^ely accidental here. 



