1883.] McIlwraith on Whiter Birds of Western Ontario. 1 45 
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 there ; not a single 
specimen did we either hear or see. In a sheltered hollow, where 
tamaracks, pines, and cedars were growing thickly together, 
a noisy little group were enjoying 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 
night before in a fit of starvation. 
