Iz[.6 McIlwraith on Wittier Birds of Western Ontario. [July 
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, the 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 was 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 was 
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, 1863, a few specimens were obtained 
near Woodstock, and again in May, 1871, 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 recently published 
by Messrs. Saunders and Morden of London, these dilligent col- 
lectors do not seem to have met with this species, which may 
be regarded as purely accidental here. 
