338 NOTES ON THE 



for a morning ramble and make them hurry back in alarm to 

 the shelter of heavier undergrowth. " 



They do not breed in the United States as is yet known 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Middle of back dull ash, each feather with a large blotch of 

 brownish-red; top of head and neck and rump, similar, but 

 with samller and more obsolete blotches. Upper tail coverts 

 and exposed surface of wings and tail bright rufous. Beneath 

 white, with the upper part of the breast and sides of throat 

 and body with triangular spots of rufous and a few smaller ones 

 of blackish on the middle of the breast. Inner edges of quills 

 and tail feathers tinged with rufous-pink. No light lines on the 

 head, but a patch of rufous on the cheeks. First quill rather 

 less than the fifth. 



Length, 7.50; wing, 3.50. 



Habitat, eastern North America, west to the Plains. 



PIPILO ERYTHROPHTHALMIS (L.). (587) 

 TOWHEE. 



This is a very common summer resident throughout the 

 entire State, arriving the last week in April, at the latitude 

 from which I write. It reaches the borders adjoioing Iowa 

 from the 10th to the 15th of April, and Grant county in the 

 first week of May. Few but those who are looking for these 

 birds will be likely to recognize their earliest appearance 

 owing to their shy, skulking habits. A ready pen in the hand 

 of a keen observer says: "Thickets, brushy pastures and 

 barren tracts on the higher grounds are the favorite resorts of 

 this species. The bottom poles of an old rail fence among the 

 briers by the woods, is very likely to be its thoroughfare; and 

 at all times it keeps, for the most part, on or near the ground. 

 Sit down quietly in the thicket and you will hear its sharp 

 rustle as it scratches among the dry leaves; this hen-like 

 scratching, probably in search of food, being one of its marked 

 characteristics of habit. As it flits from bush to bush, never 

 flying far nor high, you can hear the lohir-z-z-r of its rounded, 

 concave wings, and as it opens its long, fan-like tail, with a 

 jerking motion, the white markings contrast strongly with the 

 jet black figure. It hops, and sidles, and dodges about, in and 

 out through the brush-pile, the brambles and the thicket, with 

 a nervous, sparrow-like movement, its tail being often thrown 

 up, after the manner of the Chat, or Wren.*'* 



•Our Birds and Their Haunts, page 577. (J. Uibbert Langillc. M. A.) 



