LAND BIRDS. 529 



The bird is well known everywhere as a constant inhabitant of brush and 

 open woods, being especially abundant along the margins of woodlands 

 adjoining recently cleared areas. It is one of the commonest of roadside 

 birds and one can hardly drive a mile along a country road anywhere in 

 the Lower Peninsula without seeing several. It spends most of its time 

 on the ground, searching for food, where it scratches like a chicken and 

 makes as much noise as a Brown Thrasher or a squirrel. 



Its food consists mainly of seeds and insects, though it is fond of wild 

 fruits and eats almost everything, from strawberries and blackberries to 

 wild cherries and grapes. It has never been known to damage cultivated 

 fruits or cause loss of any kind to the farmer. Owing to the nature of its 

 haunts it perhaps is not actively beneficial, though it probably does its 

 share in keeping injurious insects in check. 



It nests almost invariably on the ground, building an open but usually 

 well hidden nest, at the foot of a bush or in a brush heap, the nest con- 

 sisting mainly of fine grasses and fibrous roots and containing four or five 

 eggs, which are white or pinkish, thickly peppered with reddish brown, 

 and average .94 by .71 inches. Possibly one nest in fifty is built in a bush 

 or tangle of vines a foot or two above the ground. Dr. Wolcott records 

 a nest at Grand Rapids placed eight feet from the ground in a broken 

 thorn tree, July 26, 1892, and another at Ann Arbor, June 16, 1894, 

 placed on top of a stump. Two broods are reared almost always, 

 one in June, the other in late July or August, eggs being found 

 late in ^May and again in July. The nest seems to be a favorite one 

 for the Cowbird, and perhaps no other species is more often chosen for 

 a foster parent. Two, three or even four Cowbird's eggs are frequently 

 found in a Chewink's nest, and occasionally five or six have been found, 

 although in such cases the nest is usually deserted. The eggs of the two 

 species resemble each other somewhat, although the Cowbird's egg is apt 

 to be smaller and to lack the pinkish tint which is usually characteristic 

 of the Chewink's. 



It owes the names Chewink, Towhee and Jo-ree to its common two- 

 syllabled call-note, which to our mind is best expressed by the word 

 chewink. Seton Thompson says its common song is hke "chuck-burr- 

 pill-a-will-a-will-a; it has also a note like 'twee' (not towhee)." While 

 singing the male usually selects the top of a tall bush or a low tree and 

 often repeats the song a score of times without changing his perch. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult male: Head, neck, chest, and entire upper parts clear black; lower breast and 

 belly pure white in sharp contrast; sides, flanks and under tail-coverts rusty red or chest- 

 nut; wings mainly black, tlie secondaries unmarked but primaries and tertiarics with 

 white spots and streaks; tail long, slightly rounded, clear black, the outer three or four 

 pairs of feathers with broad, pure white tips; bill black; iris red. Adult female: Precisely 

 like the adult male except that all the black is replaced by plain brown (umber brown); 

 bill dusky above, brown below; iris reddisli-brown. Young birds resemble adults in wings 

 and tail, but have the head, back and breast yellowish-brown, strc.ik(>i| with blnrkish. 



Length 7.50 to 8.75 inches; Aving 3.30 to 3.75; tail 3.55 to 4.10. 

 67 



