58 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



Further south toward Vera Cruz there is a 

 variety that is darker and has been named the 

 Cordova Sparrow. 



The Texas and Cordova Sparrows are simple 

 songsters. They frequent thickets and brusli 

 fences, and place their nests in thick buslies not 

 far from the ground. Their molts do not make 

 any conspicuous changes in their appearance. As 



tlie males, females, and immature all have very 

 much the same appearance, and they live through- 

 out the year in nearly the same places, there is 

 a certain uniformity and dullness in their lives 

 that make this bird dififerent from most. Ameri- 

 can birds, among whom there is something 

 remarkable and interesting happening every 

 year; 



TOWHEE 

 Pipilo erythrophthalmus erythrophthalmus {LiniKrus) 



A. n. U. Number 5S7 ."^ce Color Plate 84 



Other Names. — Chewink ; Towhee-bird ; Swamp 

 Robin; Bullfinch (in Virginia); Red-eyed Towhee ; 

 Ground Robin; Towhee Bunting; Jo-ree ; Marsh 

 Robin ; Bush-bird ; Turkey Sparrow. 



General Description. — Length, 8 inches. Fore and 

 upper parts, black; under parts, white and brownish. 

 Wings, rather short and much rounded ; tail, longer 

 than wing, rounded, the feathers broad with compact 

 webs and rounded tips ; feet, stout. 



Color. — Adult Male ; Head, neck, chest, and upper 

 parts, black; sides and flanks, uniform cinnamon- 

 rufous ; anal region and under tail-coverts, cinnamon- 

 bufTy ; breast and abdomen, white; eighth to fourth or 

 third primaries with basal portion of outer webs, white, 

 forming a patch ; outer webs of wing feathers, broadly 

 edged with white for part of their length; bill, wholly 

 black in summer; iris, red. Adult Female: Similar 

 to the adult male, but with the black portions replaced 

 by brown (dull prouts brown above, lighter, more 

 cinnamon-brown or raw umber on throat and chest). 

 Young Male: Above, dull fulvous-brown, darker and 

 uniform on head, elsewhere indistinctly streaked with 

 dusky; wings, dull black, the coverts edged with bufTy 



brown ; wing feathers with a broad lateral stripe of 

 buffy whitish; primaries, marked with white, as in the 

 adult; tail, as in adult male; chin and throat, plain pale 

 buff, with an interrupted blackish stripe on each side; 

 chest, deeper buff, thickly marked with cuneate and 

 arr.iw-Iike vtreaks of dusky; breast and abdomen, dull 

 white. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : On the ground, under a 

 clump of grass, weeds, or bushes, in deep woods or 

 open, first growth clearings, sunk to level of surface 

 and always exceptionally well concealed ; construction 

 rather variable, sometimes carelessly made, at others 

 quite firm and compact ; made of leaves, twigs, grass, 

 and vegetable fibers, well lined with grass and rootlets. 

 Eggs : 4, white or pale pinkish white, thickly sprinkled 

 with light chestnut. 



Distribution. — Eastern United States and more 

 southern British provinces west to edge of the Great 

 Plains, in Manitoba, North Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, 

 etc.; breeding from near the Gulf coast, north to 

 Maine, Ontario, Manitoba, etc. ; south in winter to 

 southern Florida, Gulf coast in general, and eastern and 

 central Texas ; casual in New Brunswick. 



Drawing by R. I. Brasher 



TOWHEE I ; nat. size! 

 A skillful ventriloquist "who scratches like a hen " 



