TOW HE BUNTING. 65 



feathers white for an inch or so from the tips, the outer one wholly 

 white, the middle ones black ; the bill is black ; the legs and feet a dirty 

 flesh color, and strong for scratching up the ground. The female differs 

 in being of a light reddish brown in those parts where the male is black ; 

 and in having the bill more of a light horn color. 



EMBERIZA ER YTHR OPHTHA LMA. 



TOWHE BUNTING. 



[Plate LIII. Fig. 5, Female.] 

 TuRT. Syst. p. 534. 



This bird differs considerably from the male in color ; and has, if I 

 mistake not, been described as a distinct species by European naturalists, 

 under the appellation of the '■'■ Rusty Bunting.''' The males of this 

 species, arrive several days sooner than the females. In one afternoon's 

 walk through the woods, on the twenty-third of April, I counted more 

 than fifty of the former, and did not observe any of the latter, though I 

 made a very close search for them. This species frequents, in great 

 numbers, the barrens covered with shrub oaks ; and inhabits even to the 

 tops of our mountains. They are almost perpetually scratching among 

 the fallen leaves, and feed chiefly on worms, beetles and gravel. They 

 fly low, -flirting out their broad white-streaked tail, and uttering their 

 common note Towlie. They build always on the ground, and raise two 

 broods in the season. For a particular account of the manners of this 

 species, see our history of the male. 



The female Towhe is eight inches long, and ten inches in extent ; iris 

 of the eye a deep blood color ; bill black ; plumage above, and on the 

 breast, a dark reddish drab, reddest on the head and breast ; sides under 

 the wings light chestnut ; belly white ; vent yellow ochre ; exterior 

 vanes of the tertials white ; a small spot of white marks the primaries 

 immediately below their coverts, and another slighter streak crosses 

 them in a slanting direction ; the three exterior tail feathers are tipped 

 with white ; the legs and feet flesh-colored. 



This species seems to have a peculiar dislike to the sea coast, as in 

 the most favorable situations, in other respects, within several miles of 

 the sea, it is scarcely ever to be met with. Scarcity of its particular 

 kinds of a favorite food in such places may probably be the reason ; as 

 it is well known that many kinds of insects, on the larvae of which it 

 usually feeds, carefully avoid the neighborhood of the sea. 



Vol. II.— 5 



