The Towhee 



By CHAS. E. HEIL. Needham. Mass. 



THE Towhee, or Chcwink arrives in my neighborhood during the last 

 week in April, or the tirst week in May, and is a common summer resi- 

 dent. The males arrive before the females — sometimes two or three days, 

 and sometimes a week or more. Along an old roadway near m\' honie, I can gen- 

 erally find one on May Day; here as I walk along I see him scratching among 

 the leaves that lie under the bordering bushes, or, with outs|)read tail, flying 

 across the road in front of me; now and then he will pause to call rhe-iciuk, and 

 glance at me with bright eyes. Things of beauty, indeed, are these red, s{)arkling 

 eyes, in their setting of glossy black, and many times I have admired them. 

 To me, this alert, parti-colored bird is one of the handsomest members of the 

 Finch family; no other is more striking, and I experience great pleasure when 

 I see the first one of the springtime. The birds are not shy on their arrival, and 

 one can approach quite near to them as they scratch among the Ijrown, last 

 year's leaves. I find that a few people still have the imi)ressi()n that Chewinks, 

 and other members of this family, scratch like l)arnyard fowls. A little observation 

 will show that our domestic birds scratch with one foot at a time, whereas the 

 Chewinks, and their kind, use both simultaneously. 



I have found the nest, with its set of four eggs, as early as May 14, so it appears 

 that a few of these birds begin to construct their homes almost immediately 

 after their arrival at the North. The nesting-sites are found in the same over- 

 grown pastures and woody places that attract the Thrashers, and it is not un- 

 common to find the nests of these two species within a few feet of each other. 

 The Chewink invariably builds on the ground; generally the nest is placed at 

 the foot of a bush or sapling, or under a tuft of grass, and is made of bark, dead 

 leaves, dry grass, and weed-stems, with a lining of fine dry grass. In a i)a<ture 

 in Sharon, Massachusetts, I found one lined with horse-hair and dry grass. 

 The nest when seen on the ground appears strongly made, but, when taken up, 

 is found to be rather flimsy, and loose in construction. 



The eggs — generall\' four — are whitish, spotted with sienna and madder 

 brown, and an occasional bit of lilac. I found two so sparsely and faintly marked 

 that as a distance of a few feet they looked like pure white eggs. The nest and 

 its contents are fine e.\ami)les of ])rotective coloration, and it takes a sharp pair 

 of eyes to find them. The nesting season begins in early May, and lasts till late 

 July, and undoubtedly two br()()(l> are reared by some of the birds. The female 

 is a very close sitter, and the colors that show when she is on the nest — brown 

 and chestnut — blend perfectlv with the surroundings. On one or two occasions 

 I have found the male on the egg>, but lie did not sit .so close as llii- female. When 

 the nest is discovered, ihe owners become greatlv e.xcited; they seldom a])proach 

 close to the intruder, but flutter about at a safe di.stance, calling clic-iciitk, clie- 

 uhik, chc-wiuik, till the ]ihue resounds with the laiket, and one is glad to get 

 away fr(<m the viiinit\. Imubalion lakes from twelve to thirteen days. 



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