V2-2 



MIGKA'lION RECOIU). 



132. [587] J'ipilo rrytkropfifhalmax CLinn.). Towhee.* Fig. 21. 



Abundant migrant and summei' resident; common winter resident. 

 There is always a noticeable period in spring when Chewinks are very 

 scarce. This is probably due to the departure of our winter residents 

 l>efore the arrival of migrants and summer residents. A marked example 

 of this period of scarcity is found in the record for the spring of 1902. 

 Up to the fifteenth of February, males and females were common and 

 present in about equal numbers. From this date until the ninth of March, 

 no Chewinks were seen. On the latter date, and for nearly a week there- 

 after, although males were present, no females were seen. But on the 

 twenty-fourth of March both sexes were equally a]>undant and the season 

 of song was at its height. Thus in this spring there was a period 

 twenty-three days in lengtli wlu'n tliey were absent: a period of a week 

 when males only were present; and tinally another period oi" fifteen days 

 during which the arrival of other birds l)rouglit the numbers up to the 

 usual summer abundance. This hiatu.s is moi'e or less marked in every 



