The Towhee 157 



states where this bird is found, it is protected by law, and anyone found killing 

 a Towhee is liable to fine or imprisonment, and it is right that this should be 

 so. They eat also such things as grasshoppers, cockroaches and flies, and per- 

 fectly adore the long juicy bodies of earthworms. Down South, where they 

 go to pass the winter months, they have another habit of eating which would 

 appear to be a very unusual one for so ground-loving a bird. Here, when 

 early spring comes, they mount into the higher branches of trees, where they 

 feed on the swelling buds. In the mountains of North Carolina some persons 

 declare that Towhees (^'Jorees" or "Joreekers," they call them) go into the 

 fields in early spring and pull up the planted corn, just about the time it is 

 sprouting and beginning to show above the ground. The bill of the bird is 

 strong enough to crack a grain of corn, and it is probable that the habit has 

 been developed locally, as there would appear to be no very widespread cus- 

 tom of this character. As a usual thing, however, we find the Towhee on the 

 ground in a thicket, where we may hear him scratching among the fallen 

 leaves and throwing them about with an energy and vigor surprising in a bird 

 which measures only about eight and a half inches in length. 



John James Audubon, the great naturalist and artist, who was such a 

 close observer of birds, in writing of the Towhee said: "The young leave the 

 nest long before they are able to fly, and follow the mother 

 about on the ground for several days. Some of the nests of . , ^ ^ .^ 



^ •' Audubon Said 



this species are so well concealed that in order to discover them 

 one requires to stand quite still on the first appearance of the mother. I have 

 myself several times had to regret not taking this precaution. The favorite 

 haunts of the Towhee Buntings are dry barren tracts, but not, as others have 

 said, low and swampy grounds, at least during the season of incubation. In 

 the Barrens of Kentucky they are found in the greatest abundance. 



"Their migrations are performed by day, from bush to bush, and they 

 seem to be much at a loss when a large extent of forest is to be traversed by 

 them. They perform these journeys almost singly. The females set out 

 before the males in autumn, and the males before the females in spring, the 

 latter not appearing in the Middle Districts until the end of April, a fort- 

 night after the males have arrived. Many of them pass the confines of thf 

 United States in their migrations southward and northward. 



"Although these birds are abundant in all parts of the Union, they never 

 associate in flocks, but mingle during the winter with several species of Spar- 

 row. They generally rest on the ground at night, when many are caught b\- 

 weasels and other small quadrupeds." 



Besides the common Towhee there are about fourteen other kinds of 

 Towhees in North America, as, for example, the Oregon Towhee, Cafion 

 Towhee, and Green- tailed Towhee. The one which most closely resembles that 

 of the Eastern States is the White-eyed Towhee, found in summer from the 

 coastal country of North Carolina southward through Florida. 



