982 TOWHEE 



The M'nso])hagida'' form a very distinct Family of Prof. Huxley's 

 Coccygomorplu)}, having perhaps the (Joliiih'^ (Mouse-bird, p. 600) and 

 C^iculidss as their nearest allies.^ The bill of nearly all the species 

 is curiously serrated or deiiticulated along the margin, and the feet 

 have the outer toe reversilile. No member of the Family is found 

 outside of the continental portion of the Ethiopian Region. 



TOWHEE, so called from one of its notes, a well-known North- 

 American bird, PijnJo eri/fhrojihfJialmus, one of the " Columbian " 



forms which as yet cannot be positively 

 assigned to the Fringillidx (Finch) or the 

 Emherizida^ (Bunting), though commonly 

 regarded as belonging to the latter groujj, 

 and indeed genera presumably allied have 

 PipiLo. (After swainsou.) y^^^^^ ^^,^^^^^ EmheHzoides and Embernagra. 



The number of " species " of Pipilo is by no means certain, for many 

 local races occui- in various parts of the country, and it is thus a 

 matter of opinion whether 8 or 10 or nearly twice as many should 

 be recognized {cf. Coues, Key N. Am. B. ad. 2, jjp. 395-398 ; Ridgway, 

 Man. N. Am. B. pj). 435-441), while examples of these races are 

 not easily distinguished. In some the sexes are nearly alike in 

 plumage, but this is not so in the eastern bird to which the English 

 name, now extended to all the rest, was originally given. There is 

 also a considerable difference in their call-note, for P. megalonpx, the 

 prevalent form in the south-west, is said to mew like a CATBIRD, 

 while the more northern P. aniicvs will occasionally utter one of the 

 cries of P. eri/throphtJudmus, which has procured for that species the 

 name of Chewink, by which as well as Ground-Robin it is also known. 

 The colour of the iris too varies in some cases according to locality. 



matter lieiiig soluble in Mater was, by Mr. Tegetmeier, brought to the notice of 

 Prof. Church, who published in 1868 {Student and Intelkctual Observer, i. pp. 

 161-168) an account of it as " Turacin, a new animal pigment containing copper." 

 He has since dealt with it more fully in two communications to the Royal 

 Society [Phil. Trans. 1869, pp. 627-636, and 1893, pp. 511-.")30), in the last of 

 which he intimates a doubt as to the existence as an independent jiigment of 

 " Turaco-verdin " (</. CoLori:, p. 96) as announced by Dr. Krukenberg ( Fcrrc^. - 

 physiol. Stud. ser. 2, i. p. 151). The subject has received much attention from 

 others, and the jjeculiar property is possessed by the crimson feathers of all tluj 

 birds of the Family. 



1 Eyton pointed out {Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, ii. p. 458) a feature possessed 

 in common by .some of the Cuculidae and the Musoiyhagidse, in the "process 

 attached to the anterior edge of the ischium," which he likened to the so-called 

 "marsupial" bones of Didelphian ]\lammals. J. T. Reinhardt also noticed 

 {Vid. Mcddels. Naturhist. Foren. 1871, pp. 326-341) another Cuculine character 

 offered by the os uncinatum affixed to the lower side of the ethmoid in the Plan- 

 tain-eaters and Touraoos ; but too much dependence must not be jjlaced on that, 

 since a similar structure is presented by the Fkigatk-uikd and some PKTKJiLs. 

 A corresponding process seems also to be found in Trugon. 



