Towhee. 129 



bustres, we are certain to hear the loud, pleasant "chwink" 

 of the towhee, which has suggested for the species the 

 popular name of chewink. A noisy rustling among the 

 fallen oak leaves in a clump of May apples leads our steps 

 in that direction. At our approach the scratching ceases, 

 and out flits the handsome author of the noise. His head, 

 neck, and back are glossy black, vividly contrasting with 

 the white abdomen and chestnut sides. As he flits away 

 to disappear under a pile of dead brush, he flips a long 

 black tail and spreads it with a fan-like motion, exposing 

 the pure white feathers on each side, a sure means of 

 identification of the species with other features. Out of 

 the brush heap he hops and then leisurely mounts to the 

 lower branches of a small oak, whence he calls after us, 

 "Ain't you pretty?" emphasizing the first syllable and 

 lengthening the last word with rising inflection. When 

 one is startled from the weeds along a hedge, it flits and 

 dodges in and out of the bushes with noisy whir of wings, 

 if it is followed; otherwise it alights in the near bushes 

 and proceeds about its private business with quiet indif- 

 ference, though gradually increasing the distance between 

 itself and its disturber. 



True to its popular title of ground robin, given to the 

 species because it passes so much of its time on the ground, 

 and also from its similarity in style of coloration to the 

 robin, the towhee nests on or near the ground. Bushy 

 wooded knolls, thickets of undergrowth, and dry bushy 

 ravines are its chosen places for nesting. The site of the 

 structure is either on the ground, in the forks of a fallen 

 branch, against the stems of wild berry shoots, or in the 

 open with no protection except the surrounding stems, or 

 indeed in any sort of lowly situation. All the nests I 

 have found in this vicinity were on the ground. 



The towhee is one of the birds regularly imposed upon 

 by the cowbirdin depositing its egg or eggs. I had never 

 found a nest of the chewink until May 21, 1890, when I 

 accidentally flushed a female from her nest. It was in a 

 low, damp portion of a wooded pasture, and was set on 

 the ground between forking limbs of a fallen branch. 

 The next was open above, and contained two young birds 

 just from the Qgg, two eggs of the towhee, and one Qgg of 



