p. ERYTHROPHTHALMUS : TOWHEE BUNTING. 289 



TOWHEE BUNTING. 



PiPILO ERYTHROPHTHALMUS {L.) V. 



Chars. Male : Black, with white jbelly, chestnut sides, and fulvous 

 under tail-coverts; primaries and inner secondaries with white 

 touches on the outer webs ; several lateral tail-feathers marked 

 with white in decreasing amount ; bill blackish ; feet brown ; iris 

 red. Female : Rich warm brown where the male is black ; other- 

 wise similar. At a very early age, both sexes have a streaky plu- 

 mage, which soon gives way to the sexual characters first men- 

 tioned. Length, about 8.50 ; extent, 11.00 ; wing, 3.50 ; tail, 4.00 ; 

 bill, 0.55 ; tarsus, i.oo. 



The last of the large Finch family which we have 

 to notice is a common summer resident of the Caro- 

 linian and Alleghanian Faunee, becoming less numer- 

 ous in the Canadian, in the unsettled portions of which 

 it is hardly to be found, but still generally distributed 

 in New England. It arrives at the end of April, and 

 remains, in southern districts at least, all through Oc- 

 tober. An exceptional case of occurrence in January 

 has been noted. It is a vivacious and rather jaunty 

 tenant of shrubbery and undergrowth of all kinds, de- 

 rivinor its curious names of " Towhee " and " Chevvink " 

 from the sound of its characteristic notes. By some it 

 is called "Marsh Robin," the color of the sides being 

 something like that of a Robin's breast, and the de- 

 cided preferences of the bird being for low, watery situ- 

 ations. The nest is regularly placed on the ground, at 

 the foot of some bush or stump, or under a fallen log, 

 but the Towhee takes occasionally a fancy to nest in a 

 bush or sapling, some feet from the ground. The nest 

 is rather a rude structure of grapevine bark, twigs, 

 weedstalks, leaves, and grasses, lined with finer grasses 



