CHARACTER IN FEATHERS. 63 
once ina while guilty of, ungracious as it may 
seem to mention the fact; nor have I ever seen 
him hopping nervously about and twitching his 
tail, as is the manner of most species, when, for 
instance, their nests are approached. Nothing 
seems toannoy him. At the same time, he is 
not full of continual merriment like the chicka- 
dee, nor occasionally in a rapture like the gold- 
finch. Life with him is pitched in a low key ; 
comfortable rather than cheerful, and never 
jubilant. And yet, for all the towhee’s careless 
demeanor, you soon begin to suspect him of 
being deep. He appears not to mind you; he 
keeps on scratching among the dry leaves as if 
he had no thought of being driven away by 
your presence ; but in a minute or two you look 
that way again, and he is not there. If you 
pass near his nest, he makes not a tenth part of 
the ado which a brown thrush would make in 
the same circumstances, but (partly for this 
reason) you will find half a dozen nests of the 
thrush sooner than one of his. With all his 
simplicity and frankness, which puts him in 
happy contrast with the thrush, he knows as 
well as anybody how to keep his own counsel. 
I have seen him with his mate for two or three 
days together about the flower-beds in the Bos- 
ton Public Garden, and so far as appeared they 
were feeding as unconcernedly as though they 
