BIRDS OF NEW YORK 



323 



Pipilo erythrophthalmus erythrophthalmus (Linnaeus) 



Towhee 



Plate 84 



Fringilla erythrophthalma Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. 10. 1758. 1:180 

 Pipilo erythrophthalmus DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 172, fig. 162 

 Pipilo erythrophthalmus erythrophthalmus A. O. U. Check List. 

 Ed. 3. IQIO. p. 279. No. 587 



pipilo, Lat., to chirp; erythrophthdlmus, Gr., meaning red-eyed 



Description. Wings short and rounded; tail long and rounded; head, 

 neck, forebreast and upper parts black, sometimes, especially in winter, 

 edged with rusty on the back; inner secondaries streaked with buffy white; 

 white spot on the base of the primaries, also on the outer edges of the 

 primary quills; j outer tail feathers conspicuously tipped or spotted with 

 white, the outer web of the outer feather entirely white; lower breast and 

 abdomen white becoming buffy on the under tail coverts ; sides and flanks 

 rufous; eyes red. Female: Grayish brown where the male is black and 

 otherwise duller in coloration. 



Length 8.35 inches; wing 3.3; tail 3.7; bill .55; tarsus i.i. 



Distribution. The breeding range of this species extends from eastern 

 Dakota, Michigan and southern Maine to the gulf coast. In New York 

 it is quite generally distributed as a summer resident throughout the State, 

 but does not enter the Canadian zone of the Adirondacks and Cats- 

 kills except along the river valleys and settlements, and in the extreme 

 northern counties is not common or generally distributed. In the south- 

 eastern part of the State it is abundant and throughout western New York 

 a common summer resident, in the country about New York arriving from 

 April 15 to 25, and in western New York from the I5th to the 3Oth of April. 

 In the fall it disappears between the I5th and 3Oth of October, a few indi- 

 viduals remaining throughout the winter in the warmer counties in the 

 vicinity of New York City. 



Haunts and habits. The haunts of the Towhee are in hedgerows, 

 thickets, brushy hillsides and " slashings." It is a bird of the thicket 

 more than any other member of the sparrow family. It feeds principally 

 upon the ground, hopping about, scratching the leaves and bustling around 



