316 The Towhee 



search of cabbage-worms, potato-bugs, and such other small creatures, 

 many of which are destructive to crops. 



It will thus be seen that the Towhee is a very useful bird to mankind, 

 and should receive the most careful protection by everyone. In fact, in 

 most States where this bird is found it is protected by law, and anyone 

 found killing a Towhee is liable to fine or imprisonment and it is right 

 that this should be so. 



They eat also such things as grasshoppers, cockroaches and flies, and 

 perfectly adore the long juicy bodies of earthworms. It is for this sort 

 of food that the Towhees search so diligently on the ground in a thicket, 

 where we may hear them scratching among the fallen leaves and throw- 

 ing them about with an energy and vigor surprising in a bird which 

 measures only about eight and a half inches in length. 



John James Audubon, the great naturalist and artist, who was such 

 a close observer of birds, in writing of the Towhee said : "The young 

 leave the nest long before they are able to fly, and follow the mother 

 about on the ground for several days. Some of the nests of this species 

 are so well concealed that in order to discover them one requires to 

 stand quite still on the first appearance of the mother. I have myself 

 several times had to regret not taking this precaution. 



The favorite haunts of the Towhee Buntings are dry 



Audubon Said , 11-111 



barren tracts, but not, as others have said, low and 



swampy grounds, at least during the season of incubation. In the 

 Barrens of Kentucky they are found in the greatest abundance. 



"Their migrations are performed by day, from bush to bush, and 

 they seem to be much at a loss when a large extent of forest is to be 

 traversed by them. They perform these journeys almost singly. The 

 females set out before the males in autumn, and the males before the 

 females in spring, the latter not appearing in the Middle Districts until 

 the end of April, a fortnight after the males have arrived. Many of 

 them pass the confines of the United States in their migrations southward 

 and northward. They generally rest on the ground at night, when many 

 are caught by weasels and other small quadrupeds." 



Besides the common Towhee there are about fifteen other kinds of 

 Towhees in North America, all but one western, as, the Oregon Tow- 

 hee, Canon Towhee, and Green-tailed Towhee. The one which most 

 closely resembles that of the Eastern States is the White-eyed Towhee, 

 found in summer .from the coastal country of North Carolina southward 

 through Florida. 



Classification and Distribution 



The Towhee belongs to the Order Passercs, Family Fringillida, and Genus 

 Pif>ilo. Its scientific name is Pifiilo erythro^thalmus cry thro pthalmus. It is dis- 

 tributed in summer throughout the United States and southeastern Canada, and 

 winters in the Southern States. The White-eyed Towhee is a subspecies (P. e. 

 allcni) of the South Atlantic Coast and Florida. 



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