166 TOWHE BUNTING 



of rufous, most numerous near the great end (see fig. 6j. The 

 young are produced about the beginning of June; and a second 

 brood commonly succeeds in the same season. This bird rarely 

 winters north of the state of Maryland; retiring from Penn- 

 sylvania to the south about the twelfth of October. Yet in the 

 middle districts of Virginia, and thence south to Florida, I 

 found it abundant during the months of January, February 

 and March. Its usual food is obtained by scratching up the 

 leaves; it also feeds, like the rest of its tribe, on various hard 

 seeds and gravel; but rarely commits any depredations on the 

 harvest of the husbandman; generally preferring the woods, 

 and traversing the bottom of fences sheltered with briars. He 

 is generally very plump and fat; and when confined in a cage 

 soon becomes familiar. In Virginia he is called the Bulfinch;in 

 many places the Towhe-bird; in Pennsylvania the Che wink, 

 and by others the Swamp Robin. He contributes a little to the 

 harmony of .our woods in spring and summer; and is remarka- 

 ble for the cunning with which he conceals his nest. He shows 

 great affection for his young; and the deepest marks of distress 

 on the appearance of their mortal enemy the black snake. 



The specific name which Linnaeus has bestowed on this bird 

 is deduced from the colour of the iris of its eye, which, in those 

 that visit Pennsylvania, is dark red. But I am suspicious that 

 this colour is not permanent, but subject to a periodical change. 

 I examined a great number of these birds in the month of 

 March, in Georgia, every one of which had the iris of the eye 

 white. Mr. Abbot of Savannah assured me, that at this season, 

 every one of these birds he shot had the iris white, while at 

 other times it was red; and Mr. Elliot, of Beaufort, a judicious 

 naturalist, informed me, that in the month of February he killed 

 a Towhe Bunting with one eye red and the other white! It 

 should be observed that the iris of the young bird's eye is of a 

 chocolate colour, during its residence in Pennsylvania; perhaps 

 this may brighten into a white during winter, and these may 

 have been all birds of the preceding year, which had not yet 

 received the full colour of the eye. 



