TOWHEE. 329 



GENUS PIPILO VIEILLOT. 

 PIPILO ERYTHROPHTHALMUS (LINN.). 



238. Towhee. (587) 



Adult male: Black; belly, white sides, chestnut; crissum, fulvous -brown ; 

 primaries and inner secondaries with white touches on the outer webs ; outer- 

 tail feathers with the outer web and nearly the terminal half of the inner web 

 white, the next two or three with white spots, decreasing in size ; bill, blackish ; 

 feet, pale brown ; iris, red in the adult, white or creamy in the young, and 

 generally in winter specimens. Female : Rich warm brown where the male 

 is black ; otherwise similar. Very young birds are streaked brown and dusky 

 above ; below, whitish, tinged with brown and streaked with dusky. Length, 

 male, 8^ ; wing, 3^ ; tail, 4 ; female rather less. 



HAB. Eastern United States and Southern Canada, west to the Plains. 



Nest, on the ground, more rarely in a bush or sapling, a rude structure, 

 composed of grape-vine bark, weed stalks, leaves and grass, lined with fine 

 vegetable fibre. 



Eggs, three or four, variable, usually white, thickly freckled with reddish- 

 brown. 



This species has a more northern range than we have been in the 

 habit of attributing to it, for it was found by Prof. Macoun in the 

 North-West Territory, and Mr. Thompson reports it as common in 

 Southern Manitoba. In Southern Ontario it arrives from the south 

 about the 1st of May, the males coming on a few days ahead of the 

 females. Much of their time is spent on the ground, scratching and 

 rustling about among the withered leaves in search of seeds and 

 insects. During the pairing time, the male will frequently rise from 

 the scrub bush to the lower branch of a tree, and sing his original 

 song in his best style, accompanying the performance with many a 

 jerk and flirt of his long handsome tail, which shows to advantage 

 on these occasions. If we sit down to watch his motions for a little, 

 we may be favored with a glimpse of the female stealing through 

 the underbrush, but except under such circumstances she is rarely 

 seen. 



This is one of the species which apparently enters Ontario from 

 the south-west, for on looking at the dates of its arrival at London 

 and Chatham, we find it is always there before it reaches Hamilton, 

 while at Ottawa Mr. White has not met with it at all. 



During the heat of summer, the loud, ringing Towhee, which 

 has given the birds their common name, is discontinued, and they 



