CHEWINK TOWHEE. 



it possesses a very perceptible accelerando. Perhaps I 

 should say it generally finishes with a trill, but I have 

 been unable to discover any approach to the two tones 

 which necessarily constitute the trill. Nuttall, how- 

 ever, seems to think the song is made up of " a few tril- 

 ling, rather monotonous notes resembling the song of 

 the Field Sparrow," and he is not so very far away from 

 the truth. 



Chewlnk This bird is one of the most vivacious 



Towhee an( j beautiful members of the Finch Fam- 



J'ifjilo erythroph- .. TT . , . ;,,. 



ihaimus " v> " 1S black back, white breast, and 



L. 8.35 Inches chestnut sides form an uncommon and 

 April aoth striking combination of color at once aes- 

 thetic and distinguished. Beside the Chewink his near 

 relative, the Song Sparrow is a very ordinary and insig- 

 nificant-appearing individual. The upper parts of the 

 Chewink, including head, chest, wings, and tail, are a 

 glossy black; outer edges of the primaries white; white 

 also begins at the middle of the chest and extends down- 

 ward throughout the under parts; sides a bright chestnut 

 red almost a pure Venetian red; the iris red, and pupil 

 black. Female with the same color-pattern, but the 

 black replaced by lightish brown, the sides a less bril- 

 liant chestnut, and the tail an umber brown. Nest built 

 of dried leaves, grasses, and plant fibre, lined with finer 

 grasses; it is generally placed on the ground, or very 

 near it. Egg white flecked with madder brown. The 

 bird is common throughout eastern North America, 

 though somewhat locally distributed. There are very 

 few in Campton, N. H., plenty on the slopes of Monad- 

 nock, in southern New Hampshire, near the summer 

 residence of Mr. G. B. Upton, and extremely few in the 

 recesses of the White Mountains. 



As a musician the Chewink is not remarkable for 

 melodic ability or for brilliant execution; in these re- 

 spects he differs widely from both Song Sparrow and 

 Wood Thrush. Either of these two talented singers can 

 hot fail to impress upon the hearer a sense of the beauty 

 of melody rendered by the mellow whistle of a bird; but 

 the efforts of the Chewink are amateurish in comparison, 

 125 



