122 



MIGRATION RECORD. 



132. [587] Pip-flu cnitki-ophthalmu* (Linn. ). Towhee.* Fig. 21. 



Abundant migrant and summer resident; common winter resident. 

 There is always a noticeable period in spring when Chewinks are very 

 scarce. This is probably due to the departure of our winter residents 

 before the arrival of migrants and summer residents. A marked example 

 of this period of scarcity is found in the record for the spring of 1902. 

 Up to the fifteenth of February, males and females were common and 

 present in about equal numbers. From this date until the ninth of March, 

 no Chewinks were seen. On the latter date, and for nearly a week there- 

 after, although males were present, no females were seen. But on the 

 twenty-fourth of March both sexes were equally abundant and the season 

 of song was at its height. Thus in this spring there was a period 

 twenty-three days in length when they were absent; a period of a week 

 when males only were present; and finally another period ot fifteen days 

 during which the arrival of other birds brought the numbers up to the 

 usual summer abundance. This hiatus is more or less marked in every 



