974 EEPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



given by the male. The other names refer to its being, in some 

 places, a frequenter of marshy thickets and of spending much of its 

 time upon the ground. There it enjoys turning over the old stems 

 and fallen leaves. It is pre-eminently the scratching sparrow. In 

 October, in a river valley, among some thicket of willows, cottonwoods, 

 and young sycamores, where wild sunflowers, horse-weeds and poke 

 grow rampant, the whole woven together by the interlacing of wild 

 cucumber vines, the number, and the varied, miscellaneous company 

 of birds found there is a revelation to the one who visits it for the 

 first time. Among the babel of voices and the flitting forms may be 

 observed Blue Jays, White-throated and White-crowned Sparrows, 

 Fox Sparrows, Swamp Sparrows, Song Sparrows, Field Sparrows, In- 

 digo Buntings, Juncos, Cardinals, Hermit Thrushes, Chats, Long- 

 billed Marsh Wrens, House Wrens, Carolina Wrens, Winter Wrens, 

 Tufted Titmice and Downy Woodpeckers. In winter, when many of 

 these are gone, whether we go to the woods or follow the fringing 

 bushes of some little run, the Towhee will be found, and not alone, 

 for the Cardinals, Juncos and Tree Sparrows, at least, will be found 

 occupying the same haunts. In spring, when the vegetation has fal- 

 len, been broken down or burned away, the old companions return 

 and are more readily seen. The variations in the time of its occur- 

 rence may be illustrated by the following dates: At Greencastle they 

 remained all the winter of 1894-5, but in 1896 were not noted until 

 April 4. They were first seen in Lafayette, March 6, 1894, March 28, 

 1896; at Sedan, March 1, 1894, March 30, 1896; Laporte, March 4, 

 1894, March 28, 1896; Petersburg, Mich., March 17, 1889, March 25, 

 1893; Chicago, 111., March 20, 1884, April 17, 1886. They are rarely 

 common in the north part of the State before April 1, and about 

 Chicago, HI., sometimes are not common until April 15 to 25. Most 

 of them disappear from our northern counties through September 

 and October. The latest records I have are: Chicago, October 12, 

 1895; Sedan, October 22, 1889; Lafayette, October 12, 1894, 1895. 



In the lower Whitewater Valley I have found them mating March 

 21, 1883; paired, March 31, 1885, and building, April 5, 1884. They 

 occasionally nest quite early and raise two, perhaps three, broods. 

 Nests have been noted at Sedan with the birds sitting at the extreme 

 dates March 15 and August 17 (Mrs* Hine). In Lake County a nest 

 and three fresh eggs were taken in July, 1882 (Meyer). Eggs were 

 found at Waterloo, June 24, 1885 (Snyder). Mr. Y. H. Barnett found 

 young in southern Vermillion County, August 4, 1897. 



The nuptial song is beautiful and striking. The male, from the top 

 or some high bush or high upon the principal limb of an isolated tree, 



