THE O. & O. SEMI-ANNUAL. 25 
and the head came to the surface and I soon got another “jab” in the 
hand. I grabbed the neck again and pushed it under water, and 
began to investigate the cause of his living under water. I noticed 
that the broken bone was projecting above the water, and from the 
sound made by the air passing in and out soon discovered why he did 
not drown. In fact, the bird was breathing through the broken bone 
and would not drown in that position. To satisfy myself that it was 
really air issuing from the broken bone, I held it under water and 
bubbles of air came from it. 
He was finally killed by breaking the bone of the neck, and proved 
to be a fine, adult male, in full plumage, measuring 5 ft..6 in. from 
tip of beak to tip of toes, with an extent about the same. 
THE CHEWINK; TOWHEE. 
Pipilo Erythrophthalmus. 
BY LYNDS JONES, GRINNELL, IOWA. 
I cannot recollect when the characteristic note of Chewink did no+ 
form a part of our woodland orchestra. Long before any nest had 
been taken, I had listened to his anxious “‘chewink”’ or ‘‘towhee”’ ut- 
tered from the underbrush or ground, and his well-known song as he 
was perched upon the topmost twig of some convenient tree, wishing 
that he were as lavish of his nest as his song. 
I had searched hours for the nest to no purpose, often flushing the 
mother bird, again and again ; but the nest was too closely hidden. At 
last I stumbled on to one, high up in a bush; this was the first of sev- 
eral taken that season, and all in bushes. I congratulated myself that 
~ I had found an exception to the books ; but I afterwards found many 
more on the ground than in bushes. [ also learned that the bird is 
not partial to underbrush ; but as often nests in the open woods among 
the leaves, or in neglected fields, or even in the corn-fields. 
One might reasonably expect that such diverse positions must cause 
corresponding differences in nest structure. The chief difference 
was that sticks were used in the composition ‘of the nests in bushes, 
and none in those on the ground. Dry leaves and grass are liberally 
