TOWHE BUNTING. 151 



Their migrations are performed by day, from bush to bush, and they 

 seem to be much at a loss when a large extent of forest is to be traversed 

 by them. They perform these journeys almost singly. The females set 

 out before the males in autvimn, and the males before the females in 

 spring, the latter not appearing in the Middle Districts until the end of 

 April, a fortnight after the males have arrived. Many of them pass the 

 confines of the United States in their migrations southward and north- 

 ward. 



Although these birds are abundant in aU parts of the Union, they ne- 

 ver associate in flocks, but mingle during winter with several species of 

 Sparrow. They generally rest on the ground at night, when many are 

 caught by weasels and other small quadrupeds. None of them breed in 

 Louisiana, nor indeed in the State of Mississippi, until they reach the 

 open woods of the Choctaw Indian Nation. 



I have represented the male and female moving through the twigs of 

 the Common Briar, usually called the BlacJc Briar. It is a plump bird, 

 and becomes very fat in winter, in consequence of which it is named 

 Grasset in Louisiana, where many are shot for the table by the French 

 planters. 



Fringilla erythrophthalma, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 318.— CA. Bonaparte, 



Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 112. 

 Emberiza erythrophthalma, Lath. Ind. Omith. vol. i. p. 413. 

 TowHE Bunting, Emberiza ehythrophthalma, Wils. Amer. Ornitli. vol. ii. 



p. 35. PI. 10. fig. 5, Male ; vol. vi. p. 90. PI. 53. fig. 5. Female — Lath. Synops. 



vol. iii. p. 199. 



Adult Male. Plate XXIX. Fig. 1. 



Bill short, robust, narrower than the head, regularly conical, acute ; 

 upper mandible almost straight in its dorsal outline, as is the lower, both 

 having inflected edges ; the gap line nearly straight, a little deflected at 

 the base. Nostrils basal, roundish, open, partially concealed by the 

 feathers. Head rather large, neck shortish, body robust. Legs of mo- 

 derate length, rather robust ; tarsus longer than the middle toe, covered 

 anteriorly with a few longish scuteUa ; toes scutellate above, free, the la- 

 teral ones nearly equal ; claws slender, arched, compressed, acute, that of 

 the hind toe long. 



Plumage rather compact above, soft and blended beneath. Wings of 



