Plate XXXVII. 



PIPILO ERYTHROPHTHALMUS-Chewink. 



The Chewink, Ground Robin, or Towhee, as this species is variously called, usually arrives from the 

 South about the second week in A^^ril; stragglers are, however, sometimes seen in February and March. 

 The nest is constructed early in May. The 21st of May, 1880, I saw young Chewinks large enough to 

 fly. It is not uncommon for two broods to be reared by a single pair, and possibly this may be the rule. 

 Between the second week in October and the first of November, they depart for their winter home. A 

 few linger some weeks or even months later, December 24, 1879, I saw a male bird, and on se\-eral 

 occasions I have seen them nearly as late. It is probable, that in a favorable locality and season, a few 

 may remain during the winter. 



LOCALITY: 



The nest is always built in timberland, preferably that strewn with brush-heaps and covered with 

 undergrowth. High, dry wood is the Towhee's choice, still, the nest is sometimes found even upon such 

 low, damp ground as a river-island. 



They do not frequent the edge of woods as much as most birds, but seem to like the depth of the 

 forest better. Sometimes a pair will build among a small clump of trees standing in a cultivated field, 

 and sometimes about land on which the trees have recently been felled, but not yet brushed. They do 

 not often build about country dwellings, and are rarely seen in towns. Their absence is due more to a 

 want of a suitable locality than to any timidity or fear of man. 



POSITION: 



The nest is placed upon the ground, in a slight natural depression, at the root of a bush or a clump 

 of grass, or a concavity is scratched among the dead leaves under a brush-heap, a fallen tree-top, beside 

 a small fallen limb, or a low bush. The rim of the nest is usually on a level with the surrounding surface. 



MATERIALS : 



Dead leaves of the oak, or such trees as are common to the locality, compose the bulk of the nest. 

 They are selected and arranged when damp and pliable. The cavity is lined with slender vine-stems, 

 such as are used by the Yellow-breasted Chat and Cardinal Grosbeak. Generally a few weed-stems, 

 straws, blades of grass, leaf-stems, strips of grapevine-bark, or rootlets are intermixed with the leaves of 

 the foundation and superstructure, and sometimes a few blades of grass or strij^s of grapevine-bark with 

 the lining. 



The structure, although not very compact, can, with care, be lifted from its position without falling to 

 pieces. The external diameter and depth are not very constant, but ordinarily they do not vary much 

 from ^VQ and one-half and three inches respectively. The diameter of the cavity does not often vary more 

 than one-fourth of an inch from three inches. The depth varies from one to two and one-half inches. 



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