30 THE PRINCE OF SKULKERS. 



the Carolina marshes are flooded by gales driving the water in-shore, the 

 rails will seem to become perfectly crazy, and insensible of all other 

 harm, through their anxiety for the safety of their homes. But I need 

 not dwell longer on this topic here, since it is fully discussed in an en- 

 suing chapter on the rattlesnake. 



In general, snakes have little the best of it in a fight with their feath- 

 ered foes. More than once, it has been asserted, a single pair of mock- 

 ingbirds has killed a large blacksnake that had insinuated itself into the 

 bush in which their home was situated. Whenever the ugly reptile is so 

 discovered, the male mocker darts upon it with the speed of an arrow, 

 dexterously eluding its bite, and striking it violently and incessantly about 

 the head. The snake soon perceives its danger, and seeks to escape ; but 

 the intrepid father redoubles his exertions, and even after the snake has 

 reached the ground, and its strength begins to flag, the mockingbird 

 seizes it, and lifting it partly from the ground, beats it to death with his 

 wings. Cat-birds and brown thrashers will protect their nests, and deal 

 vengeance upon the robber in the same fashion. 



Just as I was turning back, a snarling tow-wee struck my ear with 

 startling distinctness from a half-ruined fence where ferns and golden-rod 

 were graciously entwining their lovely plumes. This noisy finch is the 

 prince of skulkers, keeping ever under piles of brush and fallen trees, 

 about the roots of the densest thickets, scratching furiously among the 

 crisp dead leaves for the luckless worms and bugs that lurk there, or 

 the seeds which have rattled down. It is very strange to sit quietly down 

 where the underbrush is thick, and listen to the swainp-robins. Their 

 wings do not make the audible flutter of the sparrows, and you only hear 

 a little stirring here and there that you cannot at all tell the sense of till 

 the bird shows himself, silent, but alert, and full of curiosity, venturing 

 closer and closer with an unconscious, preoccupied air which is intended 

 to disguise his extreme interest in you. Meanwhile you can easily note 

 what a handsome fellow he is. His head and throat all around, back, 

 wings, and long tail are black, the wing quills tipped, and the tail broadly 

 edged, with white; the sides, meeting on the breast, are bright bay, which 

 on the belly and vent becomes rufous-white. In the female the black is 

 replaced by light reddish-brown. 



Nearly as large as a robin, and red - breasted, he is often called the 

 "swamp" or "ground" robin. The western name, "skunk blackbird," 

 alludes to his varicolored coat; "chewink," "towhee," "joree," and simi- 

 lar words are derived from his call, never heard except when he is upon 

 the ground ; while the technical name is Pipilo erythropthalmus. 



