Wayne: Birds of South Carolina. 129 



visitant. My earliest date of arrival is November 24, 1885, 1 and 

 it remains until the middle of March. If the spring is forward, 

 however, the birds are absent at the beginning of March. The Fox 

 Sparrow frequents woods which are covered with an undergrowth 

 of thickets and bushes, and where this feature is absent the birds 

 are not to be met with. When the weather is mild in the winter 

 months they can be heard singing their beautiful song at all hours 

 of the day, and even after sunset. 



The great cold wave of February 13 and 14, 1899, destroyed 

 millions of these birds. There was a tremendous migration of 

 Fox Sparrows on Monday, the 13th, following the coast line of 

 the mainland. They apparently came from the northeast, mi- 

 grating in a southwesterly direction. Thousands tarried in my 

 yard all day long and swarmed in the piazza, fowl-yard, and every 

 place that would afford protection. They would scratch away 

 the snow in order to find a bare place, singing— that is the strong- 

 er birds — the whole time, while their companions were freezing 

 by the hundreds. When they were benumbed by the intense 

 cold, Boat-tailed Grackles (Megaquiscalus major) and Red-winged 

 Blackbirds (Agelaius phceniceus) would peck them at the base 

 of the skull, killing them and eating them. The stronger Fox 

 Sparrows would also eat their dead companions. It was a most 

 pathetic sight. 



The Fox Sparrow breeds from the Magdalen Islands in the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Arctic coast. 



222. Pipilo erythrophthalmus (Linn.). Towhee; Chewink. 



This well known winter visitant is locally known as the "Bull 

 Finch. ' ' It arrives by October 7, and remains until late in April; 

 none, however, breed. It is exceedingly abundant where there 

 is an undergrowth of bushes and tangled thickets, and associates 

 freely with White-throated, Song, Swamp, and Fox Sparrows. 

 During the winter months this bird spends all its time on the 

 ground searching for food, but as soon as spring arrives and the 

 deciduous trees put forth their tender leaves the birds resort to 

 the tallest trees to feed upon the buds. The song period is of 

 short duration. Although many authors have stated that this 

 species migrates by day, this is an error for the birds always mi- 

 grate at night. 



1 The earliest record of the Charleston Museum for this species is November 21, 

 1908, when it was reported from St. Andrews Parish, by Mr. F. M. Weston, Jr. — Ed. 



