396 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — PA8SEBES — OSCINES. 



aOl. P. erythrophthai'mns. (Gr. ipvBpos, eruthros, red ; 6^6a\fi6s, ophthahnos, eye.) Towhee 

 Bunting. Marsh Robin. Chewink. $ , adult : Glossy black ; beUy white ; sides chest- 

 nut ; orissum fulvous-brown ; primaries and inner secondaries with white touches on the outer 

 webs ; outer tail-feather with outer web and nearly the terminal half of inner web white, the 

 next two or three with white spots decreasing in size ; bill black ; feet pale brown ; iris red in 

 the adult, white or creamy in the young, and generally in winter specimens. Normally, the 

 black pure and continuous ; occasionally, white touches on wing-coverts and scapulars. White 

 on primaries confined to bases of outer 6, and their outer webs at about their middle ; ou 

 secondaries to outer webs of inner 2 or 3. Black feathers of throat with concealed whitish 

 bases. Length 7.50-8.75 ; extent 10.00-12.00; wing 3.30-3.90; tail 3.35-4.00; tarsus 1.00- 

 1.13; but these extremes are rare; average length 8.00; extent 11.25 ; wing 3.75 ; tail 4.50. 

 9 : Rich warm brown where the male is black ; otherwise similar, but smaller. Very young 

 birds are streaked brown and dusky above, below whitish tinged with brown and streaked with 

 dusky; but this plumage is of brief duration; sexual distinctions may be noted in birds just 

 from the nest, and they rapidly become much like the adults. Eastern U. S. and British 

 Provinces ; N. to Canada, Minnesota and Dakota, where meeting P. a/rcUcus; W. to Kansas, 

 and in Missouri River region to about 43°. Northerly perfectly migratory ; winters from middle 

 U. S. southward ; breeds nearly throughout its range. An abundant and familiar inhabitant of 

 thickets, undergrowth, and briery tracts, spending much of its time on the ground, scratching 

 among fallen leaves. Nest on the ground, bulky, of leaves, grasses and other fibrous material ; 

 eggs 4-5, 0.95 X 0.70, white, thickly speckled with reddish. The curious names " Towhee " 

 and " Chewink " are fi:om its cry ; " Marsh Robin " from its haunts and the chestnut of the sides. 



303. P. e. al'lenl. (To J. A. Allen, the eminent naturalist.) White-eyed Towhee Bunting. 

 Similar ; smaller ; less white on the wings and tail ; claws longer; iris white. ^ , extremes : 

 Length 7.25-8.50; extent 9.50-11.55 ; wing 3.80-3.50 ; taU 3.35-4.00; tarsus 0.80-1.10; aver, 

 age length 7.90; extent 9.90; wing 3.13; taU 3.50; tail relatiiiely \ouges than in Northern 

 specimens, producing less diSference in total length than there is in length and extent of wings. 

 White on outer tail-feather about as much as on the next feather of P. erythrophthalmus. 

 Florida ; resident ; a local race. 



[P. macula'tus. (Lat. maculatus, spotted.) Olive-black Spotted Towhee. A Mexican 

 species, with extensively olivaceous coloration and streaked back, into which the following three 

 varieties shade imperceptibly, — oregonus being farthest removed and most like erythrophthal- 

 mus, arcticus and megalonyx successively nearing the Mexican stock-form.] 



303. P. m. ore'gonus. (To the TeiTitory of the Oregon.) Oregon Towhee. ,y : Very similar to 

 erythrophthalmus; quite as black, but not continuously so ; wing-coverts with small rounded, 

 and scapulars with larger oval, white spots on the outer webs of the feathers near the end ; 

 interscapulars sometimes also with white touches ? white marks on the primaries and inner 

 secondaries very small or wanting, usually none at the bases of the former ; white spots on tail- 

 feathers very small, the outer web of the outer rectrix not white except at the end. Excepting 

 these particulars, this fonn looks more like erythrophthalmus than like the typical maculatus, 

 in which the body-colors are olivaceous. ? dark umber-brown, but not quite blackish. 

 Pacific coast region, N. to British Columbia, S. to Southern California, melting eastward 

 into arcticus, southeastward into msgalonyx. 



304. P. m. arc'tlcus. (Lat. arcticMs, arctic.) Aectic Towhee. Similar to the foregoing ; less 

 purely and continuously black, with tendency to olivaceous on back and rump ; white spots of 

 wing-coverts larger, those of scapulars still larger and lengthening into streaks ; interscapulars 

 also streaked with white ; white on the quills and tail-feathers at a maximum, as in erythro- 

 phthalmus; usually, also, concealed white specks in the black of the throat. 9 comparatively 

 dark, but not quite blackish. In this form, the white on the wing-quiUs and tail-feathers, so 

 much reduced in the glossy black oregonus, is as extensive as in eryth/rophthalmus; but the 



