TOWHE BUNTING. 63 



bright bay ; belly and vent dull white ; bill light blue, dusky above, 

 strong and powerful for breaking seeds ; legs and feet brown ; iris of 

 the eye hazel. The female diflfers from the male in having little or no 

 black on the breast, nor streak of yellow over the eye; beneath the 

 eye she has a dusky streak, running in the direction of the jaw. In 

 all those I opened the stomach was filled with various seeds, gravel, 

 eggs of insects, and sometimes a slimy kind of earth or clay. 



This bird has been figured by Latham, Pennant, and several others. 

 The former speaks of a bird which he thinks is either the same, or 

 nearly resembling it, that resides in summer in the country about Hud- 

 son's Bay, and is often seen associating in flights with the geese;* this 

 habit, however, makes me suspect that it must be a difierent species ; 

 for while with us here the Black-throated Bunting is never gregarious ; 

 but is almost always seen singly, or in pairs, or, at most, the individuals 

 of one family together. 



Species III EMBERIZA ERYTHROPHTHALMA. 



TOWHE BUNTING. 



[Plate Z. Fig. S, Kale.] 



Fringilla erythrophihalma, Linn. Syst. p. 318, 6. — Le Pinson de la Caroline, Briss. 

 Orn. III., p. 169, 44. — Bufp. Ois. iv., p. 141. — Lath, ii., p. 199, No. 43. — Catesb. 

 Car. I., PI. 34. 



This is a very common, but humble and inofi'ensive species, frequent- 

 ing close sheltered thickets, where it spends most of its time in scratch- 

 ing up the leaves for worms, and for the larvae and eggs of insects. It 

 is far from being shy, frequently suffering a person to walk round the 

 bush or thicket where it is at work, without betraying any marks of 

 alarm ; and when disturbed, uttering the notes TowM, repeatedly. At 

 times the male mounts to the top of a small tree, and chants his few 

 simple notes for an hour at a time. These are loud, not unmusical, 

 something resembling those of the Yellow-hammer of Britain, but more 

 mellow, and more varied. He is fond of thickets with a southern expo- 

 sure, near streams of water, and where there is plenty of dry leaves , 

 and is found, generally, over the whole United States. He is not 

 gregarious, and you seldom see more than two together. About the 

 middle or twentieth of April they arrive in Pennsylvania, and begin 

 building about the first week m May. The nest is fixed on the ground 



* Lath. Syn. Suppl. p. 158. 



