bark, grasses and leaves, — sometimes with a little hair for lining of the bottom, but 

 more frequently without. The complement of eggs is four, and two or three broods are 

 raised in a season. Several sets of eggs were found in April, but many more early in 



May Dr. Merrill found fresh eggs August 5 near Port Brown, and others slightly 



incubated on September 7. The eggs are pure white. 



NAMES: Texas Sparrow, Green Finch, Texas Pinch, Cactus Sparrow. — Texas-Fink (German). 



SCIENTIFIC NAMES: EMBBRNAGRA RUFIVIRGATA Lawr. (1851). Zonotrichia plebeja Licht. (1856). 



DESCRIPTION: "Above, plain olive-green, the top of the head with two dull chestnut-brown (lateral) and 

 one grayish or olive-greenish (median) stripes; sides of head, grayish, with a brown streak behind 

 eye; lower parts, dull white, strongly tinged anteriorly and laterally with pale buffy-grayisk ; edge of 

 wing, bright yellow. 



"Length, 6.00 to 6.75 inches; wing, 3.60 to 2.75; tail, 2.50 to 2.70 inches." (Ridgway.) 



TOWrtEE, OR CrtEWINK. 



Pipilo erythropbtbalmus ViEiLLOT. 



Plate XXV. Fig. 4 and 5. 



Climbing the loose-piled wall that hems 

 The road alongr the mill-pond's brink. 



From 'neath the arching barberry stems 

 My foot-step scares the shy Chewink. 



I/OWEUl.. 



MONG the tenants of the shrubbery and undergrowth of our woodland borders 

 ^^S. the vivacious and rather jaunty Chewink, or Towhee, is my special favorite. 

 The thought of this beautiful and poetical bird brings back to my memory recollections 

 of my earliest woodland rambles. The fields and forests, the hills and vernal w^oodland 

 glens of those days are still before me. The richly flowing and withal so tender song of 

 the exquisite Rose-breasted Grosbeak and the enchantingly beautiful hymn of the Veery 

 still seem to resound in my ears. In a remote corner on our farm was at that time an 

 extensive swamp, covered by a dense growth of tamarack trees, elms, and ashes. Around 

 this the trees were almost entirely cleared away, and thickets of hazel bushes, black 

 haws, high bush cranberry shrubs, witch hazel, red branched dogwood, wild gooseberry 

 shrubs, and dense masses of raspberry and blackberry bushes had sprung up. The many 

 half rotten stumps were full of holes occupied by the ever active Nuthatches and 

 Chickadees, by Flickers and Red-headed Woodpeckers. Bronzed Grackles were exceed- 

 ingly common in the swamp, while the dense thickets surrounding it appeared to be 

 the very paradise of Indigo Buntings, Catbirds, Thrashers, Yellow Warblers, Song and 

 Swamp Sparrows and Vireos. 



An old log fence, which separated this part of the farm from the adjoining woods, 

 was converted into a picture of beauty by wild grape-vines and the Virginia creeper. 

 Many of the thickets were covered by climbing plants, such as moonseed*, virgin's 

 bower ^, and honey -suckles *. In May and June this locality was exceedingly beautiful, 



I Menispermum Canadensc. 2 Clematis Virginiana, 3 L,onicera hirsuta. 



