172 TOWHEE, OR CHBWINK. 



Pink-pink, and Wink-wink. Its plumage is very tasteful, mostly deep black relieved by 

 white and — on the sides — by a very fine chestnut-brown. This chestnut-brown color has 

 obtained for our bird the name of Ground Robin and Swamp Robin. From its beautiful 

 red iris it is often called Red-eyed Towhee. 



The Towhee is one of our finest and most strongly characterized native birds. 

 Prequenting close and sheltered thickets it spends much of its time on the ground among 

 the old leaves, scratching and searching for insects and their larvEe. Though a tenant 

 of retired localities, it is far from being a shy and wild bird. On the contrary, it .is one 

 of our most popular birds, being well known and well liked among the country people. 

 Of its familiarity and popularity its many common names are an ample proof. 



"Next to the splendid Cardinal," says Mr. Ridgway, "the Chewink is decidedly 

 the finest of our terrestrial Finches, and in some respects is, perhaps, the most attractive 

 of all. Without brilliant or gaudy coloring, his plumage is yet handsome by reason of 

 its bold contrasts. His notes possess a peculiar charm, and notwithstanding his abode 

 is in the thickets of the wildwood and the remote corners of the farm, no bird is more 

 confiding in the presence of man." 



Its chosen haunts . are always the bushy woodland borders and the dense under- 

 wood in the forest, though it does not penetrate far into the dark interior. In Wis- 

 consin it prefers such localities as I have described, and in northern Illinois it is usually 

 common in the borders of woodlands traversed by a creek or a river, avoiding 

 entirely the higher oak-woods on the prairies. Not many years ago it was a common 

 bird in the woods near the Desplaines in the vicinity of Oak Park. Wild crab-trees, 

 white-thorns, black haws, hazel and blackberry bushes formed dense masses of verdure 

 on the edge of the woods, while the interior was also overgrown by extensive thickets. Its 

 nearest neighbors here were Catbirds, Thrashers, Wood Thrushes, Yellow Warblers, Indigo 

 Buntings, Red-eyed Vireos, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and Scarlet Tanagers,the latter three 

 occupying the "upper story" of the woods, while the former were tenants of the lower. 

 In Wisconsin the vegetation of its haunts is exceptionally dense and vigorous, no doubt 

 owing to the many old tree trunks lying around on the ground and being in all states 

 of decomposition. Old logs and low stumps are its common resting places, from which 

 re-echos its loud metallic call-note which is usually accompanied by a peculiar flirt of 

 its long tail. Brooks and springs are usually found not far away, or, in absence of 

 these, ponds or swamps are certainly near at hand. In south-western Missouri I found 

 the Towhee always in rather damp places, where the red snowberry, the basket- 

 vines of the settlers, luxuriated vigorovjsly and where dense thickets of hazel bushes, 

 gooseberry shrubs, masses of wild roses {Rosa setigera), persimon trees, often covered 

 from top to bottom with wild grape-vines, smilax, or the trumpet creeper, were 

 flourishing. In this locality the Cardinal Redbird, the Yellow-breasted Chat, the 

 Hooded Warbler and Catbird, the Blue Grosbeak, Field Sparrow, Indigobird, the White- 

 eyed and Bell's Vireos were the Towhee's next neighbors. The dense masses of snow- 

 berry bushes afforded all these birds excellent nesting places and shelter against the 

 inclemencies of the weather and against their many foes. In the mountains of eastern 

 Kentucky and Tennessee the Chewink is always to be found in the magnificent masses 

 of mountain laurels {Kalmia latifolia), azaleas, iindromedas, and rhododendrons, but it 



