TOWHEE, OR CHEWINK. 175 



screaming is uttered in such plaintive and pitiful tones that the kind-hearted oljserver 

 often quickly leaves the place. In Missouri several pairs were perfectly convinced of iny 

 harmlessness, hence they never showed any sign of excitement, when I inspected the nest. 

 Frequently one, two, and even three eggs of the detestable parasite and vagabond, the 

 Cowbird, are found in the nest of the Ground Robin. I often had occasion to call the 

 attention of my readers to the fact that every brood, in which a Cowbird's egg is found, 

 is lost. The parasite only leaA'es the nest, while the legitimate occupants have either 

 been thrown out or robbed of their food by the young Cowbird and were thus 

 doomed to starvation.— Even in the North with its comparatively short summers 

 the Towhee seems to raise two broods, as I have found fresh sets of eggs as late 

 as July 10 in Wisconsin. While the female hatches, the male not only guards her care- 

 fully, but supplies her with food and utters to her his sweetest and most persuasive 

 notes. Thirteen and fourteen days is the nesting time, and the first days after the 

 young are hatched the male alone supplies the nestlings with food. I have observed 

 several times that the male was hatching while the female was looking for food. Per- 

 haps these birds, like many others, attend alternately to their parental duties. 



The Towhee inhabits the region east of the Rocky Mountains, being found as far 

 north and west as Minnesota and eastern Dakota, and breeding from south-eastern 

 Texas and northern Alabama and Georgia northward. It winters largely in the Gulf 

 States. Although I have found no nests in Texas, I am convinced of their breeding in 

 the woods near Spring Creek (Harris Co.), where I observed several pairs all the year 

 round. In Texas and Louisiana, the Towhee usually appears suddenly in November 

 with other seed-eaters from the North. In Missouri they are most common during the 

 month of October. "As we walk along the weedy old 'snake' fences and thick hedges," 

 writes Dr. Elliott Coues, "or by the briery tracts marking the course of a tiny water- 

 thread through a field, scores of the humble gray Sparrows flit before us; while ever 

 and again the jaunty Towhee, smartly dressed in black, white, and chestnut, comes 

 into view, flj'ing low, with a saucy flirt of the tail, and dashes again into the 

 covert as quickly as it emerged, crying tow-bee with startling distinctness. In the 

 spring it is less conspicuous, and more likely to be found in low, tangled woods, 

 amid laureJ brakes and the like, on the ground rustling and busily scratching the 

 matting of the last year's leaves that covers the earth, doubtless in search of insects. 

 Its notes are then louder, and oftcner heard. Some say that the males precede the 

 females in migrating; this raaj^ average true, but I have constantly found the sexes 

 together at both seasons. This is only a partially gregarious bird, large gatherings 

 being seldom witnessed. In fact it seems to prefer the society of the smaller and plainer 

 Sparrows, among which it shines without difliculty, doubtless patronizing them in the 

 genteel way, costumary with big folks, that is so exasperatingly oppressive to the 

 recipients." 



In Wisconsin they first make their appearance from the South late in April, the 

 majority arriving during the first week of May. Should the season be far advanced, the 

 first migrants sometimes appear by the middle of April near Milwaukee. They usually 

 move in pairs or alone, never in large flocks. In mild winters some are found in sheltered 

 places in south-western Missouri. Mr. Widmann saw several in winter near St. Louis in 



