Conspicuously Black and White 



decrease in numbers, take extra precautions for the safety of their 

 young by making very deep excavations for their nests, often as 

 deep as eighteen or twenty inches. 



The Chewink 



(Piptlo erythropbtbalmus) Finch family 



Called also: GROUND ROBIN ; TOWHEE ; TOWHEE BUNT- 

 ING ; TOWHEE GROUND FINCH ; GRASEL 



Length — 8 to 8. 5 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin. 

 Male — Upper parts black, sometimes margined with rufous. Breast 



white; chestnut color on sides and rump. Wings marked 



with white. Three outer feathers of tail striped with white, 



conspicuous in flight. Bill black and stout. Redeyes; feet 



brown. 

 Female — Brownish where the male is black. Abdomen shading 



from chestnut to white in the centre. 

 Range— From Labrador, on the north, to the Southern States ; 



west to the Rocky Mountains. 

 Migrations — April. September and October. Summer resident. 



Very rarely a winter resident at the north. 



The unobtrusive little chewink is not infrequently mistaken 

 tor a robin, because of the reddish chestnut on its under parts. 

 Careful observation, however, shows important distinctions. It 

 is rather smaller and darker in color; its carriage and form are 

 not those of the robin, but of the finch. The female is smaller 

 still, and has an olive tint in her brown back. Her eggs are in- 

 conspicuous in color, dirty white speckled with brown, and laid 

 in a sunken nest on the ground. Dead leaves and twigs abound, 

 and form, as the anxious mother fondly hopes, a safe hiding 

 place for her brood. So careful concealment, however, brings 

 peril to the fledglings, for the most cautious bird-lover may, and 

 often does, inadvertently set his foot on the hidden nest. 



The chewink derives its name from the fancied resemblance 

 of its note to these syllables, while those naming it "towhee" 

 hear the sound to-whick, to-whick, to-whee. Its song is rich, 

 full, and pleasing, and given only when the bird has risen to the 

 branches above its low foraging ground. 



It frequents the border of swampy places and bushy fields. 



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