The Spotted Towhees 



you on a common level. If dinner be the quest, here is a table always 

 spread. Help yourself, for "self-service" is the inflexible rule, and "hors 

 d'onvres" the exception. Under a fragment of a tree's cast-off garment 

 lies a grub in wriggling invitation ; and here where weeds of two genera- 

 tions have cast their bones, a spider, not adroit enough by half, has con- 

 cealed a hamper full of toothsome eggs. Dinner is from six to six (and 

 again from six to six for the night shift), and the full belly is to the indus- 

 trious. Towhee is thoroughly at home here, and scratching for food is his 

 job. This he pursues not by the methodical clutch and scrape of the old 

 hen, but by a succession of backward kicks, executed with spirit by both 

 feet at once, and assisted by a compensatory flash of the wings. By this 

 method not only lurking insects but fallen seeds of a hundred sorts are 



brought quickly to light, and these the bird swiftly 



devours. 



But we started to speak of Towhee's pre- 

 eminence, not of his dining. His chieftainship 



1 i 



Taken in Pasadena 



SAN DIEGO TOWHEE, FEMALE 



Photo by Donald R. Dickey 



394 



