TOWHE BUNTING. ^5 



the heart ; the fihres of the last were also exceedingly strong. 

 The brain was in large quantity, and very thin ; the tongue, 

 from the tip to an extent equal with the length of the bill, 

 was perforated, forming two closely attached parallel and 

 cylindrical tubes ; the other extremities of the tongue corre- 

 sponded exactly to those of the woodpecker, passing up the 

 hind head, and reaching to the base of the upper mandible. 

 These observations were verified in five different subjects, all 

 of whose stomachs contained fragments of insects, and some 

 of them whole ones. 



TOWHE BUNTING. (Emberiza erythropthalma.) 



PLATE X.— Fig. 5. 



Fringilla erythropthalma, Linn. Syst. p. 318, 6. — Le Pinson de la Caroline, Briss. 

 Orn. iii. p. 169, 4i.—Buff. Ois. iv. p. 141.— Lath. ii. p. 199, No. 43.— 

 Catesb. Car. i. plate 34.— PeaWs Museum, No. 5970. 



PIPILO ER YTHBOPTHALMA.—Vieillot. 



Pipilo erythropthalma, Vieill. Gal. des Ois. plate 80. — Fringilla erythropthalma, 

 Bonap. Synop. p. 112.— The Towhe Bunting, And. plate 29, male and female, 

 Orn. Bioy. i. p. 150. 



This^is a very common, but humble and inoffensive species, 

 frequenting close sheltered thickets, where it spends most of 

 its time in scratching up the leaves for worms, and for the 

 larvae and eggs of insects. It is far from being shy, frequently 

 suffering a person to walk round the bush or thicket where it 

 is at work, without betraying any marks of alarm, and when 

 disturbed, uttering the notes tow-he repeatedly. At times 

 the male mounts to the top of a small tree, and chants his 

 few simple notes for an hour at a time. These are loud, not 

 unmusical, something resembling those of the yellow, hammer 

 of Britain, but more mellow and more varied. He is fond of 

 thickets with a southern exposure, near streams of water, and 

 where there is plenty of dry leaves ; and is found generally 

 over the whole United States. He is not gregarious, and you 



