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90 



FEMALE TOWHEE BUNTING. 

 EMBEBIZA ERYTHROPTHALMA. 

 [Plate LIII.— Fig. 5.] 



Amer. Orn. v, II, p. 35. — Turt. Syst p. 534. — Peaie's Museum, JVo. 5970. 



THIS bird differs considerably from the male in color; and 

 has, if I mistake not, been described as a distinct species by Eu- 

 ropean naturalists, under the appellation of the " Busty Bunting J' 

 The males of this species, like those of the preceding, arrive seve- 

 ral days sooner than the females. In one afternoon^s walk through 

 the woods, on the twenty-third of April, I counted more than fifty 

 of the former, and did not observe any of the latter, tho I made a 

 very close search for them. This species frequents in great num- 

 bers the barrens covered with shrub oaks; and inhabits even to the 

 tops of our mountains. They are almost perpetually scratching 

 among the fallen leaves, and feed chiefly on worms, beetles and 

 gravel. They fly low, flirting out their broad white-streaked tail, 

 and uttering their common note Tow-hee, They build always on 

 the ground, and raise two brood in the season. For a particular 

 account of the manners of this species see our history of the male, 

 vol. II, p. 35. 



The female Tow-hee is eight inches long, and ten inches in 

 extent; iris of the eye a deep blood color; bill black; plumage 

 above and on the breast a dark reddish drab, reddest on the head 

 and breast; sides under the wings light chesnut; belly white; 

 vent yellow ochre; exterior vanes of the tertials white; a small 

 spot of white marks the primaries immediately below their co- 

 verts, and another slighter streak crosses them in a slanting direc- 



