36 



TOWHE BUNTING 



with specks of rufous, most numerous near the great end (see fig. 

 6). The young are produced about the beginning of June; and a 

 second brood commonly succeeds in the same season. This bird 

 rarely winters north of the state of Maryland; retiring from Penn- 

 sylvania to the south about the twelfth of October. Yet in the 

 middle districts of Virginia, and thence south to Florida, I found 

 it abundant during the months of January, February and March. 

 Its usual food is obtained by scratching up the leaves ; it also feeds, 

 like the rest of its tribe, on various hard seeds and gravel; but 

 rarely commits any depredations on the harvest of the husband- 

 man; generally preferring the woods, and traversing the bottom 

 of fences sheltered with briars. He is generally very plump and 

 fat; and when confined in a cage soon becomes familiar. In Vir- 

 ginia he is called the Bulfinch ; in many places the Towhe-bird; 

 in Pennsylvania the Chewink, and by others the Swamp Robin. 

 He contributes a little to the harmony of our woods in spring and 

 summer; and is remarkable for the cunning with which he con- 

 ceals his nest. He shews great affection for his young; and the 

 deepest marks of distress on the appearance of their mortal enemy 

 the Black snake. 



The specific name which Linnaeus has bestowed on this bird 

 is deduced from the color of the iris of its eye, which, in those that 

 visit Pennsylvania, is dark red. But I am suspicious that this color 

 is not permanent, but subject to a periodical change. I examined 

 a great number of these birds in the month of March, in Georgia, 

 every one of which had the iris of the eye white, Mr. Abbot of 

 Savannah assured me, that at this season, every one of these birds 

 he shot had the iris white, while at other times it was red ; and Mr. 

 Elliot, of Beaufort, a judicious naturalist, informed me, that in the 

 month of February he killed a Towhe Bunting with one eye red 

 and the other white! It should be observed that the iris of the 

 young bird^s eye is of a chocolate color, during its residence in 

 Pennsylvania ; perhaps this may brighten into a white during win- 



