TOW HE BUNTING. 
63 
bright bay; belly and vent dull white; bill light blue, dusky above, 
strong and powerful for breaking seeds ; legs and feet brown ; iris of 
the eye hazel. The female differs from the male in having little or no 
black on the breast, nor streak of yellow over the eye ; beneath the 
eye she has a dusky streak, running in the direction of the jaw. In 
all those I opened the stomach was filled with various seeds, gravel, 
eggs of insects, and sometimes a slimy kind of earth or clay. 
This bird lias been figured by Latham, Pennant, anil several others. 
The former speaks of a bird which he thinks is either the same, or 
nearly resembling it, that resides in summer in the country about Hud- 
son's Bay, and is often seen associating in flights with the geese;* tins 
habit, however, makes me suspect that it must be a different species; 
for while with us here the Black-throated Bunting is never gregarious ; 
but is almost always seen singly, or in pairs, or, at most, the individuals 
of one family together. 
Species II. EMBERIZA ERYTERO PETE ALMA. 
TOW HE BUNTING. 
[Plate X. Fig. 5, Male.] 
Fringilla ery/hrophthalma, Linn. Syst. p. 318, 6. — Le Pinson de la Caroline, Bmss. 
Orn. in., p. 169, 44. — Buff. Ois. iv., p. 141. — Lath, ii., p. 199, No. 43. — Catesb. 
Car. i., PL 34. 
This is a very common, but humble and inoffensive species, frecpuent- 
ing close sheltered thickets, where it spends most of its time in scratch- 
ing up the leaves for worms, and for the larvse 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 Towlte, 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 arc 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 expo- 
sure, 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 seldom see more than two together. About the 
middle or twentieth of April they arrive in Pennsylvania, and begin 
building about the first week in May. The nest is fixed on the ground 
* Lath. Syn. Suppl. p. 15S. 
