TOW HE BUNTING. 
G5 
feathers white for an inch or so from the tips, the outer" One wholly 
white, the middle ones black ; the bill is black ; the legs and feet a dirty 
flesh color, and strong for scratching up the ground. The female differs 
in being of a light reddish brown in those parts where the male is black ; 
and in having the bill more of a light horn color. 
EMBERIZA ER YTHR OPUTHA LMA. 
TOW HE BUNTING. 
[Plate LIII. Fig. 5, Female.] 
Turt. Syst. p. 534. 
Tins bird differs considerably from the male in color ; and has, if I 
mistake not, been described as a distinct species by European naturalists, 
under the appellation of the "Rusty Bunting." The males of this 
species, arrive several 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, though I 
made a very close search for them. This species frequents, in great 
numbers, 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 Toivlie. They build always on the ground, and raise two 
broods in the season. For a particular account of the manners of this 
species, see our history of the male. 
The female Towhe 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 chestnut ; belly white ; vent yellow ochre ; exterior 
vanes of the tertials Avhite ; a small spot of white marks the primaries 
immediately below their coverts, and another slighter streak crosses 
them in a slanting direction ; the three exterior tail feathers are tipped 
with white ; the legs and feet flesh-colored. 
This species seems to have a peculiar dislike to the sea coast, as in 
the most favorable situations, in other respects, within several miles of 
the sea, k is scarcely ever to be met with. Scarcity of its particular 
kinds of a favorite food in such places may probably be the reason ; as 
it is well known that many kinds of insects, on the larvte of which it 
usually feeds, carefully avoid the neighborhood of the sea. 
Vol." II.— 5 • 
