186 
TOWHE BUNTING. 
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 
seldom see more than two together. About the middle or 
20th of April, they arrive in Pennsylvania, and begin building ? 
about the first week in May. The nest is fixed on the ground i 
among the dry leaves, near, and sometimes under, a thicket 
of briars, and is large and substantial. The outside is formed of 
leaves and dry pieces of grape-vine bark, and the inside, of fine 
stalks of dried grass, the cavity completely sunk beneath the 
surface of the ground, and sometimes half covered above with 
dry grass or hay. The eggs are usually five, of a pale flesh 
colour, thickly marked 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 Pennsylvania to the 
south about the 12th 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 husbandman, generally preferring the woods, and tra- 
versing the bottom of fences sheltered with briars. He is 
generally very plump and fat ; and, when confined in a cage, 
soon becomes familiar. In Virginia, 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 conceals his nest. 
