TOWHE BUNTING. 
187 
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 Linnseus has bestowed on this 
bird, is deduced from the colour of the iris of its eye, which, 
in those that visit Pennsylvania, is dark red. But I am 
suspicious that this colour 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 colour during its 
residence in Pennsylvania : perhaps this may brighten into a 
white during winter, and these may have been all birds of the 
preceding year, which had not yet received the full colour of 
the eye. 
The Towhe Bunting is eight inches and a half long, and 
eleven broad ; above, black, which also descends, rounding on 
the breast, the sides of which are bright bay, spreading along 
under the wings ; the belly is white ; the vent, pale rufous ; a 
spot of white marks the wing just below the coverts, and 
another a little below that extends obliquely across the pri- 
maries ; the tail is long, nearly even at the end ; the three 
exterior 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 colour, 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 colour.* 
* Mr Swainson makes Pipilo a sub-genus among the Sparrows. Six 
species have been described, and the above-mentioned gentleman has lately- 
received two in addition. They are confined to both continents of America, 
