GROUND ROBIN, OR TOWWEE FINCH. 517 
like ’ bid tsherr WJi Wh , rrh ’ wt , then ’t’wee twee t } tsher 9 
r’r, also et se ya, ya ’ya ’ ya 9 ya 9 ya , the latter notes, at- 
tempted to be expressed by whistled and contracted con- 
sonant syllables, are trilled with this sound. 
The Ground Robin, sometimes also called TsJie-winJc 
and Pee-ivink from another of its notes, is a general in- 
habitant of Canada and the United States, even to the 
base of the Rocky Mountains, and the peninsula of Flori- 
da, in all of which regions, except the last, with Louisia- 
na and the contiguous countries, they pass the summer 
and rear their young, migrating, however, from the North- 
ern and Middle States in October, and returning again 
about the middle or close of April, according to the ad- 
vancement of the season, at which time, also, the males 
usually precede the arrival of their mates. They pass 
the winter generally to the south of Pennsylvania, and are 
then very abundant in all the milder states of the 
Union. 
They are said to show some address at times in conceal- 
ing their nest, which is fixed on the ground, in a dry and 
elevated situation, and sunk beneath the surface among 
the fallen leaves, sometimes under the shelter of a small 
bush, thicket, or briar. According to the convenience 
of the site, it is formed of different materials, sometimes, 
according to Wilson, being made of leaves, strips of grape- 
vine bark, lined with fine stalks of dry grass, and occa- 
sionally in part hidden with hay or herbage. Most of 
the nests in this vicinity are made in solitary dry pine 
woods, without any other protection than some small bush, 
or accidental fallen leaves ; and the external materials, 
rather substantial, are usually slightly agglutinated strips 
of red-cedar bark, or withered grass with a neat lining of 
the same and fallen pine leaves ; the lining sometimes 
made wholly of the latter. The nest is also at times ele- 
44 
