272 
FRINGILLA ERYTHROPHTHALMA. 
among the dry leaves, near, and sometimes under, a 
thicket of briers, and is large and substantial. The 
outside is formed of leaves and 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. 
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 depre- 
dations on the harvest of the husbandman, generally 
preferring the woods, and traversing the bottom of 
fences sheltered with briers. 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 contri- 
butes a little to the harmony of our woods in spring 
and summer ; and is remarkable for the cunning with 
which he conceals his nest. 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 per- 
manent, 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 
