350 BIRDS—FRINGILLIDA. 
pact, constructed of small twigs and rootlets, and lined with grass. The 
eggs are four in number, very rarely five, white, thickly spotted with 
dark reddish-brown, which often forms a ring around the larger end. 
They vary in size and shape, nearly as much as those of the Cowbird, 
which they somewhat resemble, and which is sometimes found in the 
same nest. They measure from .98 to 1.10 inlength by from .78 to .80. 
Genus PIPILO. Vieillot. 
Bill rather stout, the lower jaw not so deep as, but wider, thanthe upper. Feet large, 
tarsus about equal to middle toe; outer toe a little Jonger than inner, equal to hind toe. 
Claws stout, compressed, moderately curved. Wings short, much rounded, reaching to- 
end of upper tail-coverts, outer four quilis graduated. ‘Tail longer than wings, gradu- 
ated externally. 
PIPILO ERYTHROPrHALMUS (L.) V. 
Towhe Bunting; Chewink. 
Fringilla erythropthalma, KIRTLAND, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 164.—RxEAD, Proc. Phila. 
Acad. Nat. Sci., vi, 1853, 395. 
Pipilo erythropthalmus, WHEATON, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 366; Reprint, 1861, >; Food 
of Birds, ete., Ohio Agric. Rep fer 1874, 566; Reprint, 1875, 6—LANGDON, Cat. Birds 
of Cin., 1877, 9; Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1¢78, 115; Reprint, 6; Revised List, 
Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., 1, 1879, 176; Reprint, 10. 
Fringilla erythropthalmus, LINNAUS, Syst. Nat, i, 1766, 318. 
Pipilo erythropthalmus, VIRILLOT, Gal. Ois., i, 1824, 109. 
Adult male: black, belly white, sides chestnut, crissum fulvous-brown; primaries and 
inner secondaries with white touches on the outer webs; outer tail feathers, with the 
outer web, and nearly the terminal half of the inner web, white, the next two or three 
with white spots, decreasing in size; bill blackish; feet pale brown; iris red in the 
adult, white or creamy in the young, and generally in winter specimens. Female: rich 
warm brown where the male is black; otherwise similar. Very young birds are streaked 
brown and dusky above, below whitish, tinged with brown and streaked with dusky. 
Length: male, 4; wing, 33; tail, 4; female rather less. 
Habitat, Eastern Province of North America to Minnesota, Canada, and Labrador; 
west to Kanvas and Fort Randall; replaced in northern Dakota by var. arcticus. 
Very common summer resident in Middle and Northern, resident 
throughout the year in Southern Ohio. Breeds. In the vicinity of Co- 
lumbus the Towhe is abundant from the middle of March to the middle 
of November, and I have taken single birds in every month of the 
year. It frequents thickets and woodland undergrowth. Sometimes 
when migrating they visit the gardens of the city. The common names, 
Towhe and Chewink, are imitations of its ordinary note, which is quick, 
ringing, and somewhat petulant, though not unpleasant. Its song is 
quite different; mounting like the Chat to the middle branches of a tall 
