[Illustration: Fig. 8.--Towhee. Length, about 8 inches.]
The towhee, chewink, or ground robin[23] (fig. 8), as it is variously
known, inhabits nearly the whole of the United States east of the Great
Plains. It breeds from the Middle States northward and winters in the
southern half of the country. Naturally associated with the catbird and
brown thrasher, it lives in much the same places, though it is more given
to haunting hedgerows along roads and fences. After snow has disappeared
in early spring an investigation of the rustling so often heard among the
leaves near a fence or in a thicket will frequently disclose a towhee
hard at work scratching for his dinner after the manner of a hen; and
in these places and along the sunny border of woods old leaves will
be found overturned where the bird has been searching for hibernating
beetles and larvæ. The good which the towhee does in this way can hardly
be overestimated, since the death of a single insect at this time,
before it has had an opportunity to deposit its eggs, is equivalent to
the destruction of a host later in the year. The towhee has also been
credited with visiting potato fields and feeding upon the potato beetle.
Its vegetable food consists of seeds and small wild fruits, but no
complaint on this score is known to have been made. So for as observation
goes, the bird never touches either cultivated fruit or grain; in fact,
it is too shy and retiring even to stay about gardens for any length of
time.
[23] _Pipilo erythrophthalmus_.