(_Pipilo erythrophthalmus_) Finch family
_Called also_: GROUND ROBIN; TOWHEE; TOWHEE BUNTING; TOWHEE GROUND
FINCH; GRASEL
_Length_--8 to 8.5 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the
robin.
_Male_--Upper parts black, sometimes margined with rufous.
Breast white; chestnut color on sides and rump. Wings marked
with white. Three outer feathers of tail striped with white,
conspicuous in flight. Bill black and stout. Red eyes; feet
brown.
_Female_--Brownish where the male is black. Abdomen shading
from chestnut to white in the centre.
_Range_--From Labrador, on the north, to the Southern States;
west to the Rocky Mountains.
_Migrations_--April. September and October. Summer resident.
Very rarely a winter resident at the north.
The unobtrusive little chewink is not infrequently mistaken for a
robin, because of the reddish chestnut on its under parts. Careful
observation, however, shows important distinctions. It is rather
smaller and darker in color; its carriage and form are not those of
the robin, but of the finch. The female is smaller still, and has an
olive tint in her brown back. Her eggs are inconspicuous in color,
dirty white speckled with brown, and laid in a sunken nest on the
ground. Dead leaves and twigs abound, and form, as the anxious mother
fondly hopes, a safe hiding place for her brood. So careful
concealment, however, brings peril to the fledglings, for the most
cautious bird-lover may, and often does, inadvertently set his foot on
the hidden nest.
The chewink derives its name from the fancied resemblance of its note
to these syllables, while those naming it "towhee" hear the sound
_to-whick_, _to-whick_, _to-whee_. Its song is rich, full, and
pleasing, and given only when the bird has risen to the branches above
its low foraging ground.
It frequents the border of swampy places and bushy fields. It is
generally seen in the underbrush, picking about among the dead leaves
for its steady diet of earthworms and larvA| of insects, occasionally
regaling itself with a few dropping berries and fruit.
When startled, the bird rises not more than ten or twelve feet from
the earth, and utters its characteristic calls. On account of this
habit of flying low and grubbing among the leaves, it is sometimes
called the ground robin. In the South our modest and useful little
food-gatherer is often called grasel, especially in Louisiana, where
it is white-eyed, and is much esteemed, alas! by epicures.
[Illustration: TOWHEE (Upper Figure, Female; Lower Figure, Male)]
[Illustration: ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK (Upper Figure, Female;
Lower Figure, Male)]