In spite of this troublesome habit, the linnet is a most engaging little bird. Its sweet bubbling song, not unlike that of the purple finch, adds much to the charm of California.
TOWHEE
THE TOWHEE OR CHEWINK
CALLED ALSO GROUND ROBIN AND CHAREE
Finch Family—Fringillidæ
Length: About 8½ inches; smaller than the robin and larger than the oriole.
General Appearance: A black bird with reddish-brown sides, black breast, and white belly; outer tail-feathers tipped with white.
Male: Head, back, throat, and breast, a glossy black; wings black, outer feathers edged with white; tail black, outer edge of outer feather white; three other feathers partly white, decreasing in size toward middle of tail; belly white; eyes dark red.
Female: Brownish, where male is black. The young are streaked with black.
Call-note: A cheerful cha-ree, uttered with a rising inflection. The note is also interpreted as tow hee′? chewink′? jaree′? An engaging trait of this bird is his almost invariable response to one imitating his note.
Song: Two notes, followed by a trill. The song may be translated into chip-chur, pussy-pussy-willow.
Habitat: Woodlands, where he is first found in April scratching among old leaves like fox sparrows, white-throats, and other members of his family.
Range: Eastern North America. Breeds from southern Canada and Maine to central Kansas and northern Georgia; winters from southeastern Nebraska, the Ohio and Potomac Valleys to central Texas, the Gulf Coast, and southern Florida.
The WHITE-EYED TOWHEE is found on the Atlantic Coast region from about Charleston, South Carolina, to southern Florida. He resembles his northern cousin except that his eyes are white, and that his wings and tail have less white on them. There are several species of towhee in our western states.
Before the trees are in leaf, there appears in our April woods a lively, trim, and attractive bird who makes himself known in no uncertain manner. So bustling and energetic is he, so cheerful and self-confident, without unpleasant aggressiveness, that he always attracts attention. The uninitiated frequently call him an oriole, whom he does resemble in having a glossy black head, throat, back, and tail, and white markings on his wings, with reddish-brown like that of the orchard oriole on his sides; but there the resemblance ceases, for the oriole has in addition a reddish-brown breast, belly, and rump. Then, too, the towhee arrives early, before larvæ have hatched; the oriole arrives in May, when swarms of insects have begun their work of fertilizing blossoms of fruit trees.
Professor Beal writes of the towhee as follows: “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 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 egg, is equivalent to the destruction of a host later in the year.”[91]
While attending to business, this ground robin seems most materialistic and worldly-minded; but when satisfied with his quest for food, “a change comes over the spirit of his dreams.” He perches upon a low bough; in a sweet and joyous song he reveals his passionate devotion to his mate, and brings pleasure to listeners whose ears are attuned to the sounds of Nature.