Their migrations are performed by day, from bush to bush, and they seem to be much at a loss when a large extent of forest is to be traversed by them. They perform these journeys almost singly. The females set out before the males in autumn, and the males before the females in spring, the latter not appearing in the Middle Districts until the end of April, a fortnight after the males have arrived. Many of them pass the confines of the United States in their migrations southward and northward.
Although these birds are abundant in all parts of the Union, they never associate in flocks, but mingle during winter with several species of Sparrow. They generally rest on the ground at night, when many are caught by weasels and other small quadrupeds. None of them breed in Louisiana, nor indeed in the State of Mississippi, until they reach the open woods of the Choctaw Indian Nation.
I have represented the male and female moving through the twigs of the Common Briar, usually called the Black Briar. It is a plump bird, and becomes very fat in winter, in consequence of which it is named Grasset in Louisiana, where many are shot for the table by the French planters.
Fringilla erythrophthalma, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 318.—Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 112.
Emberiza erythrophthalma, Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. i. p. 413.
Towhe Bunting, Emberiza ehythrophthalma, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 35. PI. 10. fig. 5, Male; vol. vi. p. 90. PI. 53. fig. 5. Female—Lath. Synops. vol. iii. p. 199.
Adult Male. Plate XXIX. Fig. 1.
Bill short, robust, narrower than the head, regularly conical, acute; upper mandible almost straight in its dorsal outline, as is the lower, both having inflected edges; the gap line nearly straight, a little deflected at the base. Nostrils basal, roundish, open, partially concealed by the feathers. Head rather large, neck shortish, body robust. Legs of moderate length, rather robust; tarsus longer than the middle toe, covered anteriorly with a few longish scutella; toes scutellate above, free, the lateral ones nearly equal; claws slender, arched, compressed, acute, that of the hind toe long.
Plumage rather compact above, soft and blended beneath. Wings of
