Evening star., 1944-05-26
This and That
By Charles E. Tracepell..
"KENsINGTON, Md.

Dear Sir
I'm recent issue of The Star you had
an article on bird of many names.
among others the joree. We have a
bird OF this name in South Carolina,
and the natives frequently use the ex-
preston as poor as joree.' The word
poor is not used in the sense of being
poor in flesh or thin, but in the sense
OF being low in funds.
I have always been curious about
this expression and whenever I heard
it I inquired its origin. Can you tell
me how the expression came about and
why 1t ever was connected with this
bird?
Thanking you, I am
Yours sincerely, w. r. D."
From G. c. S., who lives next door to
Mr.. D., comes the following:
Dear sir:
DAY before yesterday I found on my
back lawn three white eggs about an
inch long and rather glossy.
why and how they came there is
what I'd like to know.
The last two days there has been
none added. They were about three
feet apart.
Hoping you can solve the mystery,
I am
Sincerely, G. c. S."
X
The towhee, known is some sections
OF the country as joree, is one of our
most interesting birds.
1t breeds in the mountains and near
the coast of the Carolinas, and west
OF Raleigh is considered a permanent
resident
North OF North Carolina, according to
Charlotte Hilton Green, in her Birds of
the South" it generally is known as a
summer bird and south of it as a winter
bird, arriving about the first of October
and leaving in early May. 1t is more
abundant in the South during migra-
ton.
In Louisiana the towhee is called the
grasel, while in other parts of the South
it is called, variously, the joree, joreeper
and cheWink.
AS to the expression "as poor as
joree," our guess is that it comes from
the scratching habit of the bird.
No other species sets up such a COM
motion among dry leaves as the bird
scratches for its dinner trying to un-
earth an insect.
Perhaps the idea behind the express
sion is that any bird which has to do
so almighty much scratching for living
must be poor, indeed
The toWhee nest is made on the
ground and we'll concealed, so that
often they are stepped upon.
Mrs. Green says: "A thicket-loving
bird, the towhee Is fonder of second
growth and scrub or bushy pastures
than OF woods. 1t Is a most energetic
scratcher and in action resembles a
hen at her busiest. No other bird, un-
less it be the brown thrasher or the
wood thrush, can so make the leaves
and rubbish fly in its search for seeds
and insects"
We believe Mrs Green must have
confused the wood thrush with the fox
sparrow, another scratcher, because we
have never seen wood thrush scratch
for its dinner, except in a most per-
functory manner under shrubbery.
Certainly it cannot be put in the same
class as the towhee, the fox sparrow
and the thrasher in this respect.
Our second correspondent mystery
of the three eggs makes one wonder if
small boy has not been up to tricks
The eggs sound as though they might
be bob-White eggs, but their symmetri-
cal disposition is another matter
If they were eggs which had been
seized by blue jay and then dropped
there is little chance they would have
landed so symmetrically, or not have
been broken.
Sometimes hens have difficulty in lay
| ing, and drop eggs almost any place
There Is a chance that stray bob
white might have laid the eggs.
1t would be interesting to try incuba-
ton, at about 100 degrees, on these eggs
and see what one would get, or put them
! under q hen.