154 BULLETIN : MUSEUM OF COMPAKATIYE ZOOLOGY. 



At San Josd del Rancho Mr. Frazar collected three nests of this Towhee, 

 on July 20, 24, and 29 respectively. They are composed of dry grass and 

 weed-stalks, one having also a few twigs on the outside. One is lined with 

 black horsehair, another with mixed white and black horsehair, the third with 

 horsehair and fine grass. All three are considerably smaller than a nest of 

 P. /. crissalis in my collection. Two were built in bushes and one in a tree, 

 the height varying from six to eight feet. Each nest contained three eggs. 

 Those of the set taken on July 24 were slightly incubated, all the others 

 freshlj' laid. The ground color of these eggs is greenish white with a tinge of 

 bluish, very like that of eggs of the Red-winged Blackbird. They are marked, 

 chiefly about the larger ends, with irregular spots, dashes, and pen-lines of 

 lavender and purplish black. They average .97 X .68, with extremes of .99 X 

 .70, .98 X .64, and .96 X .69. Dr. Brewer mentions^ a nest found by Mr. 

 Xantus in a " wild Humulus thicket," and another " in a thicket of wild roses 

 in the garden fence.'' One of these nests contained four eggs. 



Oreospiza chlorura (Acd.). 



Green-tailed Towhee. 



Pi'pilo cMorurus Belding, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus.,V. 188.3, 540 (Cape Region) ; VI. 

 1883, 348 (Victoria Mts.). Bryant, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2d sen, IL 1889, 

 804 (Cape Region). 



The Green-tailed Towhee is a rather common winter resident in the Cape 

 Region, frequenting alike the open, arid country near the coast and the wooded 

 canons and slopes of the mountains, but evidently preferring the latter. Mr. 

 Frazar found it most numerously at San Jos6 del Rancho and Triunfo. It 

 was rare at La Paz in January, February, and March, but not uncommon at 

 San Jose del Cabo after October 4, the date of its first appearance in autumn. 

 A single specimen (a female), taken on the Sierra de la Laguna on May 25, 

 was probably a belated straggler, for the next previous date was April 21, when 

 one was seen at Triunfo. Mr. Bryant " obtained specimens on Santa Mar- 

 garita Island and at various places on the peninsula," to the northward. 



This Towhee is apparently nowhere common along the coast of California, 

 where it occurs chiefly during migration, and where, near the southern bound- 

 ary, a few are said to winter, also. It breeds on the higher mountains of Los 

 Angeles county, California, and northward along the eastern slope of the 

 Sierras nearly or quite to the Columbia River. In winter it is found in western 

 Mexico, as far south as Sinaloa. 



1 Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Hist. N. Amer. Birds, II. 1874, 128. 



