118 XOKTII AMEKICAX BIRDS. 



At Carson City, earty in ilarcli, his attention wp.s attracted by the peculiar 

 notes- of this Pipllu ; the bird was sitting on a high rock above the tliick 

 chaparral of the hillside, and shai-jjly defined against the sky. It was readily 

 distinguishable by the black of its head and breast, in sharp contrast with 

 tlie pure white of its lower parts. Every few moments it would raise its head 

 to utter, in a short trill, its rude song. When approached, it would jerk 

 its expanded white-tipped tail, and di.sappear among the bushes. It was 

 almndant in tlie chaparrals, on tlie hillsides, and among the thickets and 

 butfalii-berry bushes along the rivers. The males were in i'uH song, perching, 

 as they sang, on a prominent rock or bush. 



Mr. Nuttall met with a nest of this species on the 14th of June. It was 

 built in tlie slielter of a low undershrub, in a depression scratched out for its 

 reception. It was made of a ratlier copious lining of clean wiry grass, with 

 some dead leaves beneath, as a foundation. The eggs were four, nearly 

 hatched, very closely resembling those of the Towhee, thickly spotted over, 

 but more so at the larger end, with very small round and very numerous 

 reddisli-chocolate spots. The pair showed great solicitude about their nest, 

 the male, in particular, ap]iroaching boldly to scold and lament at the dan- 

 gerous intrusion. 



The Oregon Ground Robin Mr. Lord considered a quaint and restless 

 bird. He found it very abundant from the coast to the summit of tlie Rocky 

 Mountains, and also very common on Vancouver Island. It arrives the last 

 of April and first of May, and frequents dark woods and thick tangled 

 underl)rush. He describes it as stealthy and shy, with a habit of hiding, 

 but its cry usually betrays its place of concealment. This cry he states to 

 be like the squall of the Catbird. 



Mr. Townsend found it abundant on the Columbia, where, as he observed, 

 it lived mostly on the ground, or on bushes near the ground, rarely ascending 

 trees. Mr. Audubon gives the measurement of its egg as 1.12 inches in 

 length and .87 in breadth. 



The egg of this species is more rounded than are those of this genus gen- 

 erally, and there is but little difference between tlie two ends. The gi-ound- 

 color is white, with a gi-eenish tinge, and is very generally and profusely 

 spotted witli fine markings of reddish and purplish-brown. They measure 

 .95 by .80 of an inch. 



