368 FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 



592. Pipilo aberti Baird. Abert Towheb. 



Adults. — Lores and chin blackish; upper parts plain grayish bro-wn, 

 darkest on head ; quills edged with grayish ; lower parts pinkish brown, 

 lighter on belly, and deepening to tawny on under tail coverts. Young : 

 paler and duller, breast indistinctly streaked, Male : length (skins) 8.22- 

 9.14, wing 3.54-3.81, tail 4.17-4.72, bill .59-64. Female: length (skins) 

 7.97-8.68, wing 3.36-3.62, taU 3.97-4.31, bill .59-.62. 



Distribution. — Breeds in upper and lower Sonoran zones from Colorado 

 to southeastern California, Arizona, and New Mexico. 



Nest. — Rarely more than 5 feet from the ground, in willow thickets, 

 canebrake, low bushes, or mesquite ; bulky, loosely made of weed stalks, 

 inner bark, grass, and sticks, sometimes lined with inner bark or horse- 

 hair. Eggs: 2 to 4, pale blue, sparsely marked with dark brown and 

 black. 



The cinnamon colored aberti is the largest of the plain towhees. 

 It is said to be extremely shy. Major Bendire gives its alarm note 

 as huit huit. At Phoenix it is common among the mesquites and cot- 

 tonwoods. 



GENUS OREOSPIZA. 



592.1- Oreospiza ehlorura (^Mc?.). Green-tailed Towhee. 

 Bill small, conical ; wing rather long and pointed ; tail long, rounded ; 

 tarsus long, nearly a third the length of wing ; hind claw 

 longer than its toe. (Structurally intermediate between 

 Zonotrichia and Pipilo.) Adult male: top of head bright 

 rufous ; throat white ; upper parts olive gray, becoming 

 bright olive green on wings and tail ; malar stripe and 

 middle of belly white ; edge of wing, under wing coverts, 

 and axillars bright yellow. Adult female : usually slightly 

 Fig. 461. duller. Young: olive grayish, streaked with dusky; 



lower parts dingy white, chest and sides streaked with dusky ; wings and 

 tail like adults, but wing bars brownish huffy. Male : length (skins) 6.21- 

 7.05, wing 3.01-3.28, tail 3.14-3.43, bill .48-.51. Female: length (skms) 

 6.52-7.10, wing 2.80-3.10, tail 2.93-3.33, bill .4.5-.51. 



Distribution. — Breeds in Transition zone in the interior plateau region 

 from the western edge of the Plains to Coast Range in California, and north 

 to Montana ; migrates to southern Lower California and central Mexico. 



Nest. — On or near the ground in sagebrush, chaparral, or cactus, made 

 of sticks lined with grass. Eggs : 4, whitish, speckled or sprinkled with 

 reddish brown. 



The name Oreospiza calls to mind one of the most attractive and 

 gentle of birds, with the memory of warm days when the smell of 

 the aromatic mint and Ceanothus filled the air. The green-tail fol- 

 lows the Transition zone chaparral from the zonal level, where a 

 dense brush thicket covers wide areas, and where he is one of a 

 number of brush birds, up to the extreme limit of the chaparral, where 

 there are only scattered patches of dwarf brush on high rock slides, 

 and where he is the one brush bird, conspicuous among the boreal 

 solitaires and nutcrackers. 



His mewing call-note, a soft mew, mew-ah-eepy seems his most 



