OREGON TOWHEE 595 



Egg dates. — California: 1 record, June 9. 

 Oregon: 4 records, May 10 to May 14. 

 Washington: 5 records, April 13 to July 26. 



PIPILO ERYTHROPHTHALMUS FALCINELLUS Swarth 



Sacramento Towhee 



PLATE 32 



Contributed by Oliver L. Austin, Jr. 



Habits 



Harry S. Swarth (1913) described this race as "Most nearly similar 

 to Pipilo maculatus megalonyx Baird, from which it differs in weaker 

 foot, with noticeably short, weak, hind claw, in somewhat greater 

 extent of white markings, and olivaceous or grayish rump," 



Joseph Grinnell and Alden H. Miller (1944) point out that within 

 its range "there is some altitudinal movement up mountain slopes 

 after nesting and descent from higher parts of breeding range in 

 winter, but no migration is known that carries birds outside the limits 

 of breeding range." They describe its habitat as "Chaparral, river 

 bottom thickets, and brush patches in open forests. Among the 

 widespread plant formations of such types available in the range of 

 this race, the Spotted Towhees are to be found especially where there 

 is a good accumulation of leaf Htter and humus. For this reason 

 partly dead or dying brush, ravine and river bottoms, and bases of 

 cliffs or of steep slopes are favored situations. If the ground forage 

 beat is thus supplied, sufficient screening plant cover is usually present 

 and nest sites on the ground or in well supported vine tangles are also 

 available. Some common plant associates are ceanothus bushes of 

 several species, poison oak, willows, blackberry, cascara, and man- 

 zanitas." 



William B. Davis (1933) gives May 1 as his earliest nesting date in 

 Butte County, Calif. Near Fyffe in the central Sierra Nevadas on 

 June 8, 1897, Chester Barlow (1901) "found a nest containing three 

 unfeathered young and one egg on a hillside under a bush. By far the 

 prettiest nest found was on June 1 1 of the same year. The situation 

 was a small clearing in the forest grown up to cedar saplings about two 

 feet high. Beneath one of these reposed the nest and its three eggs, 

 the lining of light grasses setting them off to good advantage. As in 

 the valley this towhee does not nest on the ground entirely, for Mr. 

 Taylor found a nest on June 12, 1897 containing two eggs, placed sLx 

 feet up in a bush beside a ditch. It was composed of pine and spruce 

 bark and lined with light yellowish grass," 



646-737— 68— pt. 1 40 



