SAN DIEGO TOTVTIEE 599 



This towhee is reported occasionally from high altitudes. Grinnell 

 (1908), writing of the San Bernardino Mountains, states: "It was 

 found on the south side of the ranges as high as 7,000 feet. A few 

 were seen as far up the Santa Ana as the mouth of Fish Creek, 6,500 

 feet." Again Grinnell and Swarth (1913) writing about the birds and 

 mammals of the San Jacinto area of Southern California report towhees 

 at 8,000 feet on Toro Peak on July 1 and at 9,000 feet at Round Valley 

 on July 10. They state that these bu'ds, full-grown juvenals, were 

 "probably far above normal breeding range," 



Cardiff (1956) collected an adult male megalonyx below sea level on 

 Oct. 8, 1949, from a growth of arrow-weeds and salt brush along the 

 New River northwest of Westmoreland, Imperial County, Calif. 

 This specimen was identified by Alden H. ]Miller. Oilman (1903) 

 reports these towhees about a half mile from Palm Springs, Calif. 



Eggs. — The measurements of 32 eggs average 23.4 by 17.9 milli- 

 meters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 25.1 by 18.9, 

 23.5 by 17.5 and 23.8 by 16.8 millimeters. 



Food. — The rufous-sided towhee gets most of its food by scratching 

 in the litter under shrubs and trees. Sometimes it feeds up in trees 

 or shrubs. Seeds, seed capsules, and bracts of miner's lettuce {Montia 

 perfoliata) are eaten by these birds between April and June, according 

 to Davis (1957). Also, he saj^s that they eat various fruits such as 

 elderberries between July and September, coffeebemes between 

 August 22 and December 24, and that acorns constitute an important 

 part of their diet in the winter. I have seen them occasionally 

 "hawking" for insects and they quite often pick up insects as they 

 forage for seeds. 



Voice. — In his lengthy study of the song and breeding of the 

 rufous-sided towhee made at the Hastings Reservation in northern 

 Monterey County, Calif., John Davis (1958) states: "Singing 

 usually starts between mid-January and the first week of February, 

 and it comes to an end in early August. In September and October, 

 there is a slight but regular appearance of singing, involving only a 

 few males. 



"Singing is widespread by mid-March, but in early April there is 

 a noticeable decrease in the amount of song. By the last week in 

 April, at the time that nesting gets under way, singing is again at a 

 high level. Nesting males sing a higher percentage of the time dm-ing 

 incubation than after the young have been hatched. Unmated males 

 are the most persistent singers of all." 



For description and analyses of the various types of song in this 

 race, the manner of its delivery, and its correlation with season, time 

 of day, and the reproductive cycle, the reader is referred to this 

 soundly detailed report. 



