RUrOUS-SIDED TOWHEE 573 



in the underbrush or flying silently away well ahead of the intruder. 

 The towhee's sense of hearing is apparently very keen, for birds I 

 have been watching have often taken alarm at another person's 

 approach long before I became aware of it. 



"The species has a phenomenal ability to keep itself hidden from 

 view. I have so often been unable to find or flush towhees I have 

 watched fly into certain covers that I presumed they must have flown 

 away unnoticed. In August, 1960, I saw a male bird fly into a dense 

 but isolated patch of hardback and sweetfern not more than 20 feet 

 across. After trying my best to flush him for 30 minutes, I gave up 

 in disgust and left. I had retreated only a short distance however, 

 when a well-modulated twee from the copse announced he was still 

 there. 



"Then in June, 1962, another adult male flew into a dense cover of 

 cinnamon fern and lit near me on the ground. He evidently saw me 

 at once, for he froze motionless in a hunched-over crouch. He stayed 

 stiU when I moved so long as I did not shorten the distance between 

 us. Every time I tried to approach him, however, he scurried with- 

 out a sound, still in his crouch, a few feet to one side or the other, 

 always at right angles to my approach. Thus his tactics in evading 

 me were displacement rather than flight. 



"Reaction to disturbance at the nest varies considerably. UsuaUy 

 the brooding female remains on the nest until the intruder is within 

 a few feet, sometimes until the vegetation over the nest is parted, 

 and in a few cases until she is actually touched. She generaUy leaves the 

 nest in a crouch and scuttles off silently for some distance under cover 

 before she rises and returns to scold the intruder. During incubation 

 she may desert the area temporarily, or she and her mate may twee 

 apprehensively from the nearby cover. When the young are about 

 five days old both the male and female become bolder, and wiU often 

 dash to within 3 or 4 feet of the intruder, tweemg excitedly with wings 

 and tail spread and crown raised, before retiring to continue scolding 

 from the trees at a safer distance. The male often sings and scolds 

 alternately. Several times in reaction to disturbances near but not 

 at the nest, the parents led 7-day or older young away from it. 



"Whfle his mate was incubating in June, 1960, a male towhee 

 discovered his reflection in the windows of a nearby house. From 

 crack of dawn until dark he attacked his image with time out only to 

 feed. He would flutter against a pane for a few seconds, take a few 

 tentative but firm pecks at it, retreat, give a few drink-your-tea caUs, 

 and then return to drive off the interloper. Apparently his reflection 

 in the glass was clear a few feet away, but disappeared closer by. 

 When a mirror was substituted he remained at it for two hours at a 

 stretch, feinting at his reflection, pecking at it, rising and striking the 



