COLORADO BROWX TOWHEE 631 



Cooke (1897) states that mesatus breeds in the latter part of April, 

 nesting in juniper and sometimes in cacti. Nice (1922) found three 

 nests near Kenton, Okla., on June 1 and 2. Two nests contained 

 three eggs each, and the third held three young. One nest was in a 

 pinon, one in a juniper, and the third in a tree cactus. Late nesting 

 of some individuals is indicated by the collecting of a female almost 

 entirely in juvenal plumage on Oct. 4, 1932 (Sutton, 1934). 



Distribution 



Range. — The Colorado brown towhee is resident in southeastern 

 Colorado (mainly south of the Arkansas River, sparingly north to 

 Boulder), northeastern New Mexico (Union County), and extreme 

 northwestern Oklahoma (Kenton). 



PIPILO FUSCUS TEXANUS van Rossem 



Texas BrowTi Towhee 

 Contributed by John Davis 



Habits 



Described by A. J. van Rossem (1934c), the race texanus resembles 

 mesoleucus in color, but can be distinguished from that race by its 

 darker pileum, shorter tail, and higher wing-tail ratio. 



The Texas brown towhee occupies two main centers of distribu- 

 tion — the broken, mountainous country west of the Pecos River and 

 the Edwards Plateau. Recently, its range has been extended south 

 to the Sierra del Carmen, in northern Coahuila, Mexico (Miller, 

 1955a). West of the Pecos River, texanus occurs in the pinon- 

 juniper association. On the Edwards Plateau, brown towhees have 

 been found in oak-savanna pastures, juniper brakes, and dense 

 thickets of "shinnery" oak. Lloyd (1887) found a nest of this towhee 

 containing three incubated eggs in the fork of a small live oak tree 

 in Tom Green County. He states that nests found farther west 

 contained five eggs each, and he considered three eggs an exceptionally 

 smaU clutch. Van Tyne and Sutton (1937) found three nests in 

 Brewster County on May 20, 30, and 31. One nest contained two 

 eggs and two contained three eggs each; all eggs were fresh. Parents 

 were seen feeding short-tailed but fully fledged young on May 2 and 4. 



Distribution 



Range. — The Texas brown towhee is resident in northern Coahuila 

 (Sierra del Carmen) and in the plateau area of western and central 

 Texas from Reeves, Tom Green, and Kerr counties to Val Verde 

 County. 



